The manner in which you put blonde highlights on red hair will decide whether you will sport an attention grabbing or a subtle look. The way your hair is cut and styled also plays an important role in the final outcome. If your base color is a lighter shade of red, then bright golden highlights will look gorgeous on your hair. If you have dark plum red hair, platinum highlights will give you an ultra chic high fashion look.
Highlighting Techniques
Slim Highlights: If you want your highlights to blend with the rest of your hair and stand out at the same time, you should opt for slim highlights. These highlights are quite similar to subtle highlights, the only difference being their placement. Subtle highlights are placed evenly all over your hair and merge with the natural color of your hair, whereas slim highlights are thin layers on the crown of the head that stand out from the natural hair color but in a decent manner.
Loud Highlights: If you want to spice up a simple shoulder-level bob, you can add highlights in a way that your hair transitions from red to blonde are visible. These highlights, as the name suggests, stand in contrast with subtle highlights. For an attention grabbing look, loud highlights is the best option.
Highlights for Layered Hair: If you have layered hair, a slightly unusual option is to have blonde highlights at the back of your hair. While doing this kind of highlighting, follow the layers' angles. The desired effect is enhanced by focusing and getting highlights done on the top layers.
Blonde Lowlights: If you have long red hair in shades of mahogany, copper, auburn, etc., a look you can experiment with is blonde lowlights, which is also very trendy. Combination of lowlights with highlights works wonders by adding extra color depth to your hair and it gives an awesome transition look to your hair.
Natural/Subtle Highlights: If you want red hair with blonde highlights, it is best to pick shades of blonde that will look natural on your hair. One approach is to just lighten sections of your hair, which will leave you with pretty but not loud highlights.
Highlights for Thin Hair: If you have thin hair, highlights may help add volume to your hair as coloring is said to make the hair shafts swell. While getting your highlights done, if the traditional foil method is used, know that highlights attained this way require more maintenance once the roots grow out. By opting for less structured, widely spaced pieces of color, such as 'hair painting' or 'baliage', you can reduce your follow-up visits.
Chunky Highlights: If you want noticeable highlights, you can get chunky highlights i.e., large blocks of hair, colored blonde. There are various methods you can use to get this type of highlighting, one of them being the cap method. You can choose complete or partial chunking which looks cool with any hairstyle. Another method for chunky highlights is paneling, which is commonly used in salons.
Highlights for Dyed Red Hair
While adding blonde highlights on red hair that has been colored, a possible outcome is that you end up with brassy orange highlights. To avoid this, follow the steps given below.
Step 1
Decolorizing the dyed section of hair several times, will help to remove the red pigments and prevent the above undesired result.
Step 2
Fill the section of hair to be highlighted with ash tones to neutralize the red color. While putting blonde highlights on red hair, one has to be cautious not to over-bleach or over-tone the hair.
Tips for Applying Blonde Highlights
- When applying blonde highlights on red hair, it is sufficient to apply color on the top layers of your hair.
- The placement of your highlights will also depend on how you style your hair.
- If you usually put your hair up, you could put color around your hairline to give your highlights maximum visibility.
- You can also decide whether you want full or partial highlights.
- While washing colored hair, use cool or tepid water. This will help the color last longer.
- Apply conditioner from the mid-shaft towards the tips and comb it through the hair. Leave it on for at least a minute before you rinse it off.
- While styling your hair, ceramic irons and tools are the least harmful to your hair and really bring out the sheen of your tresses.
- Lastly, if you are unsure about the color you have chosen for highlights make use of artificial clip-in highlights. They will give you an idea about how the new look suits your face.
