Have Dark Hair? You Can Still Rock Blonde Highlights—Here’s How
August 22, 2024
When you have naturally dark hair, scoring a lighter hue typically requires several rounds of bleach, which can be intimidating (not to mention damaging). If you’re looking to brighten up your mane but aren’t ready to commit to a full transformation, consider opting for dark hair with highlights. While highlights still require bleach, they’re easier to achieve than an all-over color and typically less damaging. And though you may think blonde highlights are best suited for those with lighter strands, there are plenty of ways to rock beachy blonde highlights on brown hair without it looking harsh or unnatural. If you need proof, keep scrolling—ahead, we’re sharing some of our favorite ways to rock highlights on dark hair.
Brown Hair With Blonde Highlights: 12 Looks We Love
Whether you’re sporting a rich chestnut hue, a cool ashy brown, or a deep black-brown shade, there’s a way to make blonde highlights work for you. Below, we’ve rounded up some inspiration for those considering dark brown hair with highlights.
Caramel blonde highlights
Caramel blonde is a great choice for brunettes looking to experiment with highlights. The warm, decadent shade is light enough to add brightness, but not so light that it looks harsh against a darker brown base. Keep your highlights on the thinner side for a more blended, sun-kissed effect, or opt for thicker highlights for more noticeable contrast—the choice is yours.
Golden blonde babylights
If you’re after a subtle change, consider babylights. These thin, delicate highlights are placed primarily around the face to create the illusion that your hair has been naturally lightened by the sun. It’s a great way to add a bit of brightness to your overall look without significantly altering your base color. Lean into the style’s slightly beachy feel by opting for a summery shade, such as golden blonde.
Blonde money piece
Ease into dark hair with highlights by asking your stylist for a bright blonde money piece. Unlike traditional highlights, which are placed all around the head, this unique style involves lightening only a few face-framing pieces for a high-contrast look with minimal upkeep.
Bronde highlights
Bronde lives at the intersection of brown and blonde and is the perfect in-between hue for those looking to experiment with highlighted brown hair. To help keep your hair looking its best between touch-ups, consider adding an at-home hair gloss, such as the L’Oréal Paris Le Color Gloss One Step In-Shower Toning Gloss, to your weekly routine. The ammonia-free formula helps enhance color, boosts shine, and deeply conditions your hair in as little as five minutes.
Ashy accents
To make dark brown hair with blonde highlights look natural, you’ll want both shades—your base color and highlight color—to have similar undertones. So if you have a cooler brown base (think mushroom brown or espresso), you’ll want to stick with cool blonde highlights. Ask your stylist to weave ash blonde, mushroom blonde, and silvery taupe highlights throughout your base color for a dimensional look that won’t look over the top.
Chunky highlights
Everything old is new again, and that includes beloved Y2K beauty trends like blue eyeshadow and, yes, chunky highlights. But these aren’t the skunk stripes you may have rocked in middle school. Instead, they’re soft and well-blended for a surprisingly natural feel. If you’re not willing to commit to monthly root touch-ups, consider asking your colorist for a root smudge—the blending technique can help soften any harsh lines when your roots begin to grow in.
Caramel balayage
One of our favorite ways to rock dark hair with highlights is caramel balayage. This hand-painted highlighting technique creates gorgeous, natural-looking dimension—and because the highlights start a bit further down from the root, it’s also relatively low-maintenance as far as touch-ups go. If you’re up for it, you can DIY the look with the L’Oréal Paris Superior Preference Balayage At-Home Highlighting Kit, which comes with an expert applicator for a seamless application process.
Champagne balayage
If you’d prefer a more high-contrast look but want to keep upkeep to a minimum, consider opting for a champagne balayage instead. Rather than deep caramel, this chic look blends bright golden blonde highlights with a darker base color for a slightly edgier feel.
Strawberry blonde streaks
Highlights on brown hair don’t have to be golden blonde or ash blonde to make a statement. We love the way strawberry blonde streaks accentuate the natural reddish undertones in warm brown shades such as chestnut, mahogany, or maple brown.
Beige blonde ombré
Ombré is, in many ways, similar to balayage, though the contrast between your root color and ends tends to be more noticeable. While the contrast is stunning, it also means that you’ll likely need to spend a bit more time bleaching your strands. To help keep your bleached hair feeling soft and healthy, consider incorporating a hair mask, such as the Biolage Professional Color Last Deep Treatment Pack Hair Mask, into your regular routine. The deep conditioner helps strengthen color-treated hair, reduces breakage, and adds tons of glossy shine.
Face-framing platinum
We won’t lie: Platinum blonde isn’t for the faint of heart, nor is it the quickest color to achieve for natural brunettes. But if you’re willing to commit to a bit more time in the salon chair, the vibrant, cool blonde highlights make for a seriously standout look. We suggest keeping the brightest platinum pieces concentrated around your face to help brighten your complexion—you can ask your colorist to thread slightly darker blonde highlights throughout the rest of your mane for a seamless blend.
Subtle blonde color melt
Color melting is a technique in which blonde highlights are delicately woven throughout the mid-lengths and ends for a gorgeous color gradient (similar to sombré). This highlighting option is great for brunettes who want to brighten up their look but don’t want to commit to the upkeep of traditional highlights.
How To Care for Brown Hair With Blonde Highlights
No matter which hue—or technique—you choose, making the jump to brown hair with highlights may require tweaking your haircare routine.
To keep your mane looking and feeling its best, we suggest swapping out your go-to shampoo and conditioner for a system designed for color-treated hair, like the Redken Acidic Bonding Concentrate Shampoo and Conditioner. The sulfate-free duo helps strengthen, reinforce, and smooth color-treated hair while protecting against color fade.
It’s also a good idea to add a purple shampoo and conditioner to your weekly routine to help keep brassiness at bay. We love the Matrix Brass Off Blue Shampoo and Conditioner, which deposit violet-blue pigments onto the hair to help neutralize unwanted yellow and orange tones in lightened brunette hair. Finally, remember that to keep your color looking its very best, you’ll typically want to schedule touch-ups every six to eight weeks. The exact timing depends on how fast your hair grows and which highlighting technique you opted for, so consult your colorist if you’re not sure when to schedule your root touch-ups.
Next Up: Should Your Hair Be Clean or Dirty Before Getting It Colored?
Header photo credit: @american_salon
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