How to Highlight Your Hair
By Toni-Marie Ippolito
If you want to try a different look, try adding highlights. If you want to save money and try doing your own at home, the kits out today are fantastic. It can still be a daunting task, so we’ve asked one of the coolest hair people we know, Andrea Claire Walmsley, L’Oréal hair consultant for Canadian Idol, to give us some expert tips. Her rule of thumb when thinking about highlights is: “When in doubt, less is more.”Choosing a Colour
When considering your highlights, Andrea suggests keeping in mind what your natural base colour is and to choose a colour that’s two-to-three shades lighter.For Brunettes: Caramel blonde. For a funky look: try copper tones.
For Blondes: Wheaty, champagne or platinum blondes. “You can also go with honey tones or mix and match two shades,” says Andrea.
For a funky look: try pink! “Use this colour option sparingly on a few chunks of hair,” she says. “If your hair is long, take a few strands from underneath so the pink peeks through.”
For Redheads: With red hair Andrea says that no matter what you’re going to pull orange tones. She suggests blonde shades. “Again, mix and match red tones if you want a more natural look.” For a funky look: add black lowlights.
Placement
When applying highlights, you only need to work on the top layers of the hair. Leaving the underside of the hair untouched will create depth, making your hair look natural. “You should really keep placement of highlights in mind,” Andrea says. “If you wear your hair up a lot, worry more about putting colour around the hairline of your head. If your hair is more like a bob, don’t worry about the area at the back of your head where you won’t see the colour.”Kits
There are many to choose from. Andrea’s top pick is the L’Oréal Hi-Light Styliste kit. “The Hi-Light Styliste colour mixes well and it’s thick so it’s pretty much fool proof. It will stay on the hair strand and won’t run,” she says.“It also comes with a brush and a mascara-like applicator wand so you can control the size or chunkiness of your strands.”
Andrea’s Maintenance and Styling Tips
• Use only tepid water when washing coloured hair. Hot water will cause the cuticle to open up and the colour will bleed out.• Only apply your conditioner from the mid-shaft down and comb it through.
Leave on for a good minute. Don’t put any conditioner on roots, as it will weigh hair down. “When you’re combing through hair you want a bit of foam to show on your comb,” says Andrea. “If there’s too much conditioner on the comb, you know you’ve used too much. If nothing comes out on the comb, then you’ve used too little.”
• To keep your colour’s sheen effect intact use ceramic irons and tools as they are less likely to fry your hair. Ceramic irons come in curling or flat irons. Splurge: CHI Iron. Save: Conair ceramic tools.
Highlighting Products to try:
• L’Oréal Color Pulse• L’Oréal Hi-Light Styliste
• Garnier Multi-Lights
• Revlon Frost & Glow
