Highlights for your hair: The curl painting method -  Garnier Highlights for your hair: The curl painting method -  Garnier

Choosing the best highlights for your hair

Whether you’re a newbie or a total pro when it comes to highlighted hair, you know it never goes out of style. But looks and techniques come and go, so how do you know which one’s right for you? No matter what color your hair is, there’s a hot trend in hair highlights for you, from ombré and sombré to babylights, foilayage, and more. The best part? You can easily learn how to highlight hair at home.

Types of Highlights

Hair highlights run the spectrum between style and technique. So, dream up the look you want, and then pick your type of highlights.

Balayage

A wildly popular technique of freehand brushing blond highlights directly onto your hair for a sun-kissed look. The low-maintenance effects keep looking natural as your hair grows out, and they’re super easy to do yourself. For great balayage highlights at home, try Garnier’s Icing Swirl Balayage Kit.

Balayage highlights - Garnier

Foilayage

Sometimes spelled ‘foilyage’, this technique takes balayage highlights to a whole new level. Tresses brushed with blond highlights are wrapped in foil to make them even lighter and brighter. The process is a little more involved, but the results are truly striking.

Flamboyage

Flamboyage is a highly customizable easy-care method that uses clear adhesive strips to lift and hold ribbons of hair that are then highlighted. It’s the ideal understated way to not only match the luminosity of bright and summery weather, but also to warm up your look during the colder months.

Ombre highlights - Garnier

Ombré

Ombré highlights are about blending horizontal gradients of color from the ends upward. Like all these types of hair highlights, it works on any hair color and you can mix and match all the shades you want.

Sombré

This technique is a mash-up for “subtle or soft ombré.” If ombré highlights seem a bit too drastic, soften the transition between colors and/or choose shades closer to your base hair color.

Sombre highlights - Garnier

Babylights

What are babylights, you ask? This is when you highlight much thinner sections of hair in foil. Babylights for dark hair or brown hair are a natural-looking way to go slightly lighter while keeping your original color.

Hair babylights - Garnier

Lowlights

So if highlights go lighter and babylights go smaller, what are lowlights? They give lighter locks noticeable depth and body by applying a darker shade to certain sections.

Dimensional highlights - Garnier

Dimensional Highlights

Increasing dimensions with highlights is done with contrasting colors, for example dark hair with highlights that are much lighter. While all highlights add some sort of depth, dimensional highlights do it best and are a good option for making your mane look fuller.

Peek-a-boo highlights

Unlike more obvious techniques, these highlights are hidden in the underlayers. As long as your hair is down, no one’s the wiser. Perfect for having it both ways.

Do-it-Yourself Highlights

Garnier has two kits for doing your highlights at home, allowing you to customize your looks, especially if you want face-framing highlights, babylights or an ombré effect. To create lighter highlights on hair that’s light to dark blonde, try the Warm Bronze Multi-Lights kit or our new ammonia-free Olia Highlights H02 for Blondes. If your base color is light to medium brown, go for the Olia Highlights H03 for Brunettes. Or you could also choose any color and apply it only to the sections you want, for example to do lowlights, flamboyage or peek-a-boo highlights.

Do it yourself highlights at home - Garnier

The Care and Maintenance of Highlighted Hair

Treat your highlighted hair with care, just like for any color process. Try our 10-in-1 Miracle Color Protector Leave-in Treatment and keep your highlights vibrant with our expert lines of protective Color Care and fortifying Color Shield.

Shade Selector Quiz

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