Many people assume chocolate brown is a simple hair color. Unfortunately, that frequently leads to uninspired, bland, or even poor execution. I can’t count how many clients I’ve had who come to me after a salon visit hoping to achieve a lovely chocolate brown with light, beautiful highlights, but leave with what looks like tiger stripes. Many stylists seem to miss the point when it comes to coloring hair with this technique. The complimenting colors blended beautifully create that sun-kissed look where some pieces are brightened, and others are left untouched.
One of my first clients was a brown-haired photographer who had kept her hair the same for fifteen years. She wanted to go blonde for the first time. Instead, I suggested a chocolate base with some caramel ribbons first, just to see. When I turned her around, she cried, not because of the change, but because of the first time in years her hair felt like it was hers. That’s the funny thing about brown hair with highlights; even really understated, it wakes up your face. The biggest blunder is thinking the highlight color is the most consequential thing. The reality is skin tone is primary. Light skin = light highlights. Pink skin = cool ash highlights. Olive skin = light gold highlights. Where you place the light is as important as what color, and that’s how some people can really change the overall structure of the face just with framing around the face, and I know it sounds like a lot, but I’ve seen it so many times. If you’re starting to see some greys, some fine babylights can make them disappear without the commitment of full coverage. That finally leads me to when it comes to in-between your color appointments, really do invest in a gloss or glaze. Brunette color goes brassy very quickly, but a gloss will keep the richness exactly where you want it.
Allow me to walk you through things that are most definitely worth trying.
#1: Warm Caramel Ribbons on a Deep Chocolate Base
The base here is a true chocolate brown—no muddiness or red tones—just clean and rich. It is easy to get lost in this color. The light placement of these caramel pieces is strategic so that they don’t detract from each other when they catch the light. That is not as easy as it seems. This slight wave in the hair is ideal as it allows those highlighted pieces to fold over and under the darker base, creating amazing dimensionality that is stunning in photos and jaw-dropping in real life. This is your reference picture if you’re coming from a single process brown and want to start moving into dimensional color.
#2 Layered Dimension with Just Enough Lift
The colorist did get something right here; not a lot of highlights is needed to make a difference with good placement. The bright pieces around the face and through the mid-lengths give this whole look a brightness that reads healthy, not colored. The layers help again; they allow the highlighted and non-highlighted pieces to weave together more naturally. This is the kind of color that looks effortless when you walk out of the salon, and even still looks great three months later as it grows, which honestly is how I determine whether a color job was truly great.
#3: That Deep, Glossy Wave That Catches Everything
I love the depth here. The rich chocolate brown base allows the highlights to look expensive instead of stripey. The dimension is subtle enough that it looks like a solid color in some lighting. Then, warmth layers shifting through it become visible. The highlights are maybe 2-3 levels of lift from the base, keeping it cohesive. If you have medium to thick hair like this, the color really plays to your advantage. The density provides more surface area for those tonal shifts to work with.
#4: Soft Movement with Highlights That Know Their Place
I appreciate your patience here. The highlights are not stealing the show, they are adding (calmly) to an already beautiful chocolate base. The mid-lengths and ends placement is classic for a reason, it mimics where the sun would naturally lighten hair so it never looks overdone. One thing to note is hair with this natural wave type of texture holds color so beautifully because the bends create their own shadow and bright spot effects. The way this looks, a good hydrating mask is really all you need to keep it looking like that once a week.
#5: Glossy Chocolate Layers with That Lit-From-Within Thing
The gloss catches my attention the most. It’s finished with something that sealed the cuticle, because it is super shiny and makes the whole color look more expensive. There are some dimensional highlights, but the real show stopper is the condition of the hair. I tell my clients this all the time, you can have the most stunning color, and if the hair isn’t healthy, it can look average, and this is the proof. The soft layering adds movement without thinning anything out, which is the right call on hair with this kind of density.
#6: Understated Warmth Through Fine, Natural-Looking Pieces
This is a color for somebody who wants to look like they really don’t care. The highlights are close together woven in fine so there isn’t a stark contrast between the base and the lighter pieces. On this fine hair, that technique is everything because chunky highlights look dated and make the hair appear thinner. The wave pattern gives enough body so that the color has texture to work with. If your hair is on the flatter side, a root lifting spray is going to make more of a difference than any haircut or color change.
#7: Rich, Polished Waves with Depth That Goes On Forever
I’m excited about this one. The chocolate base is rich, and highlights are painted for a cascading effect throughout the hair. The color warmth gives a luxurious, high-end chocolate kind of feel, which is perfect for the name. Long and flowing layers will create a smooth transition for the color. I would bet this is a hand-painted balayage and not foils, because the blend is too seamless and organic to be from traditional weaving. This is the type of color that makes you feel different the minute you walk out of the salon.
