Blonde highlights have become a popular hair trend that always seems in style. Whether you’re looking to lighten your look for the Summer or spring or add dimension to your hair all year round, highlights are a great way to achieve that fresh and vibrant look.
Meet The Expert
Maria Lazarevska – Krauter
Maria is a hairstylist with 11 years of experience.
You can find Maria at her hair studio in Chicago, IL.
With so many different shades including ash blonde, honey blonde, strawberry blonde, and platinum blonde, it can be overwhelming to decide on the perfect way to get blonde highlights. In this article, hair colorist Maria Lazarevska-Krauter provides expert advice on getting and maintaining highlights.
If you have a cooler skin tone, ask for warmer shades of blonde, like golden/caramel blonde tones. If you have a warmer skin tone, ask for violet tones, platinum blonde hair, beige blonde, or dusty blonde hair. You can get a few highlights around your face for a pop of brightness. Or combine it with balayage to get an impactful, low-maintenance blonde. You can also go for a full head of highlights for that platinum blonde color.
Blonde Highlights and Hair Health
First and foremost, Maria emphasizes the importance of healthy hair before going blonde. “One thing a lot of women don’t consider when wanting to go blonde is the importance of a healthy haircut,” she explains. “If you have damaged or brittle ends, it makes the blonding process much more difficult.” So, before booking your appointment, get a trim to ensure your hair is in the best possible condition.
Once your hair is healthy and ready for blonde highlights, the next step is to take care of it properly. Maria recommends using a good hair cream like Incredible Milk by Milkshake. “The benefits from a good hair cream such as the one by Milkshake can replace a few products in the long run,” she explains. “It leaves the hair moisturized, which takes care of a high percentage of frizz and dryness. Overall, the hair will look a lot shinier and healthier.” Incorporating a hair cream into your routine can help maintain your blonde highlights and keep your hair looking its best.
Hair Products for Blonde Highlights
Of course, maintaining blonde highlights requires more than just using the right products. Maria stresses the importance of understanding the upkeep required for this color. “Blonde highlights can be very high maintenance compared to other color services,” she warns. “Between blonding services, a toner must often be done every 5-6 weeks. At-home care also should be a top priority. A deep conditioning mask should be a regular part of that routine and done at least every two weeks.” Keeping up with this maintenance can help ensure your blonde highlights look their best for as long as possible.
Blonde Highlights Maintenance
When it comes to getting and maintaining blonde highlights, there are some common misconceptions that Maria has seen. “I would say some women think that using the same products they used before getting highlights should be good enough to use after the highlighting service,” she says. “That is not true. The hair that has been blonded is now different from the hair they had before.” So, switch up your routine to accommodate your new blonde locks.
Pictures of The Best Ways to Get Blonde Highlights
Get ready to be inspired with our gallery of stunning blonde highlights – because, let’s face it, who doesn’t love a good hair transformation?
#1: Prettiest Highlights in Brown Hair
Blonde highlights in brown hair give that lived-in style but are still bright all over. On your first visit, ask your hairstylist for a full highlight and slight shadow root. Then, schedule an appointment 10 weeks later for toning, not highlighting. These highlights for brown hair work if you’re looking for low-maintenance hair color but still want to feel pretty with brighter hair color!
#2 Gradient Caramel Highlights
Gradient caramel blonde highlights are a higher gradient balayage. It’s more of a neutral to cooler tone. It’s less of a subtle sun-kissed look but rather more solid and rich. Hair with caramel highlights requires a toner at the salon every 8-12 weeks. The balayage will also need to go up higher as your hair grows longer, usually in a timeframe of 12-16 weeks.
#3 Lustrous Espresso Curls with Cinnamon Swirl Highlights
Here we see a stunning amalgamation of full-bodied espresso curls kissed with cinnamon swirl highlights, perfect for enhancing the natural texture of thick, curly hair. The artfully placed lighter strands add movement and dimension, showcasing a youthful flair suitable for those in their late 20s to early 40s. A splendid choice for round or heart-shaped faces, the strategic highlights contour and frame the face, creating an illusion of length. The color contrast is striking yet wearable, suitable for both office environments and social gatherings. While the look is high-impact, bear in mind, curly hair requires consistent hydration to maintain the luster of both the color and curls.
