Do Your Own Highlights

If you don't feel like spending money to get your hair highlighted at the salon, try doing it at home. For a salon-caliber look, buy your supplies from a beauty store with a large selection of colors for all hair types. Read on for information on how to prepare your hair for highlighting, do the job like a pro and give yourself periodic touch-ups.

Steps

Getting Ready to Highlight Your Hair

  1. Figure out what highlighting kit to purchase. Highlighting kits are available at most drugstores, but you may be better off going to a beauty store, where you'll find a larger selection. When you're considering what type of kit to buy, there are several factors to take into consideration:
    • The length of your hair. If you have short or medium hair, the kit you buy should contain a cap, a hook, and a brush. If you have longer hair, you need a kit that has applicators you can use to apply the highlights evenly as far down your hair as you'd like them to go.
    • The type of highlights you want. If you just want some light highlights, nothing too dramatic, choose a kit that comes with a rubber fingertip applicator that you can use to apply highlights exactly where you want them to go. For more dramatic highlights, you'll need a kit with a brush or long-hair applicators.
    • The color you want the highlights to be. If you want your highlights to look natural, choose a blond-colored highlight a few shades lighter than your natural color. Auburn highlights are also a great choice, especially if you have dark brown or black hair.
  2. Prepare your hair for highlighting. Plan to highlight your hair a few days after you last washed it. Using bleach and dye on clean hair can damage it, since the natural oils your scalp produces to protect the hair shaft have been washed away. Your hair should also be dry when you begin highlighting it.
  3. Set up your highlighting station. Set up a work area (preferably your bathroom) in a space with bright lighting and quick access to water. Put on an old t-shirt and have old towels handy in case stray highlighting solution gets on your skin.
    • You may want to wear a pair of gloves in order to prevent getting highlighting solution on your hands. Some kits come with a pair of plastic gloves for this purpose.
    • Put away items in your bathroom that might get damaged by the highlighting fluid - it will dye anything it comes into contact with.

Highlighting Your Hair

  1. Choose where to place your highlights. The cap that comes in highlighting kits has tiny holes through which you pull strands of hair to be highlighted. The cap can help you make sure the highlights are evenly distributed. However, if your hair is too long to pull through the cap, or you want to have greater control over the highlight placement, you may not wish to use it.
    • If you're using the cap, put it on and take a look at where the highlights will go. Use the hook that came with your kit to pull small sections of hair through the holes in the cap. You don't have to use every hole provided; just pull through as much hair as you want.
    • If you have long hair, look at yourself in the mirror and determine which strands of hair you want to highlight. Use small clips or bobby pins to section the parts off your hair you want to highlight.
  2. Apply the highlighter. Working according to the instructions included with your highlighting kit, mix the cream and powders to create the highlighting solution. Use the applicator brush to apply highlighting solution. Make sure each strand gets an even coating of highlighter. Work from front to back, so the front strands of hair, which would naturally be lighter, have more time to lighten while you work your way backward.
    • If you have short or medium hair, apply the highlighting solution to the strands that you pulled through the cap.
    • If you have longer hair, use strips of aluminum foil to keep the strands of hair you are highlighting separate from the rest of your hair. Place a strip under the part of your hair you are highlighting, use the special applicator to paint highlighting solution down the length of the hair, from the roots to the tip. Leave the aluminum strip in place while the highlighter works.
  3. Cover your head with a clear cap. Your kit should have provided a clear plastic cap, similar to a shower cap, to protect your hair while the highlighter works. Place it in on your head and let the highlighter sit in your hair for about 20 minutes, or as long as the instructions provided state you should leave it in.
    • The longer you leave the solution in your hair, the lighter your highlights will be.
    • Be careful not to leave the solution in your hair for too long. It is made out of strong chemicals that can damage your hair if you aren't careful.
  4. Rinse out your hair. Remove the plastic shower cap and use the cream provided in the kit to rinse out your highlighted hair, making sure all the solution is completely washed out. Afterward, remove the cap with holes and use shampoo and conditioner meant for color-treated hair to wash and condition your hair as usual.
    • Make sure to use the cream to rinse out the highlighter before mixing your highlighted hair with the rest of your hair. If you used aluminum strips, wash each strand separately with the cream, then shampoo your entire head.
    • Using shampoo and conditioner made for color-treated hair helps prevent your hair from drying out.

Touching Up Your Highlights

  1. Buy a touch-up kit. When your highlights start to grow out, use a touch-up kit of the same color to brighten up your roots. Touch-up kits come with rubber fingertip applicators that make it easy to apply a little highlighter solution directly to your roots. Follow the instructions, and make sure not to leave the solution in for too long.
  2. Use a natural highlighting technique. If you don't want to spend money on more dye, consider using a natural technique. Locate one of the following household items and apply it to your hair:
    • Lemon juice. If you have blond highlights, simply mix half lemon juice, half water in a spray bottle and spray it on your roots. Go outside in the sun for about half an hour, and the rays with react with the juice to brighten up your hair. Wash it out when you come back inside.
    • Chamomile. If you have blond highlights and want a subtle lightening effect, make some chamomile tea and use an applicator brush to apply it to your roots. Leave it in for about 30 minutes, then rinse your hair and wash and condition as usual.
    • Cinnamon works to boost red or auburn highlights. Make a paste with cinnamon and water and apply it to your roots. Leave it in for 30 minutes, then rinse it away and wash and condition your hair as usual.



Tips

  • If you aren't sure how your hair will look with a certain type of highlight, do a strand test before giving yourself a full head of highlights.
  • Purchase the right highlighting kit; put on some old clothes so the colour does not stain your clothes. Always ask someone else put highlights in your hair if you can't do it yourself as this may be tricky. If you are highlighting use a bold colour against your own.

Warnings

  • Don't highlight your hair more often than every six weeks, or you could cause damage and hair breakage.

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Sources and Citations

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