#8: Caramel-Kissed Chocolate with Gorgeous Tonal Range
The chocolate base lets the caramel warm it up without pulling orange, which is what it should do. Toners have to know that balance at a different level, as caramel is one of those colours that can go wrong in about six different directions. The soft waves show off the colour beautifully, and I like that the medium length keeps it manageable. I would say this is on the warmer end of the chocolate-with-highlights spectrum, so if your skin is golden or olive undertoned, this is a shade to bookmark. On cooler skin tones, I would direct you towards something much ashier.
#9: Structured Layers and Soft Bangs in a Warm Chocolate
I love what these bangs do! They change the color that frames the face and pull the lightened strands to the front, so the brightness is right where you want it! The cut is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here; the layered cut gives the hair shape and movement, while the highlights add to the structure. This is a shorter option compared to most styles we have seen and is just below the shoulders. Often, this length is more flattering than super long hair, especially if your hair is finer. The subtle face framing is also beautiful and softens the whole look.
#10: High-Gloss Chocolate with Luminous Mid-Length Highlights
The shine in this hair is real! It comes from healthy hair and great product knowledge – that kind of shine is not fake. The highlight placement is mostly mid-length and ends leaving the roots dark and natural, making your grow-out less obvious. With thick hair like this, that placement also means the color won’t look too busy at the top. If you don’t want to be in the salon every six weeks, this sort of placement buys you a lot of time between appointments.
#11: Bouncy Dimensional Curls on a Rich Brown Base
I believe that curls and highlights is a combination that not many people use, but they totally should! Curly hair adds so much to the look with the added dimension. Each curl is going to catch the light at a different angle so the more highlights, the better! Here, the base of the hair being a chocolate brown is really warm and rich and the highlights are a great balance to really help the curls pop without losing any thickness to the hair. The shoulder length layers also give the curls enough space to bounce and spring which is exactly what you want! For curls, a curling cream on damp hair will really tie the look together.
#12: Deep Chocolate Waves with Seamless Tonal Blending
This kind of blending is really nice. The way that dark chocolate root blends to lighter pieces is so smooth and gradual, it is hard to tell where the highlight starts and where the base ends. That’s the goal. That level of seamless blending usually means the colorist used some sort of technique, most likely some sort of teasing or backcombing at the base of each section to create that soft diffusion. With hair this thick and dense, that level of detail is pretty necessary because any harsh lines will be accentuated by the volume of hair.
#13: Warm, Sun-Touched Chocolate with Soft Body
There’s an enjoyable uniqueness to this color. It’s almost as if this person has spent considerable time outdoors under the sun, and that’s working its magic. This is the greatest compliment I can offer to a highlight job. I can recognize the colorist picked the right toner because the warm tones are golden, not brassy. The natural texture here is coming through, and that’s a big part of what makes it so good. I believe if too much styling is done, it actually detracts from the color. It should look a bit undone, and a bit effortless. Sometimes the best thing you can do for a beautiful color is leave it alone.
#14: Polished Mid-Length Waves with Soft Highlighted Layers
I love the way the medium length is so flattering and how the layers are cut so the ends flick out to show the light pieces. This cut and color combo is really unique. The chocolate base is clean and neutral which makes it universally flattering, allowing you to change up your highlights as the seasons change. Once you do this look, the style is going to be super easy to recreate at home.
#15: Copper-Kissed Chocolate That Glows
Seeing copper use on chocolate bases is risky but rewarding since the payoff can be amazing. The softness on the copper highlights is ideal since they can be interpreted as warmer rather than red. Direct sunlight will make the hair look like it is glowing from within and the highlights will shine. I think this color combination looks best on people with green or hazel eyes since the copper will be more complementary than any cool-toned highlights could offer. It may not be the safest option but it is probably the most gorgeous.
#16: Dimensional Waves with Understated Warmth Through the Ends
I like this placement of highlights because it adds dimension and eliminates the concern of obvious root growth. Highlights are beautiful and, as your hair grows darker, they will continue to blend in with the darker base. The combination of dark roots and light ends is more unique and laid-back. The waves add to it too! Just a tip: Make sure to use heat protectant before waving, as the highlighted pieces will be more prone to heat damage because they’re lifted and that means they may last longer than the rest of your hair.
#17: Glossy Caramel Dimension on a Warm Chocolate Base
These waves are beautiful. The shine of the hair is enhanced with the light reflection on the caramel strands, While the glowing caramel/chocolate combo is difficult to pull off, it works wonderfully here. This hair is mid-length, making it the most ideal for coloring like this. It’s long enough to display the column of color but short enough to avoid straggly, unhealthy ends. The movement is modern and fresh with no over curling.