#4 Glistening Platinum Highlights on Voluminous Waves
These sumptuous waves cascade down, highlighted by glistening strands of platinum that catch the light with every turn. The masterful highlight technique showcases an interplay of light and shadow, bringing out the volume and fullness of the hair. This style suits those with a fair complexion and works well for a range of ages, particularly flattering for women in their 30s. While the highlights add a striking element, they demand upkeep to avoid yellowing; using a purple shampoo regularly can maintain the icy sheen. The versatility of these highlights lies in their ability to mimic the natural lightening of hair, thus enhancing the wearer’s natural beauty.
#5 Cascading Chestnut Waves with Honeyed Strokes
This style flaunts luxurious, long layers with a soft, honey-blonde highlight that glimmers against a rich chestnut base, ideal for adding vibrance to medium to thick density hair. The subtle graduation of color from roots to ends adds depth and dimension, complementing an oval face shape beautifully. These highlights not only bring warmth to the complexion but also require less frequent salon visits, being kinder to your wallet and your time. Perfect for those in their mid-30s to late 40s, this look merges professional poise with a hint of playfulness. Notice the seamless blend—achieved with a skilled balayage technique—offering a natural transition and reducing the appearance of regrowth, making it a fabulous choice for anyone seeking a low-maintenance, yet stylish option.
#6 Fresh & Soft Blonde Highlights
Soft highlights are a fresh style. The foils are extremely fine and back to back to create a seamless color that doesn’t look “liney.” Plus, it avoids harsh regrowth when you grow out your hair.
#7 Outstanding Dark Blonde Highlights
Dark highlights are classic, chic, and sassy. This style is perfect if you have thick hair. Plus, the color adds enough dimension whether you wear it straight or styled. Blonde babylights and balayage are the best highlighting combo colors.
#8 Relaxed & Natural Highlights
Relaxed and natural highlights for blonde hair bring out brightness around the ends. Subtle highlights and a diffused root shadow make it natural and beautiful.
#9 Cool Platinum White Highlights for Older Women
Cool platinum-white highlights for older women bring out natural silver-grey strands. This hair color is low-maintenance. You can get these tones by highlighting your hair and doing a silver-blonde gloss. The gloss helps to maintain shine and gives more silver tones than grey. It also helps with the texture of your grey hair, softening it and making it more manageable.
#10: Natural Highlights for Long Blonde Hair
Go for a natural highlight effect for long blonde hair. Ask for babylights with flipped ends for a soft blonde at the crown that transitions to a bold blonde on the ends. You can try a toner with cool/gold tones for a vibrant reflective blonde with a beautiful balance of tones.
#11: Gorgeous Blonde Highlights
Blonde highlights on medium-length hair are a simple and beautiful way to change your look. To create a chic and modern look, try adding some loose waves and a side part. This will give your hair a more natural and effortless look.
#12: Combined Highlights and Lowlights
Hair highlights and lowlights create a neutral tone. A combination of babylights, hair painting, and a tone adjustment is all you need. The spacing of blonde foils allows for a lot of depth at your root. This results in a lowlight color to your mid-shaft, where the blonde pops. Ask your colorist to use 20v if your ends were previously lightened. After it’s processed and shampooed, use Jbeverlyhills 11.00/11.22 equal parts with 2T developer. This helps bring those babylights to life and cut out any yellow.
#13: Classic Icy Platinum Highlights
Icy platinum blonde highlights are a full highlight toned to an icy blonde hue. It will always be a classic go-to color for blondes. This hue is for lighter to medium complexions.
#14: Beautiful Highlights on Dark Blonde Hair
Blonde highlights are a classic blend of ash brown hair. It’s beautiful because it has a glam feel without being over-the-top bottle blonde.
#15: Multi-Tonal Blonde Highlights on Light Brown Hair
Blonde highlights on light brown hair give that golden-toned ombre. It looks fantastic if you have medium brown hair because it’s so natural. There will be minimal noticeable regrowth. Multi-tonal shades of light brown and blonde blend in with natural hair color. Use neutral tint levels with no added reds or ash. The natural medium brown hair color itself creates golden undertones.
#16: Dark Short Hair with Subtle Blonde Highlights
Dark short hair with subtle highlights is a beautiful low-maintenance color. If you want a color with high contrast, this is perfect for you. Place some waves away from your face to show off that color contrast!
