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40 Inspirational Balayage Ideas for Short Hair

by
Serena Piper

Experiments with balayage on short hair sometimes look even more spectacular than on other hair lengths. Dimensional highlights make the haircut expensive and soigne. This free-hand technique, when the stylist applies colors to the hair as an arbitrary pattern, is making it look similar to naturally sun-kissed strands. Worth trying, and this is why!

Check out these hair color ideas for short hair to feel gorgeous, stunning, and modern. Forget the old method of foil highlights done in a hair shop next to the house!

1. Bob with Money Pieces. Make your tan skin shine naturally without excessive bleaching. The spiced up beachy waves with money pieces bring cool modern vibes.

Experiments with balayage on short hair sometimes look even more spectacular than on other hair lengths. Dimensional highlights make the haircut expensive and soigne. This free-hand technique, when the stylist applies colors to the hair as an arbitrary pattern, is making it look similar to naturally sun-kissed strands. Worth trying, and this is why!

Check out these hair color ideas for short hair to feel gorgeous, stunning, and modern. Forget the old method of foil highlights done in a hair shop next to the house!

1. Bob with Money Pieces. Make your tan skin shine naturally without excessive bleaching. The spiced up beachy waves with money pieces bring cool modern vibes.

2. Blonde Front Highlights. The natural brown hair color works best with a few highlights. You will know that you are always the center of attention.

3. Mahogany Brown Coloring. Not only blondes have all the fun. Here’s a fabulous mix of stand-out colors for brunettes. With reddish highlights, you get artistic results with minimal effort.

4. Waves with Warm Highlights. If you need dark hair color ideas for your shorter locks, you may like the following hairstyle. Even if you want blonde highlights, you will have to start with transitioning warm shades. All browns and copper would be a great starting point.

5. Ombre Coloring. It is not a common pairing, but it seems that everyone loves it! Put in a few metallic shades to blend your natural color with highlights. Multi-dimensional tones are good for easy maintenance and effortlessly adorable looks.

6. Dirty Blonde Hair. Perfect for those with grown-out dark roots. Enjoy the never-ending hair dimension that catches the eye. Get ready for several compliments from the guy you like!

7. Ash Bronde Locks. If you are in search of hair dye ideas that are on the cooler side, consider ash, gray, and silver tones. This will be a mega-transformation for your brown mane!

Ash Blonde Balayage for Brown Hair
By Anna

8. Cinnamon Highlights. Do you have soft brown hair? Time to embrace some milky lightness! Diversify your look with delicate cinnamon ribbons. It is a great way to add depth to your hair, and make your eyes shine!

9. Burgundy Bob. An inverted wavy bob is a classic beauty that never gets old. How about refreshing it with some burgundy highlights? This trick will add mysterious vibes to your look.

10. Lob with Gray Highlights. Models and celebrities are regularly going out with gray hair nowadays. Going gray has become a trend! You can also pull it off if you choose your flattering gray shades and have them blended seamlessly into your natural hair color.

Gray Balayage Lob with Lowlights
By Han

11. Highlights and Lowlights. A bit of cinnamon in brown hair provides a superb look. To show off the multi-tone color, a few waves and random twists will create a striking effect.

12. High-Contrast Money Pieces. Here is a trendy way to apply highlights to bobbed hair — use lowlights to reduce the contrast between a root color and highlights around the perimeter to make a money piece really pop.

13. Warm Highlights. What shade to choose for a sun-kissed effect? Caramel brown or honey highlights will do the trick on your cropped hair. Slightly bend the front pieces to frame your face nicely.

14. Sombre Coloring. Dark brown hair and beige highlights are a yummy combination. This short highlighted hair would look super cute in low buns and simple braids – the shoulder length still allows creating them.

Brown Sombre for Short Hair
By Mary

15. Shadow Root and Highlights. Hand-painted highlights on shorter locks are a great fit for those who don’t want to visit beauty salons often. If you are a seeker of a low-maintenance hairdo, go for the shadow root and balayage combo.

16. Balayaged Shoulder-Length Locks. The hand-painted technique is one of the old but gold hair dye ideas for mid-length hair lacking texture. Watch it transform your hair into a luxurious, eye-catching mane!

17. Honey Blonde Highlights. The hair color ideas for the bob-length hair are not limited to high-contrast highlights. Go for a gentle gradient with honey, amber, and vanilla blonde, and enjoy the result!

18. Buttery Blonde Streaks. This sunny shade of blonde plays perfectly well with the peachy tones in the girl’s skin and delivers a lived-in look in a combo with the natural brown roots.