#18: Clean, Straight Lob with Quiet Highlight Work
I appreciate hair that is straight and sleek with highlights that look almost undetectable. It takes a lot of talent to pull off highlights like this because the contrasts and color variations are so subtle and easy on the eyes. I like when hair is straight because it means the hair isn’t hiding anything and it is nice to appreciate that. The colorist in the example did an outstanding job. The highlights look strategically placed; they are not too far from the base color, so that means there is just enough dimension to the highlights so that the hair looks polished, but not overly done. If you have naturally straight hair, or just don’t want to style your hair a lot, this is a perfect example to bring in because it blends seamlessly with your hair.
#19: Face-Framing Chocolate Layers with a Warm Glow
The lighter strands closely around the face look great. The use of color here is so different than the usual net highlights. A couple of face-framing highlights really change how the overall complexion is looked at as they bring the attention upwards, and add warmth to the cheeks and eyes which net highlights do not do. I like that the soft wave gives it a bit more interest without needing too much maintenance, and the shoulder-legth cut being practical is good too. This sort of subtle coloring is the type of work that gets the ‘I love what you’ve done’ from people who cannot quite figure out what has changed.
#20: Textured Layers with Highlights That Build Depth
I like the subtleness of this one. The chocolate base does the heavy lifting and and the highlights are just supporting it. The layers actually have something to show off, so that’s good. Leaving the ends with some texture is nice and understated, plus it’s a good balance for everyday wear. I also appreciate that the color will fade nicely; this is something I always think about. A good color is one that looks beautiful when it is fresh, and still beautiful when it is six weeks grown out. It should look soft and lived-in.
#21: Cascading Chocolate Waves with Barely-There Brightness
An extra factor to consider is that subtlety is something you appreciate after looking a second time, and that is a critique, that is the point. For the sake of wanting their hair to appear naturally multi-dimensional. Stunning hair that reflects light in a multi-dimensional manner. The length and long, free-flowing waves will age well and is appropriate for this look now and in ten years. Not all things need a big change. The most best coloring work often goes seen.
#22: Amber-Toned Chocolate with Textured, Modern Waves
These highlights have an amber tone that gives a warm, autumnal effect. Instead of the ordinary caramel or honey highlights, these are more interesting because they look like the colorist tried to mix every tone intentionally, instead of just pulling a shade off the chart. Hair this fine really needs that wave texture so that the do provides more dimension to the color than if the hair were worn straight. In my opinion, the warm golden hour lighting will get you the most compliments, because I think this shade combination will be especially gorgeous then.
#23: Shaggy Layers with Highlighted Dimension and Lived-In Texture
I love the shag haircut with highlights. The texture of a shag cut is unique and makes the color work pop. With the way the highlights are done, they capture light at different angles with every layer and section. It creates a cool effect that is tough to get with a blunt cut at one length. The chocolate base color keeps it grounded, while the highlights add luminosity and movement. Add some styling cream and a little scrunch and you're good to go. This color and cut combination really styles itself!
#24: Layered Caramel Highlights with Rich Chocolate Dimension
Different lighting situations can change how you see a color, and with this, that’s a good thing. The chocolate base is most prominent and the caramel from indoors adds a bit of warmth. In the outdoor light, those pieces that are lit provide a much more open appearance. That shows very good dimensional color. The long layers create a lot of movement and let the tones spread out, which is just what they should be doing. This kind of layering, especially on medium to thick hair, avoids that bottom heavy triangular look which is way too typical of dense hair left without enough internal shaping.
#25: Long Textured Waves with a Luminous Color Melt
This color melt is absolutely beautiful! The darker root color merging with the lighter shades of the mid-lengths and ends is amazing. It looks like one seamless shift in color, and not a highlight pattern. The result of this type of coloring comes from a colorist that is highly trained in open air painting. It takes years of practice to know when to stop, as it is very easy to over highlight freehand. The long layers and waves styled in a nice textured way are wonderful with this color. They let the color gradation show beautifully. There is nothing you can change for this.
#26: Playful Caramel Pieces Through a Soft Chocolate Medium-Length
The caramel chunks in this style are slightly lighter than some of the other looks we’ve reviewed, which gives this look a more fun and youthful energy. The base is not too dark so the contrast is natural and it is not too stark. The medium length, textured waves are low maintenance and stop the look from feeling too precious or overdone. This is the color I would recommend for a solid brunette who wants to dip a toe into highlights and steer clear of anything too high-maintenance. It’s a great starting point and from here you can always go lighter or warmer depending on what you want.
Enter your email and get this picture and description straight to your inbox, and you'll also get new hair ideas ❤️
🔒 We don't spam or sell emails. See our Privacy Policy.