12 Ways to Highlight Your Hair

Dear friends ,After the peroxide has lifted the right amount of color, your colorist will apply a toner to remove brassiness and blend the bleached areas. Toner will affect only the color of the lightened strands, leaving your base color intact. Cucinello prefers using a demi-permanent gloss that's one shade lighter than the base hair color instead of a toner. A gloss softens the highlights while brightening the base color for a more cohesive look. Since a gloss lasts about twice as long as a standard toner, it's worth your time to track down a colorist who uses this technique.

Keep your lightened locks shiny and natural-looking by visiting the salon for a touch-up every 6 weeks or so. And when summer fades away, you can let your blonde streaks do the same.

1-Flying Solo

Determined to go it alone? Here's how to use a home highlighting kit without winding up looking like a skunk on a bad day.

2-Pick the right kit. If you want subtle highlights, the mascara wand in L'Or? Paris Hi-Light Styliste Hi-Control Brush-On Highlights ($12,Walgreens.com) makes it easy to color even the teeniest sections of hair. For hair that's already colored, try the super-gentle Garnier Color Breaks ($7, Walgreens.com). If you're a brunette, check out Revlon Custom Effects Highlights ($11, Revlon). It has a high (9 percent) peroxide content, so it strips color efficiently on dark hair. And if you're all thumbs, Clairol Herbal Essences Highlights ($10, clairol.com) may be the one for you. The comb has stiff prongs that place the highlights in manageable segments.

3-Pick the right color. Stay within two shades of your natural hair color — unless you want to look like Cruella De Vil.

4-Do a patch test. If you're like one of our editors, you can skip this step. She actually didn't mind having pink highlights for a month, but you might. Experts suggest applying the highlighting solution to a half-inch-wide patch of hair in the middle of your head, behind the ears, so it won't be so noticeable. Better yet, plan ahead and ask your stylist to save a few clippings when you get a cut. Let the solution sit for the full amount of time recommended on the box, then rinse. "This is a good way to preview how your hair will react to a particular product and minimize potential disasters like an orangy or yellowish color," says Robert Craig, colorist and creator of Robert Craig Salon Products.

5-Think baby steps. Just as with perfume and hot mustard, less is more. "You can always go back and add highlights," says Chuck Hezekiah, Garnier hair-color expert.

6-Work from front to back. That's because the sun naturally bleaches the hair near your face more than it does in back, Scrivo says. Hezekiah suggests you part your hair down the middle and divide both halves into four sections. Pull out a portion about as thick as a piece of yarn. Hold it away from your head and brush on the mixture until the hair is saturated from root to end. An extra set of hands can be a big help, so enlist a friend.

7-Don't worry about dripping. At-home products are usually thick enough that the bleach won't stray to other pieces. If you're still concerned, cut aluminum foil into 3-by-3-inch squares and wrap them around the highlighted sections.

8-Stay vigilant. Set a timer based on what you learned during the patch test, and don't get distracted cleaning out the fridge or watching a Law & Order episode. Check a piece of hair every 5 minutes. Just rub a bit of the cream off with your fingers to look at the hair, then reapply.

9-Don't get creative. Follow the kit's instructions to the letter when rinsing and conditioning. Many kits contain a separate toning conditioner to ensure that your strands don't end up looking like seaweed.

Okay, you've got highlights. Now what?

10-Use the right shampoo. You want one designed for color-treated hair — it will help fight fading.
WH Pick Dove Advanced Color Care Shampoo for Lightened or Highlighted Hair contains polymers to prevent breakage and moisturizers to add softness and shine ($6 for 12 oz, Drugstore.com). Or choose a shampoo with a gentle color booster to maintain your highlights longer. WH Pick Jason Color Enhancing Shampoo ($7.50 for 8 oz,jason-natural.com).

11-Get some shade. Sounds bizarre, since sun exposure is exactly what you're trying to imitate. But UV rays can turn artificial color brassy. So spray your tresses with sunscreen made just for hair.
WH Pick Goldwell Outdoor & Sun Revitalize Restyle and Refresh, a lightweight spray containing hydrating panthenol and a UV filter ($14 for 3.4 oz, goldwellusa.com).

12=-Swim smart. Salt and chlorine in water can penetrate strands, making them look dry and damaged — even giving highlights a greenish tinge. To lower the odds of that happening, apply a protective treatment before diving in.
WH Pick Frédéric Fekkai Sun Bandana, a cream that also contains moisturizing fatty acids and sun-shielding polymers to protect against color fading ($20 for 4.2 oz, fredericfekkai.com).

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