Best Highlights and Lowlights for Every Hair Color, According to Stylists

Highlights and lowlights are the perfect way to add depth, dimension, movement, and vibrancy to your hair. But the colour of your hair highlights and lowlights depends on your hair colour and skin tone. Here’s our guide to choosing the best highlights and lowlights depending on your hair colour.

Best Hair Highlights for Black Hair

While black hair stands out on its own, adding highlights can elevate it, giving it a richer, deeper, and more vibrant appearance. Black hair works well with different highlight colours, from bright neons and blondes to darker shades of brown. But which one should you choose? Here’s our stylist-inspired breakdown of the best highlights for black hair:

• Cool-toned blondes such as ash and platinum blonde create a sharp contrast, making them perfect for balayage-style highlights.
• Silver grey highlights are perfect for adding a cool and glossy appearance to black hair.
• Brown, copper, and caramel highlights are a common choice for black hair, as they create an eye-catching and natural contrast while adding dimension to hair.
• Other colours that work with black hair include purple, honey-blonde, blue and red.

You can go a shade lighter when highlighting black hair or experiment with bold and bright colours to create a stark contrast with your natural hair. Whether you go for lighter or darker colours, ensure you choose highlights that compliment your skin tone and eye colour.

Hair Highlights and Lowlights for Brown Hair

You can do so much with brown hair highlights and lowlights, whether you want a subtle, soft, natural, bold, or dramatic lift. This hair colour works well with many cool- and warm-toned highlights and lowlights, from browns to blondes to dramatic reds.

Best Hair Highlights for Brown Hair

Blonde highlights are a classic for brown hair. You can choose from different shades of blonde, ranging from cool ash blondes to warmer strawberry blondes. Highlighting brown hair with blonde shades adds dimension, fullness, and volume to brown hair.

Ash brown and cool-toned highlights are perfect for cool-toned brown hair, creating a more cohesive and natural look. Although platinum blonde highlights on brown hair can create a shocking contrast when applied from the root to the tip, they are quite captivating as balayage highlights.

Brown hair also pairs perfectly with red hair highlights for warmer-toned skin. The red undertones introduce a sophisticated and captivating appearance by adding depth, richness, and warmth to your hair.

Here are some popular shades of red highlights for brown hair:

• Burgundy is subtle yet rich, adding a layer of depth and richness to dark brown hair
• Copper or bronze is perfect for medium brown hair, adding warmth, texture, and depth to your hair while maintaining its natural vibrancy.
• Mahogany shades are perfect for understated yet eye-catching highlights, which work well for women in professional settings.
• Golden brown shades are perfect, low-maintenance highlights for brown hair, giving a natural, sun-kissed look. They are perfect for women who want to make their thick hair appear lighter.
• Darker red-brown highlights are perfect for different skin tones, giving an elegant and natural look.

Best Hair Lowlights for Brown Hair

Lowlights are the go-to hair-do whether you’re prepping your brown hair for autumn or want to add dimension, richness, and volume to your hair. Lowlights are a shade or two darker than your natural hair colour; in this case, they highlight your hair’s base colour without drawing too much attention to themselves.

For dark hair, rich espresso and chocolate brown work well to add warmth and dimension without creating a harsh contrast with your base hair colour.

If you have medium to light brown hair, blonde highlights, and lowlights can add more dimension to your hair when used together. Colormelt works perfectly for this look by combining dark and light colours for a seamlessly blended mane.

Best Hair Highlights and Lowlights for Blonde Hair

Blonde hair is extremely versatile, giving you the perfect canvas to apply hair highlights and lowlights. That said, choosing the right highlights and lowlights depends on your skin tone and blonde hair colour.

Here are some of the best highlights for blonde hair:

• Golden highlights are perfect for adding warmth to blonde hair for a sun-kissed look. The golden hues can be as bright or as dark as desired. Paler golden shades create a sunny appearance, while darker gold is almost close to combining brown highlights with blonde hair.
• Ash and beige highlights work well if you’re trying to achieve a lived-in blonde look. These cool tones add dimension to your hair without overpowering your blonde base.
• Caramel highlights are perfect for darker blondes, adding volume and warmth to your hair.

Lowlights are the best way to add depth and dimension to blond hair. Brown lowlights with blonde hair work well for cool-toned blondes, while brunette and chocolate shades work better for warm blondes. Neutral blondes have a more versatile canvas and can opt for cool, warm-toned lowlights.

Lowlights for blonde hair work well when added from the mid shafts and roots for more naturally coloured hair.

The Dimensional Blonde

You don’t have to choose between highlights vs. lowlights for your blonde hair. You can get the boat of both worlds by creating the dimensional blonde with highlights and lowlights. Creating a dimensional blonde requires blending lighter and darker shades through various techniques, including balayage, babylights, and foiling, to create a natural, lived-in look.

In addition to giving you a more natural look, the dimensional blonde makes caring for your coloured hair easier than a solid colour blonde.

Conclusion

Hair highlights and lowlights are the perfect way to add depth and dimension to your hair without the full commitment of dyeing all your hair. Whether you’re adding highlights, lowlights, or a combination, consult our professional hairdresser to ensure you choose the right colours and protect your hair’s health during the colouring process.