Adding highlights to your hair is one of the simplest things you can do to change your look. Whether your base color hair is brown, red, black, or blonde, you’ll find a gorgeous look using different highlighting techniques such as foil and partial and full highlights!
Before your next hair coloring appointment, check out our inspiring photos of this year’s most popular highlights hair color ideas for your hair.
#1 Beautifully Blended Honey Blonde
A honey blonde and chocolate blend works best on ladies with warm complexions. The added waves boost the color’s dimension while giving the hair depth and volume. Ask your stylist to add blonde highlights with a balayage. Balayage highlights give off the dimension of light against dark. It’s also a great option if you want something lower maintenance, as it allows for a softer grow-out.
#2 Perfect Auburn Red Highlights
Give texture to your deep red hair by adding hair highlights and waves to it for a voluminous effect. This shade of auburn is ideal if you have a medium-warm skin tone. It’s a vibrant, multi-dimensional red with violet undertones. I love to have multiple colors in a style. It makes your hair look thicker and reflects more light. These red highlights follow the trend of vivid hair colors but are not out of the natural reds. Just kicked up a little.
#3 Trendsetting Ash Blonde Highlights
Embrace a chic transformation with these trendsetting ash-blonde highlights that blend into a striking gray ombre. Ideal for medium-length hair, the color progression from dark to light not only suits an oval face but adds a lush, full appearance to thick hair. Opt for a sleek straight look or amplify with waves for more body. While captivating, remember gray tones demand maintenance, so arm yourself with purple shampoo and plan for routine salon upkeep.
#4: Graduated Bob with Caramel Blonde Highlights
Caramel blonde highlights will make a graduated bob softer and will also create a deep contrast. To avoid excessively blonde hair, your best choice is to add rich lowlights along with the highlights.
#5: Honey Blonde Accents on Chocolate Brown Hair
A sweet blend of honey and chocolate on any hair type and length looks perfect on warm complexions. Place your light honey highlights at the mid-length to the bottom of your hair and add some pretty huge waves to give depth and volume to your brown hair.
#6: Blonde Hair with Orange Highlights
Try switching up your blonde hair by adding orange highlights. The combination of colors is one of the best looks for a client with a spunky attitude. To make the orange pop, ask your stylist for chunkier pieces versus blended pieces. Wear your hair with lots of texture to showcase this nontraditional color to give it a grunge, undone look.
#7: Turquoise Green Partial Highlights
Blue-green highlights show through the black curtain hair. Partial highlights make a nice upgrade to your everyday look.
#8: Blonde Highlights in Red Hair for Women Over 50
If you’re a woman over 50, blonde highlights added to your red hair are great if you want to add dimension to your warm-toned tresses. To get these highlights in hair, ask the colorist for a deep red with soft golden babylights.
#9: Chunky Highlights for Older Women
Chunky highlights for older women are the perfect hair color service to blend out your grays, especially around your face. While normal hair color highlights are also a great option to blend, adding more chunkiness around the face helps blend the area while maintaining a fresh highlight look. Also, chunky highlights are a great way to show off two specific hair hues.
#10: Streaks of Dark Royal Blue on Dark Hair
Streaks of rich blue added to your black hair are an interesting combination. These hair color highlights are an eye-catcher, for sure. The added curls round up the whole look, too. Even more exciting is that ladies of any age may benefit from these curly hair highlights.
#11: Gorgeous Pastel Pink Highlights
Your medium to long hair looks amazing already, but why not make it more enchanting with a great amount of pastel pink highlights? These light pink soft waves are easier to upkeep if your roots are your natural hair color.
#12: Subtle Ashy Blonde Hue for Dark Brown Hair
This high-maintenance ultra-cool girl looks achievable by opting for dark brown hair with highlights. Choose the subtle ashy blonde accents if you want to be edgy and classy at the same time.
See more: Brown hair with blonde highlighted hair.
#13: Creative Peek-a-Boo Highlights
If you’re an adventurous lady and want to add creativity to your look, try blonde hair with rainbow peek-a-boo highlights! This combination matches perfectly with a sassy long-length cut.
#14: Multi-Dimensional Light Brown Highlights
Opt for a multi-dimensional highlighted lob. Keep your natural hair color while adding dimension to your straight hair with an ash-brown highlight technique.
#15: Yellow Dip Dye Highlights
One of the biggest trends of this decade is the dip dye highlights, which amazingly add fun and edge to women who try it! Reveal your playful side with a subtle yellow dye while looking modern with grey hair.
#16: Stunning Highlighted Burgundy Red Hair
Highlights for hair sometimes mean something other than bright light colors. For this one, colorist Elisabeth showcased the deep wine streaks on black hair using the full highlights technique.
#17: Yummy Strawberry Blonde Highlights
Try these awesome beach waves with a blunt end cut, colored with highlights of this sweet shade of strawberry blonde. Full-head hair highlights for women with such a chic hue work best if you have a tan skin tone.
#18: Mature Grey Ombre Highlights
It’s a challenge to create an ombre with straight hair, but these melting highlights of a grey shade prove how it can be easily and beautifully done. A plus when your natural color is black, as it blends in without effort when it grows out.
#19: Smooth Golden Blonde Highlights
These smooth golden blonde highlights are ideal if you have warm-colored hair. The added tone gives your wavy long hair dimension and texture, especially when the light hits it.
#20: Sassy Sun-Kissed Blonde Ombre
These trendy and sassy highlights can do a lot for your hair. When done in a subtle warm blonde ombre, they can add the dimension and texture you want.
#21: Dusty Rose Gold Highlighted Hair
One of the most sought-after looks this season is this hair idea with dusty rose-colored highlights. This highlighted hair works perfectly on fair tones and light brown eye color. Wear your brown hair color with jaw-length beach waves and feel light, flirty, and ready to turn heads wherever you go!
