Highlights
As a salon that does a high volume of color services, our stylists are trained to do very neat clean foil work. We pride ourselves in creating lighter looks that look natural and beautiful. Highlights is a term referring to pieces of hair that are lighter than the base color. Highlights are traditionally created using a method called foiling. Foils are used to separate strands of hair that have been covered with a color or lightener from the rest of the hair. Once wrapped, the foil traps heat, allowing the lightener to lift more effectively. When done correctly, foiled highlights should look like they are growing straight out of the scalp. Different colors and looks can be created with foil work. From a heavy full foil to a subtle face frame, adding brighter pieces to the hair is a great way to add dimension to the overall look of the hair. For someone wanting to become lighter from root to end, foiling the hair is the most natural looking application to achieve overall brightness.
Lowlights
This term refers to pieces of hair that are as dark or darker than the base color. Depending on the desired look, lowlights can be applied in foils just like highlights or can be applied outside of foils that hold highlights in between the negative space. If someone wants to add a little bit of dimension to their already highlighted hair, lowlights will do this.
FAQ
Babylights are another highlighting technique. To create babylights, the stylist will color only micro-strands of hair resulting in subtle, naturally sunkissed looking hair. This technique is great to create more subtle highlights to the part of the hairline. Babylights can be great on their own or as an addition to other color techniques, especially balayage. For those with thinner hair, babylights can be a great look that won’t overpower.
While highlights lighten up the hair, lowlights essentially darken the hair. Creating a lowlight is picking up pieces of hair and darkening them. A lowlight can be as dark or darker than the base color. Depending on the desired look, lowlights can be applied in foils just like highlights or can be applied outside of foils open air in between foils with highlights. If someone wants to add a little bit of dimension to their already highlighted hair, lowlights will do this. Visually, a bright highlight will pop more when next to a lowlight. Our stylists are highly trained in professional foiling techniques. We are able to create the most natural and blended looking highlights and lowlights with beautifully placed foils.
Guests love to change their hair color, but sometimes don’t realize what the maintenance of doing so is. Highlights can be low maintenance or high maintenance depending on where the guest is starting with their hair and what they are trying to achieve. The further away you go from your natural hair color, the more often you will need to be in to get your highlights touched up. Hair grows at an average rate of 1 inch per month which is why we recommend guests come back in 6-8 weeks after their appointment to get their highlights redone. For those that color their hair a lot lighter than their natural color, when the natural grows out, it will be more noticeable against their bright highlights. For this reason, these guests would require more maintenance and we would recommend they come in at more of the 6 week range. Many people worry about the health of their hair when getting it lightened. The term bleach scares guests with visions of hair breaking off. Aveda prefers to call their bleach enlightener because it is way more gentle on the hair than most lines on the market. By using proper products on your hair like color safe shampoo, deep conditioner and a heat protectant, you can maintain a light look without worrying about damaging the integrity of your hair.