Lowlights in blonde hair look subtle, yet make a great fashion statement. Hair highlights bring brighter hues to your hair and make it look flashy and bright. Lowlights, on the other hand, add darker shades to your blonde hair, making it look subtle, and have mild color variation. Even if lowlights are less flashy than highlights, they still provide beautiful color shifts and variation for all hair colors and if used appropriately, they can look drop dead gorgeous on blonde hair.
Tips on When and Where to Get Lowlights
Lowlights in blonde hair can be added anytime during the year, but the best time to use lowlights is during the fall winter. The reason behind this is that, a considerably less time is spent in the outdoors and thus, your hair is naturally exposed to less sunlight and natural tones gradually tend to darken. Getting lowlights for hair can turn your look from perky sun kissed hair to a more appropriate fall winter hair style.
Lowlights do not have to be used only during winters or fall. Adding lowlights in summer is also a great change from the usually summer look. Lowlights during summer, look refreshing and can be used in combination with hair highlights for more detailed texture and color variation in blonde hair. In some cases, when hair highlighting goes wrong, dark lowlights are used to help in the correction of over highlighted hair, by coloring hair in few tones darker than the highlight, so that the hair color changes to a more natural shade.
While highlights are generally added in the prominent places like near the face, at the top of the head, crown area, etc. lowlights are located in the more discreet places of your hair. You should add lowlights only on the lower layers of your hair and further apart as it helps in making them look more natural and adds depth to the blonde hair.
How to Choose Lowlightsr
The most important decision, while considering lowlights for your hair, is which shades to choose. Shades of lowlights that are not more than three shades darker than your natural hair color or current hair color, are perfect for hair low lighting. If hues that are deeper than these are used on blonde hair, they would be easily noticeable and would not be able to blend in your hair color. You may consider choosing several tones and shades in similar colors to add more detailed texture and color variation for lowlights. Another lovely idea could be combining lowlights with highlights for a greater color depth or a disconnection look! Matching your hair lowlights to the skin tone, is a great way to avoid choosing shades that might make your complexion appear too pale. You must remember that the types and shades of lowlights will ultimately depend on your base hair color. So, if you have typical blonde hair, you may consider choosing a deeper blonde shade or light brown tones like bronze, toffee, beige, caramel and honey. You must avoid lighter tones like cream or hay. If you are adding lowlights in blond hair to cover grays, try choosing lowlights that are only one or two shade darker than your natural hair color and make sure you blend the lowlights in the layers properly.
How to Get Lowlights in Blonde Hair
- You must decide which color you want to use for lowlights. Finding the right color for your hair depends on the purpose of low lighting your hair. If you want subtle lowlights, you must choose colors that are slightly different from the original hair color. If you have blonde hair, you may consider lowlights in colors like auburn tone, while if you want something contrast, you may choose a combination of highlights and lowlights in your hair for a deeper look.
- You must ensure clean hair. Use a cleansing shampoo for a thorough hair wash, a few days before the process of hair low lighting. This allows the hair color to absorb better without forming a layer of heavy build up.
- Putting the plastic gloves on is very important to protect your skin and the color from staining your hands and fingers. You can also apply some petroleum jelly around your hair line, so as to protect your face.
- Once you have mixed and blended the color, fill the applicator in it. You must use the hair coloring brush and start the application from the back end of your head. Place the applicator at least inch away from your scalp. Then start combing it through the desired sections of your hair. Repeat this procedure throughout your hair.
- When you are done with the application of the hair lowlights, you must keep it for 45 minutes. Different hair color brands have a different time limit for the lowlights to leave on. So, make sure you read the directions carefully and leave on the color for the said time.
- Allow the hair color lowlights to sit for that specific period of time and then rinse your hair thoroughly. While washing your hair, some hair color will drain out changing the color of the water. You should not worry about this and keep rinsing your hair until the water runs clear and colorless. But the color should not rinse off - only the extra hair dye should.
- Most of the hair color kits today include hair color conditioners. If you are lucky to have one in your kit, you must apply it to your hair and then rinse. It will soften your hair and add some glam shine!
