Destination Blonde

Consult a Professional

Have a friend with highlights to dye for? Get her stylist's number, right away. A professional colourist can be a helpful guide to lightening up, especially if you're new to the process. When you make your initial appointment, request that your stylist set aside time for a colour consultation. And to make sure there's no communication gap, bring along pictures–of the looks you want to avoid, as well as the styles you covet. Having this initial conversation will ensure that when you leave the salon, you'll be positively glowing.

Consider Your Options

Adding highlights does wonders for your hair's dimensionality. For the best results, consider where and what type of highlights are right for your look and lifestyle. Your stylist needs to know where you part your hair, whether you'd like face-framing highlights, and how thick or thin you want your highlights to be.

As a general rule, thick highlights look best on thick or curly hair, or for those going for a very bold, piece-y look. For women with fine hair, pretty, paper-thin highlights look less processed, more sun-kissed, and your colour appears more natural as your hair grows out. Of course, the more highlights you add, the blonder your overall look, and the more upkeep required.

Balayage or Foiling?

Traditionally, highlights are created with foiling, which delivers dimensional, saturated colour to your strands. If you're in the market for a more free-flowing, natural-looking effect, look into balayage, an innovative salon-technique that ensures your strands won't get too light–that's because the colour is literally painted on, not wrapped in foil and transferred by an aggressive heating process.

Understand the Commitment

For many colour newbies, highlights can seem like less of a commitment than overall colour. And it's true that accents of light can be beautifully subtle, but highlights still require a significant amount of attention. Keep these tips and tricks in mind to minimize the maintenance and maximize your glow:

• Amplify megawatt, golden shine with Sheer Blonde^® Highlight Activating Shampoo and Conditioner. The Shampoo gently removes dulling build-up and residues that can make blonde look dark and dull. Used with the Conditioner, you'll achieve maximum blonde impact, without adding or depositing colour.
• To extend your colour between salon visits and keep your locks beautifully bright, target Sheer Blonde^® Go Blonder Controlled Lightening Spray at root re-growth.
• After touching up your hair, hit the ends of your strands with John Frieda^® Clear Shine Luminous Glaze to add shine–this will give your previously-processed tips glossy dimension and shine.
• Avoid over-bleaching. Your stylist should focus on re-growth. If he or she re-foils the same strands again and again, your hair loses dimension at the ends. Lowlights are sometimes used as a corrective procedure for "overblonding," but the colour doesn't hold as well on processed hair.
• To keep your locks bright, not brassy, add Sheer Blonde^® Color Renew Tone Correcting Shampoo and Conditioner into your hair care routine. The formula, containing Color-Correcting Technology, neutralizes brassy and yellow tones and helps make colour-treated hair appear bright and salon fresh.