How to Achieve Different Shades When Highlighting Dark Hair

Have you ever considered making a career out of being a hairdresser? Well, hair and beauty industry is ever growing compared to other professions that keep changing and even get obsolete with time. We need to understand that people will always need a haircut and upgrade their look. The hair and beauty industry is a multi-million industry with revenues being generated from beauty and hair products to esthetics services. Be sure to attend a reputable hairdressing school in Ontario to get the best training on hair and beauty.

Not so long ago, highlighting the hair was left to the carefree blondes and women who dared to look different. However, the fashion industry has greatly influenced women and even men to take up bolder looks when it comes to hair styling. People from all walks of life are getting into hair highlighting and this trend is catching on. In this article, we will focus on highlighting for dark hair and how to achieve a perfect outcome for your client.

Foil highlights

Foil highlights

This is still considered to be the best method to use when highlighting hair and it never seems to go out of style. It is the easiest way to highlight hair because foils are used to separate hair that is being highlighted and used to seal in the developer and lightener into the hair. Most hair stylists love using foil placement because it gives them control over where to place the highlight color. This way the quality and condition of the hair is maintained during highlighting.

Lowlights

This is the opposite of highlights, whereby hair color is lifted to few shades. Lowlights still use the foil method only that this time the stylist will place strands of hair strategically so that they achieve a softer darker color than the natural base color. This is recommended to clients who feel their hair is too solidly one color then you need to advise on lowlighting. This technique adds dimension to hair which creates a deeper dimension and appearance while creating a natural look blend.

Full or partial highlight

A client may already have in mind what type of highlight to go with but the question still remains to go full or partial? Partial highlights are usually best when placed around the face to bring out a framing effect and to brighten the face. Full highlight simply means just that, you highlight your full head. If you have dark hair that goes all the way to the back then you need to consider the full highlight but if the back isn’t as dark then partial highlight will give a great finish.

The ombre

Ombre is the hair term used to refer going from dark to light. The hair stylist uses the traditional foil method where they leave dark hair roots natural while highlighting from the middle to the ends. Initially, the roots were left to a natural look although now women are taking bolder steps to make the roots look darker. This is a new look that has become popular over the years with more women rocking the look and is quite common among the celebrities.

Slicing highlights

The slicing here refers to highlighting and not the literal machete slicing. This term refers to a more choppy highlighting technique where stylists take a slice of the hair usually and 1\8 of an inch thick and they highlight it in a foil. One can choose to go with thicker slices that give chunkier highlights and are more noticeable. This technique can be used to create a bold highlight other than using weaves to achieve this.