#22: Dimensional Hair with Highlights and Lowlights
Dimensional hair with highlights and lowlights offers a bright tone without the high upkeep. Such hair color ideas will suit many women, but investing in your home care is important. Look after the condition of your hair and give your blonde the best look and feel. I suggest maintaining it with regular trims to keep your hair looking its best.
#23: Feminine Platinum Blonde Highlights
Go for a hair color that is a platinum blonde hue, as it’s not too white and still has a tint of beige. The maintenance is about 8 weeks, alternating between partial and full. Products that should be used for hair color with highlights are Redken bonder protein mask for at least 4 weeks, then alternate to hydrating shampoo and mask. I recommend a hydrating leave-in with thermal protection and SPF Redken one United 25 benefits.
#24: Modern Dark to Ash Grey Ombre with Highlights
This silver/grey balayage ombré seamlessly blends from a dark root to a smokey silvery grey. You may need multiple sessions before getting the perfect black hair with highlights. Be patient and aware that highlighting your hair may lift differently than others. Your hair has to lift to a pale yellow (the inside of a banana) to achieve this color.
#25: Bold and Vibrant Purple Highlights
To get these purple teasy lights, your hair needs to already be in a pretty healthy state. I recommend a color shampoo at home, such as Celeb Luxury’s Viral, to keep your purple highlights vibrant. It would be good to use a heat protectant when using heat and to get a strengthening/moisture treatment once every month or every two months.
#26: Sophisticated Platinum Highlights
Try full-head platinum highlights on a textured pixie with a longer side bang! It’s easy to style using a texture paste, spray wax, or whatever you have. Ask your stylist to smudge your root and pull matching baby lowlights into your heavily highlighted summer bleach-blonde hair. If you’re a very active woman and need easy-to-style hair that could go from day to night in just a few minutes, here’s a great option!
Related: See more pixie cuts with highlights.
#27: Subtle Ash Brown Hair Highlights
Are you seeing silver? Seeing black? Well, this ash brown color with highlights has both! A versatile color if you want to try something new but stay in your comfort zone.
#28: Caramel Streaks on Dark Brown Roots
Spice up your long wavy layers with some luscious honey and caramel highlights, so you can look stunning and flirty by just simply letting your lovely hair down! Balayage is really for the girl who wants something other than maintaining standard highlights. It’s perfect for brunettes wanting to dip into the fabulous world of blonde while still feeling like a brunette. Understand that every shade of brown and skin tone is different. Bring some pics of looks that inspire you to your color appointment, but trust your colorist’s eye and be flexible in your vision.
#29: Effortless Cherry Red on Dark Brown Hair
This delicious rose red and rich dark brown blend is ideal for any cut or style – wavy or straight, long or short. If you have a medium cool skin undertone, this will absolutely look perfect on you! This look can allow up to 4 to 6 months of grow-out time, and you’ll never see the line of demarcation (where your roots grow in) like you will with highlights. If you like to have your roots done, you can continue with root touch-ups while your balayage continues to grow!
#30: Chic Silver Strands
Silver highlights, without a doubt, create the new blonde color everyone wants. Don’t be afraid to blend it with your natural brown roots by adding some highlights for a smooth transition. Light brown hair with highlights can be achieved in all women. The silver tone requires patience and possibly several visits to the salon. The darker your hair, the longer it will take to get there. And it requires maintenance. If you can’t get your hair touched up every 6-8 weeks but want to keep the silver tone, this isn’t the look for you.
#31: Glossy Bronze Copper Highlights
Talking about seasonal highlighted hairstyles, here’s a combination of bronze and copper tones right now! Luckily, having this glossy ginger hair happens to be a trendsetter.
Commonly Asked Questions:
A hair highlight that is best would be a shade that is a few levels lighter than your natural hair. It will give you more of a natural look. The grow-out will be less harsh than if you were much lighter than your natural color.
Streaks are meant for a bolder look and highlights are for more of a natural look. If you’re looking for more of a contrast or dimension you may want to as your stylist for streaks. If you want to blend your color and want more of a natural look then highlights is the way to go!
Highlights such as babylights, traditional highlights, face-framing highlights, and foilayage highlights are a few techniques that are in style. The technique would depend on the results you’re trying to achieve. Whether you want something subtle or more dramatic, consult with your stylist to see what would be best.
Choose highlights that would compliment your skin tone. A warmer skin tone would suit warmer color tones and cooler skin tones would suit cooler color tones. There are only guidelines so choose what tone you love.
Highlights can cause damage to your hair so it’s important to have your highlights done by a professional hairstylist. Being realistic about your lightening service and slowly lightening your hair can save your hair some damage. Taking care of your hair between services with treatments and professional products can help treat your hair as well.
You shouldn’t highlight your hair for less than 8-10 weeks between your chemical services. Highlighting your hair too often can cause dryness and damage to your hair. Talk to your stylist about your goals and how to safely get your hair to when you want to be.
There are several ways to highlight your hair at home naturally. One method of naturally lightening your hair is to mix two parts lemon juice and one part water in a spray bottle. Spray onto your hair and stay out in the sun to allow your hair to lighten. Wash and condition afterward.
Not all highlights use bleach. If your hair is a level seven base color or lighter, you can use a hi-lift color to lighten your hair. For darker base colors it is harder to lift without bleach. Consult with your stylist about your hair goals to determine what is the best method.
The difference between babylights and highlights is the weaving technique used when fouling. Highlights are used to create dimension in your hair. Babylights are thinner sections and have a finer weave pattern for more of a soft and subtle look.
Enter your email and get this picture and description straight to your inbox, and you'll also get new hair ideas ❤️
🔒 We don't spam or sell emails. See our Privacy Policy.