Hair Advice at Your Fingertips!

Should I get lowlights?

What are lowlights? Should I get them? Are they easy-maintenance?

Do you feel like changing your look, but don’t want anything radical? Whether your locks are natural or colored, you can change them by processing only some of your strands. While deciding between highlights and lowlights might seem insignificant, we will explore all the options and give you examples of making the best of both treatments.

What Are Lowlights?

Lowlights are either one or two shades darker colors dyed into your base color, or colorful strands on a lighter base color (e.g., blue streaks in blonde hair). The main aim of lowlights is to add dimension and natural-looking volume to your hair by creating almost invisible shadows that though make a big difference.

Let’s see the difference between highlights and lowlights and find out the most popular types of lowlights women ask in hair salons this year.

1. Lowlights vs. Highlights. While the coloring technique applied is the same, the difference between highlights and lowlights is about the shade. With the first option, some locks are colored lighter than your base. Lowlights are created with a tint darker than your base. Highlights make your hair look sun-kissed and brighten up the face. They are also great when your tresses feel a bit dull and efficient at adding visual volume and depth. Check below how amazing the vanilla blonde hair is when spiced up with medium brown lowlights!

What are lowlights? Should I get them? Are they easy-maintenance?

Do you feel like changing your look, but don’t want anything radical? Whether your locks are natural or colored, you can change them by processing only some of your strands. While deciding between highlights and lowlights might seem insignificant, we will explore all the options and give you examples of making the best of both treatments.

What Are Lowlights?

Lowlights are either one or two shades darker colors dyed into your base color, or colorful strands on a lighter base color (e.g., blue streaks in blonde hair). The main aim of lowlights is to add dimension and natural-looking volume to your hair by creating almost invisible shadows that though make a big difference.

Let’s see the difference between highlights and lowlights and find out the most popular types of lowlights women ask in hair salons this year.

1. Lowlights vs. Highlights. While the coloring technique applied is the same, the difference between highlights and lowlights is about the shade. With the first option, some locks are colored lighter than your base. Lowlights are created with a tint darker than your base. Highlights make your hair look sun-kissed and brighten up the face. They are also great when your tresses feel a bit dull and efficient at adding visual volume and depth. Check below how amazing the vanilla blonde hair is when spiced up with medium brown lowlights!

2. Blending Lowlights with Highlights. Can you get highlights and lowlights at the same time? Yes, you can, and it will give you the best of both worlds — the warm, feminine effect of highlights with the scenic definition of lowlights. On the photo below, caramel highlights mixed with toffee-colored lowlights create a playful, modern, and dynamic look!

3. Combination of Highlights and Lowlights. The tiny platinum blond highlights create a sweet and delicate look. Blending highlights and lowlights is among favorite color jobs for hair colorists!

4. Blonde Hair with Brown Lowlights. You might want to color your blonde hair with highlights and lowlights because you are bored with it and want it to look more sophisticated. Highlights in platinum blonde with lowlights add both brightness and depth. The dark blonde hair with dark lowlights doesn’t look less feminine and seems more interesting.

5. What Hair Colors Lowlights Work For. Going down works well for both blonde tresses and brown strands. Even lowlights for black hair can make a difference in terms of volume although the effect will be subtle. Your stylist might have problems if you are raven-haired, but it is still doable. Proper discussion with your stylist is very important. You might get some locks just a bit darker for a more natural look, or you can go for a contrasting shade as you can see in the picture below. This blonde hair with lowlights in burgundy is striking!

6. Adding Lowlights to Bleached Hair. Just look at this messy bedhead lob! Both chunky highlights and lowlights make the cut super rebellious and lavish!

7. Lowlights for Gray Hair. You can cover gray hair with lowlights to get an exquisite yet natural appearance! If you don’t want to color your silver locks, darker streaks might be a great way to gradually stop doing it. Moreover, a mix of highlights and lowlights for a lady over 50 helps fight the problem of thinning hair while adding volume and looking contemporary.

