What is the difference between highlights and lowlights in hair

Go for some sandy brown lowlights right at the top and around the crown of your head to add some serious depth and color to your monochrome blonde tresses.

An excellent way to add some fun texture and volume to your ginger hair is to go for some seriously dark lowlights. A deep mahogany shade will work like a charm in making your ginger hair look super thick and full of life. While you are not supposed to go more than a couple of shades darker than your base color, but some rules are meant to be broken. For instance, you could go for some super dark lowlights almost black on your light blonde hair to create a luscious and super multidimensional hair look.

Seldom do you come across a hair color that you keep thinking about. Multi-colored lowlights are one of them. If you have blonde hair, you can try multi-colored lowlights without damaging your hair. Your stylist will take sections of your hair and deposit various colors, ranging from dark brown and ash to violet and pink.

Wash it off at the right time to give your hair depth, volume, and an enigmatic transdimensional look that is tough to look away from. Whether you choose highlights, lowlights, or a mix of both, the options are open to you.

Now that you know the difference between highlights and lowlights and have styling ideas in mind, you can talk to your stylist and envision how your hair might look after coloring it. So, go ahead get that hair makeover you have been pushing for months. Yes, lowlights can cover gray hair. They will make the hair look naturally beautiful and add depth and movement.

Lowlights may not work for jet black and dark brown hair colors. You need highlights for darker hair colors. Apart from colors that are too close to your original hair color, you can experiment with different colors and hues for lowlights.

If you have highlights, you may need a touch-up every 5 weeks. If you have lowlights, you can get touch-ups once in months. Yes, highlights can damage your hair. Highlighting involves bleaching your hair color by at least 3 shades. Getting frequent highlights without taking proper care of your hair can cause serious damage.

In This Article. Was this article helpful? Yes No. The following two tabs change content below. Meet the Expert. Ahead, learn the difference between lowlights and highlights along with how to decide which one is right for you. Whether you're looking to ash out your hair with some cool-toned strands or add a layer of richness with some warmth, lowlights can do both. But, even if you're not trying to recover from getting one too many highlights, master colorist Emily Woodstrom explains how lowlights are meant to give the hair dimension and by adding them, you can shift the actual tone of your hair.

Lowlights for natural looking hair can be darker than the lightest parts of the hair, but not darker than the darkest parts of the natural base. Keep in mind, lowlights are meant to be more subtle than streaks. Typically, the darker colors are spread throughout the hair evenly versus leaving well-defined sections of color. The look can be enhanced even more with balayage, which gives the stylist more freedom to paint color in rather than the more uniform foil technique.

So, we've established that the gorgeous multi-toned locks we see on Instagram are absolute hair goals, but how can we decipher which are lowlights and which are highlights? Woodstrom explains that highlights are sections of hair that are lighter than your natural hair color while lowlights are sections that are darker. The short answer: yes, especially when it comes to considering your natural hair color.

While many think of their hair color as being just one shade brunette, blonde, black , it can actually have many shades within it think: dirty blonde, which is a mix of blonde and brunette, or chestnut, which can show up as a mix of brown and red.

Your stylist may suggest adding a few lowlights in with your highlights to complement your base color. If your stylist chooses a soft, fine weave you could go several weeks without needing a touchup.

Though lowlights can introduce more contrast immediately, they fade rather quickly in the summer months and can wind up appearing brassy. Consider this if you have damaged hair, as this may mean you'll have to re-highlight already-highlighted hair, which can contribute to breakage, according to Wollner.

The best part about lowlights is that they work for all hair colors as long as your stylist is experienced and formulates correctly.

That said, Wollner notes that they can become tricky on someone whose natural base is a light brown, as well as over-processed blondes. If your natural hair base is already dark and you still want to add depth by adding a few darker strands, your stylist can do this with lowlights using foils or balayage, which are more natural-looking alternatives to all-over hair color.

To maintain the most natural color, your stylist will likely stick to a shade that's no more than two to three shades darker than your natural color. Between lowlights, highlights, and all-over hair color, your head can spin with options.

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