Lowlights on Blonde Hair Are Having a Second

Highlights, lowlights—it’s all semantics, proper? Properly, not precisely: These similar-sounding coloring strategies yield very totally different outcomes, particularly on blonde hair. Should you requested the web which proved extra common this summer time, it will undoubtedly let you know that the latter reigned supreme. Individuals have not too long ago been repeatedly typing the phrase “lowlights on blonde hair” into the Pinterest search bar, inflicting a 200% surge in curiosity within the final month.

However what precisely are lowlights (and the way do they differ from highlights)? Saint Latimer, a colorist at New York Metropolis’s Suite Caroline, says to contemplate lowlights “the anti-highlight.” They’re created by weaving a dye that’s deeper than your pure base coloration into your hair so as to add dimension and depth. (Highlights do the alternative. Colorists will work lighter items all through your hair to brighten up your general look.)

Lowlights may give over-lightened hair new life. Latimer explains that the depth you’re creating with lowlights can generally make your blonde seem lighter—so that you don’t have to achieve for extra bleach. (That’s actually sensible.)

Colorists aren’t shocked on the look’s surging recognition. When requested why he thinks it’s trending, Latimer says, “It’s as a result of [lowlights] could make blonde hair look dearer,” due to the depth and dimension it creates. He says they will convey out the present blonde’s “sparkle.”

Lowlights are additionally fairly low-maintenance, says colorist Kristin Kell of Salon SCK in New York Metropolis. (Latimer echoes this, saying that the grow-out is usually “smooth and blended.”) To delay your look, she suggests reaching for a shampoo for color-treated hair just like the Shu Uemura Coloration Luster Shampoo, which not solely smells like citrus and floral amazing-ness but additionally makes use of rice lees extract to assist protect your coloration. We additionally love the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Moisture Shampoo, which gently lathers and smells simply pretty much as good.

In keeping with Latimer, those that need to add “dimension to ‘one-note’ blonde coloration” are the perfect candidates for lowlights, explaining that the colour added to your hair depends upon your aim on your look. If you wish to keep the radiance of your blonde however add dimension, he suggests utilizing a lowlight shade two ranges deeper than the brightest blonde you’ve got in your hair. Should you’re going for a extra pure look, he says to match your lowlight coloration to your pure base coloration. “The lowlight finished proper makes blonde look extra pure, extra complicated, and lit from inside,” he provides.