19. Bright Facial Framing. This medium-brown base is carefully infused with tiny blonde pieces to create a sun-kissed effect, while the main accent is made on the strands around the face.

20. Highlighted Comb-Over Shag. The short hair inspo worth saving for later. Get a bob with longer front strands. Add matching highlights. Now you can style it straight, wavy, or very curly, change the parting to your liking, define each strand or follow the messy bed-head hair trend. Options are endless!

21. Light Brown Highlights. Brunette girls don’t have to opt for radical changes and bright colors. If you want to keep it simple, go for a subtle gradient incorporating mixed shades, such as cinnamon, chestnut, and auburn.

22. Rooted Bob. Blonde coloring will look more dimensional with any root dyeing technique. This can be just a slight root tap, more defined root shadowing, or soft low root melting that is almost unnoticeably blended with the rest of the hair. The type of haircut here is the blunt chin-length bob with a middle part.

Blonde Balayage Bob with Shadow Roots
By Hiro

23. Auburn Streaks. Brunettes will certainly be inspired by this lovely autumnal lob that illuminates the deep chocolate brown base with dimensional and playful auburn highlights.

24. Choppy Blonde Highlights. One of the best short hair color ideas is a partial face-framing highlighting. If you are in the mood for a style revolution, match it with a tomboy haircut featuring some choppy layers to complete the rebel look.

Short Choppy Hair with Face-Framing Balayage
By Ivan

25. Golden-Tinted Strands. These golden blonde insertions seem to be absolutely natural on the light brown base of the effortless long bob, giving us a clue on how a lived-in hair coloring should actually look.

26. Bronde Wavy Bob. An ideal way of spicing up a simple cut for fine hair is adding some highlights to it. This hairstyle works equally well on straight, wavy, and curly hair, so give it a try!

27. Rooty Stacked Bob. While the sliced ends of this bob produce movement in the locks and give the style an edgy feel, the hair might have lacked body if it wasn’t for the depth created by coloring.

28. Cool Shoulder-Grazing Locks. This angled long bob gains an amazing depth with the bright streaks of a platinum blonde placed against the sophisticated taupe brown base.

29. Honey Blonde Dye Job. This color job is a happy middle ground between red, brown, and blonde since it has a little bit of everything without looking harsh and unnatural.

30. Caramel Undertones. Short brown hair with blonde highlights is a sure way to spend less time on styling while looking exceptionally adorable! For the best effect, pick warm hues, such as caramel and amber.

31. Caramel Blonde with Dark Roots. Upgrade your shag with some bent waves to maximize the natural volume of your hair. Such a hairstyle will give you an added chic factor and feel casual enough to wear it daily.

32. Dark Purple Streaks. Purple highlights are breathtaking and 100% mainstream nowadays. The rosey plum color doesn’t stand out as much as it used to, but it can still make anyone modern and trendy. Are you ready to choose your purple mate?

33. Copper and Caramel Lob. The irregular highlights of this gingerbread hair job are a good match for the choppy finish and messy styling of the textured lob, let alone the naturally sun-kissed feel they lend.

34. Accented Caramel Brown Locks. Here is a great idea on how to save your straight tresses from feeling flat: add distinct strips of blonde running from the top and melting towards the ends.

35. Mushroom Brown and Blonde. This is a smokey version of lowlights inserted to create dimension in short hair and set off the areas painted in lighter shades while retaining a soft overall look.

36. Silvery Tresses. Show off your amazing hair with bright white silver highlights. A true must-have for a funky and sassy look.

37. Brunette Highlighted Bob. If you are tired of pictures with bright blonde streaks, try subtle highlights! Light tones help you catch the warmth and the right light! This hairstyle adds a lot of true femininity.

38. Highlighted Straight Crop. Keep the roots darker, and try a soft fade towards the ends. Perfect for city girls who are searching for fashionable looks. Use a blow dryer to get it straight and add volume.

39. Balayaged Choppy Layers. Highlights on cropped length look cheeky and sweet on ladies of all ages. If you want your style to feel quirky and modern, add choppy layers and tousle the hair strands.

40. Rooty Ash Blonde. This color job immediately catches the eye with the depth at the roots, but you cannot fail to notice the seamless transition to the mix of ash blonde and beige hues.

Such trendy hair color ideas will make any girl flawless! Highlights on shorter lengths are extremely beautiful, fresh, and fashionable. Pick your favorite option, share it with your stylist, and enjoy your new gorgeous look!