8. How to Care for Lowlights. With lowlights, the color is not applied to the entire mane, so it’s a rather gentle procedure. Still, you need to change all your hair care products since any coloring dries and damages your mane. Go for the ones created for colored locks and focus your home care efforts on moisturizing and nourishing. If you were using a conditioner only, add a color-saving mask once a week to your beauty routine. Also, ask your colorist for the next appointment in 1,5-2 months to get touch-ups.

9. Bronde Hair with Lowlights. A couple of different shades are mixed in to deliver even more volume and make the bronde hair much shinier. She is not blonde anymore, but not a brunette yet. A perfect transitioning hairstyle!

10. Brown Hair with Lowlights. The subtly nuanced lowlights make the locks more defined and the natural color — more gorgeous. The effect is achieved with balayage lowlights painted by a stylist without foil wrapping. Brown hair with highlights and lowlights is trending now. It doesn’t require a complete color redo but makes a huge difference.

11. Can You Do Lowlights on Dark Hair? Lowlights are wonderful on brown hair because brunettes often fetishize their color and don’t want to undergo a drastic transformation and go blonde. Lowlights on dark hair not only add volume and drama but make the tone more interesting and enhance facial features. Watch how the gorgeous wintery brown hair with lowlights made the previous medium blond disappear.

12. How Much Do Lowlights Cost? The price depends on your colorist’s popularity, the products and techniques used, and the length of your hair. The stylist might use foils or the balayage technique. The first is more common while the second one requires more skill. Anyway, the price might start from $50-80 and reach $300+.

13. Do Lowlights Damage Hair? Lowlights are a bit less damaging for our locks than highlights because you don’t need to lift color for a darker shade. You simply deposit more color in your strands. Fewer chemicals are applied, and less damage is done. You can use a semi-permanent color to make the strands darker. It washes out in a month or two, and it is even friendlier for the tresses. Blonde hair with red lowlights looks fantastic, and this color-treatment makes less damage than a solid-color transformation. Also, auburn lowlights let you flirt with red hair a bit and see if you are comfortable with it.

14. Blonde Hair with Lowlights. The basic shoulder-length cut looks sophisticated and fresh with a dark tone added to the champagne blonde. The great thing about lowlights is that you can modify the temperature of the main color and calm it down by making it a bit cooler. Besides, lowlights can help correct the previous color job.

15. Lowlights in Blonde Hair Before and After. Caramel and chocolate lowlights feel much funkier on blond hair. Lowlights give a great opportunity to start a romance with a darker tone for those who have been devoted to blond for years. Watch how this lob with waves and lowlights gains movement, volume, and a modern twist to it!

16. Baby Lowlights. With babylights, your stylist works with smaller sections of hair, which creates a more natural transition. Babylights lead to the feeling of a one-tone color rather than a blend of a few colors. The technique is often used for a big color change, for example, when going from dark to blond. The mane in the picture seems blond all over the head but the color is not boring at all. There is a variety of undertones that keep you impressed and awed!

17. Brunette Lowlights. The chocolate brown lowlights make this warm chocolate mane look edgier without killing its foxy charm!

18. Mocha Brown Lowlights and Blonde Highlights. While aggressive blond shades are not particularly trendy, the pale and natural-looking ones are booming. This is exactly the shade many natural blondes have been trying to get rid of for years because it creates too little contrast with pale skin and doesn’t flatter the face. Darker lowlights add the desired counterpoint!

19. In-Between a Blond and a Redhead. This successful combination of vanilla highlights and copper lowlights results in an unthinkable compromise. The hair color is blond, but there is a lot of ginger vibe to it.

20. Dramatic Balayage. It is hard to imagine a more daring combo than strawberry blond highlights and a mix of lowlights. The haircut and color change the girl completely, turning the hairstyle into multidimensional. When the coloring job matches the personality, it always results in happiness. Alternatively, pink and purple lowlights can do the job!

Of course, highlights are currently not less trendy, and the highlighted hair is not going away. Meanwhile, lowlights are dramatic and modern enough to encourage your style transformation too. Take any picture you like, discuss it with your colorist, and good luck!

Featured Image: pixabay.com

by Donna Sullivan
Donna is a hairstylist with 8 years of experience. Ask her about any hair-related problem (haircuts, hairstyles, colorings, hair care) and get a pro advice!