#17: Creamy Blonde Highlights
If you want to brighten your balayage, you could ask your stylist for bright babylights. Ask for them to be added around the perimeter of your hair. This will give your color more pop.
#18: Natural-Looking Brunette Hair With Highlights
Brunette hair with highlights can bring out the brightness in lengthy, dark tresses! Try this hair color combo for a natural-looking balayage finish. The shades and movement from the waves blend so well, forming a smooth dimensional effect in your hair.
#19: Flowing Blonde Balayage
If you need to refresh your balayage but do not need your whole head done, consider a partial highlight. Be aware of your regrowth. You’ll need more than a partial if it’s been over 6 months. This is more cost-effective if you are gray.
#20: Dirty Blonde Hair With Noticeable Highlights
Dirty blonde with highlights is attractive on women of all ages. Dark roots create a color-melt effect. The dirty blonde highlights appear great under the sunlight. Plus, this dirty blonde balayage hair looks amazing when you add beach waves to a long-length cut.
#21: Youthful Grey and Blonde Highlights for Women Over 70
Grey and blonde highlights for women over 70 add dimension and fullness to greying hair. Highlights diffuse the grey, so you won’t have full-on coverage, which grows softly and is low maintenance for an impactful color. The two tones’ contrast adds depth to your hair, making it look thicker.
#22: Glossy Brown Hair With Blonde Balayage
Brown hair with blonde balayage is a great color that adds gloss to your long tresses. The balayage appears smooth, which goes very well with beach curls.
#23: Alluring Dark Hair With Highlights
Dark hair with blonde highlights results in a dimension you need to upgrade your style! The depth of these cool blonde highlights is visible to emphasize the accentuating color. Waves also create movement, making your mid-length hair more dramatic.
#24: Light Brown Hair With Face-Framing Highlights
Light brown hair with blonde highlights and lowlights is a great color. Dark-rooted light brown with blonde highlights offers face-framing pieces for extra glam. Added waves and a chop with the length above the chest make an ideal combo for your new go-to style.
#25: Perfect Red Hair With Highlights
Red hair with blonde highlights featured in the long-length, shaggy layered cut adds dimension. This auburn hair with blonde streaks isn’t only for natural redheads; these can be the perfect highlights if you’re a brunette!
#26: Chic & Sultry Honey Blonde Highlights
Honey blonde highlights look vivid as if the sun shines through the mane. Go for this creamy balayage when you have long, straight tresses. For added depth, add waves!
#27: Spiced-Up Ash Highlights
Ash blonde highlights can spice up dark tresses, giving them a hot, smokey effect. Pair this soft ash-blonde balayage with a mid-length chop to go well with some waves.
#28: Stunning Long Black Hair With Highlights
Long black hair with highlights can take your natural beauty to the next level! The added bright streaks give prominence to your best facial features. Style your bronde hair with waves for a natural-looking glow.
#29: Trendsetting Blonde Highlights on Dark Brown Hair
Warm highlights on dark brown hair are one of those trends you must try once in your life! Brown and blonde balayage locks add elegance to your angelic face while jazzing up your long mane and flattering your skin tone.
#30: Feminine Blonde and Brown Highlights
Blonde and brown highlights will cover your mid-length, dark locks with warmth. This shade of blonde guarantees a dimension, especially if styled with voluminous waves.
#31: Radiant Bronde Ombre Balayage
Bronde blonde streaks through balayage never fail to bring out a sun-kissed finish. They carry out the radiance and can ginger up your dark tresses. Blonde color highlights are perfect for a long hairstyle with beach waves.
#32: Short Brown Hair With Bold Highlights
Blonde highlights look great on short A-line bob hairstyles. It will keep your hair light, with lots of movement and that signature sun-kissed color.
#33: Modern Bob with Chunky Highlights for Women over 50
Modern chunky highlight ideas are great for women over 50 to add depth and contrast to their hair. These also help your fine tresses to appear thicker. A bob haircut with highlights is perfect if you’re over 50. It looks great in a sleek style. Add beach waves to give your hair more body, bounce, and texture.
#34: Natural Rooty Face-Framing Blonde Highlights
Try a hairstyle that features natural rooty highlights. Keep your natural color up top for a low-maintenance grow-out. This leads to blending into the light blonde tips.
