Having your hair colored for the first time can be nerve-racking. With so many options and variations, how can you end up with the look you want?   The key is to communicate with your colorist before he or she starts mixing the color. Explain, or show them a photo of the look you’re after so they can outline the options for getting you there.

Highlights

Good news for all you brunettes and red heads:  highlights aren’t just blonde streaks!  Instead, it’s dyeing strands of hair at least two shades lighter than your primary color.  This means you can keep the color you want and can just have lighter, complimentary strands with it.

If you want a really light look, you can go three shades lighter than your primary color. More than that and you won’t have a naturally sun-kissed look; you’ll have two completely different hair colors.

For a really dramatic look, many people use “chunks” of highlights, which are really just thick areas of hair that have been highlighted.  The thicker your highlights, the more obvious and less natural looking they’ll be.  The thinner, the more natural.  If you want a subtle look, ask your stylist at Health and Style Institute to go for “contrast.”

If you want to change your hair color, highlighting can be the way to go.  Just widen the highlighted area a little more every time you go to Health and Style Institute, and you’ll have a completely lighter hair color before you know it.

Lowlights

These are the often misunderstood and misused treatment of the coloring world.  Luckily, Health and Style Institute stylists knows just what they are and how to use them.

Lowlighting is basically highlighting, but you go darker instead of lighter.  Your lowlights are 2-3 shades darker than your primary color.  If you color your hair, lowlights are fantastic at making your new color blend with the old.  When your darker, natural hair starts showing at the roots, it looks like it’s just complimenting your lowlights.

If your hair’s a little on the thin side, lowlights on the underside of your hair can give the illusion of depth and dimension.  It’s basically creating shadows where none exist.

Balayage

This color process is hand-painting lightener on select pieces of hair to emphasize the lines and layers of a hairstyle. The color will grow out, and roots aren’t noticeable because the color isn’t applied as close to the roots as it is with other color processes.

Call now to book your appointment to stay colorfully ravishing all the way through summer!