Hair Highlight your dark tresses

By Super

Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 12:51

Are you bored of those dark tresses and need a change? Well, who said that you need to live with that naturally dark hair for the rest of your life? You can get your hair coloured in a different shade. The only problem is that if your hair is either black, dark brown or dark brunette, then just coloring your hair is not enough. You need is a process known as highlighting of dark hair.

Usually when a beautician is highlighting dark hair they first bleach the client's hair using hair bleach. Once the hair is bleached, then the chosen highlight shade is applied. Hair specialists either use foil to highlight hair or then they use the highlighting cap, which has holes pierced into it and strands are pulled out and then colored.

Heading to a salon for highlights is a great way to get professional looking results, especially if you want to go for more than 2-3 shades lighter than your natural color. Salon personnel have experience in helping to pick the right shade that compliments skin tone and eye color.

Salon stylists also are trained in several techniques of hair highlighting. Foil highlights involve painting color onto hair, and folding it into a foil. It is precision-based, hard to touch up, and time consuming, but produces great results. Another technique is bialiage, which is the simple painting technique. Chunking and piecing can create a trendy and customized look with thicker strands of color put in. Low lighting involves adding darker pieces to minimize brassy tones or simply darken.

These days many people are choosing to use do-it-yourself home kits since; getting a salon highlight can be expensive and hard to work into a busy schedule. With the many choices available, it is important to choose a kit that is easy to use and produces good results.

The L'Oreal Hi-Light
The L'Oreal Hi-Light offers lots of options for color. Highlighting, low lighting, and refinishing toners for currently highlighted hair are all available in several formulas, depending on your current color. It also offers a precision brush for control, and online how-to videos. Many other brands offer similar options.

To pick the best color, follow these simple guidelines:

Pink-toned people should avoid red shades
Yellow-toned people may want to stay away from yellows or orange based colors
Olive-toned people may use darker and low lights

Always do an allergy test before dying your hair. Even if you have used the brand before, an allergy may have developed by time. Instead of using the gloves provided, you can want to purchase your own better-fitting gloves. Unless the directions state otherwise, apply color to dry hair.

Hair highlights should go on the top layer for the best visibility. However, if you change your part or switch styles frequently, consider doing a layer or two below that to keep from looking unbalanced. Highlight from back to front, so you do not drag your arm through the colorant.