#35: Naturally Curly Hair with Beautiful Blonde Highlights
Beautiful highlights are “fantasy hair” in the hair world. Most of the blonde in this photo is balayage, while only a few highlights go to the roots.
#36: Opalescent Golden Blonde
This opalescent golden blonde is iridescent! This opalescent blonde shows an array of shimmer. When light shines against it, you see an array of colors. Watch colors bounce from beautiful golden tones to cooler pearl tones. These highlights for blonde hair look stunning against a darker base.
#37: Charming Warm Blonde Hair With Highlights
Warm blonde hair with highlights is a bright vanilla blonde. It’s dimensional up top where natural color can show through, then melt into solid ends. This gives your hair color a shadow-root feel. It’s a great option if you want an easier grow-out while keeping a lot of brightness through the ends.
#38: Bright Highlights on Bright Blonde Hair
Blonde highlights can be customized to your skin tone. Ask your colorist for a ton of back-to-back foils while doing the highlights. This will make for a bright blonde without the streaky feel.
#39: Beach-Inspired Highlights
Beach highlights are a beach-inspired hairstyle any woman can wear. The soft, natural contrast between the base color and highlighted pieces is effortless. The hair color ideas are for you if you have natural level 7 hair and are looking for a quick brightening fix. It’s easy to maintain and transitional through the seasons.
#40: Wearable Highlights on Brown Hair with Dark Roots
This warm, bright shade of white highlights is for women who want a low-maintenance shade. The light blonde highlights are ultra seamless with minimal contrast and very subtle.
#41: Low-Maintenance Blonde Highlights on Short Hair
Blonde highlights with short hair give that rooty blonde color. It’s perfect because it keeps your hair brighter on the ends but leaves the root soft. It’s lower maintenance than traditional highlights. You still get the “dark” hair broken up with tons of dimension, but you don’t see a line of new growth coming out in a few weeks.
#42: Sun-Kissed Blonde Highlights
Sun-kissed highlights are a color melt balayage that makes your hair color look sun-kissed and can suit both straight and curly hair.
#43: Spiced-Up Red and Blonde Highlights
Red and blonde highlights create a rosy tone that’s soft, almost pink-red. It spices up the color, so it’s not one color. When styling, choose a wavy style as it highlights blonde streaks.
#44: Modern Beach Blonde Highlights
Try modern beach blonde highlights that combine bright, beach-inspired, and light golden highlights.
#45: Luscious Curly Brown Hair With Highlights
Curly brown hair with highlights creates stunning balayage blonde highlights within your hairstyle. It’s a way to give you light pieces running all through your hair without being so uniform as foils can do. It’s also good if you don’t like to see that harsh re-growth line. This way, it grows much softer.
#46: Stylish Dark Brown Hair With Blonde Highlights
This is an off-the-scalp highlight. It’s a soft, dimensional highlight with a flattering dimension and a great transitional grow-out.
#47: Baby Light Blonde Highlights
Achieve light blonde highlights with a lightener and a babylights application. Focusing on highlights on your front hairline will bring out the brightness of your face. This is great if you wear your hair up a lot. Doing so blends the grow-out lines away. Keeping the babylight application true and fine lowers the maintenance as well.
#48: Gorgeous Balayage Highlights on Dark Hair
Balayage highlights on dark hair look fabulous, especially when it creates a contrast between the dark and light beige balayage. Without lightening all your hair, a balayage is a great alternative to give texture and style.
#49: Transitional Medium Blonde Highlights
These transitional medium blonde highlights are perfect! This color is created by a full head of babylights, balayage in between, and a glaze over the top. The babylights (fine blonde highlighted hair pieces) break up your dark color. The balayage (painted on highlights) brightens the ends. Adding a glaze/toner all over creates a cohesive golden tone to match your previous color. If you want to go for brown, red, and then back to blonde, slow the transition process.
#50: Sassy Strawberry Blonde Highlights for Women Over 60
Strawberry blonde highlights are flattering if you’re a woman over 60. The lighter, coppery lowlight tones blend well if you have gray hair and a fair complexion. This strawberry blonde makes a very easy, fresh, low-maintenance transition of highlights in blonde hair for mature ladies.