Having your dark hair highlighted with color can enhance your looks and make you feel sexier, more attractive, and even younger! Colored highlights can even cover up some gray hair, and draw attention away from it.
Highlighting includes having your hair frosted, tipped, or accented in one or more areas. Dark hair has the advantage over blonde or other light hair because even the most subtle of highlights show up extremely well. Whether you have your whole head frosted, or you just have a few highlights put in, the results can be stunning.
There is a wide variety of hair colors to choose from to professionally highlight your hair with. Therefore, before you have your dark hair highlighted, you need to decide on the right color. The color will depend on the kind of look you want to achieve. Do you want to add just a hint of color that will create a gentle look? Or, do you want to drastically change your looks? You'll also need to consider the color of your complexion. If you have a light complexion, then radical colors like bright, firey reds, for example, can make your skin look washed out.
For a subtle look, the professionals recommend that a person should only choose a color that is no more than three shades lighter than your natural hair. This means, that, if your hair is a dark brown, that you can choose a medium brown or light brown, or any color in between.
A rule of thumb is that when dark hair is lightened, it turns a shade of reddish brown. Therefore, a subtle highlight would be to choose a shade of reddish brown instead of a bright, firey red. Following along the same color line, gold tones and coppers also make good choices of highlights for people who have dark hair. All of these colors can actually complement dark hair.
On the other hand, to achieve a wilder and more exciting look, you can choose from most any color; the choice is yours!
You'll also have to decide not only the color, but also the style of the highlighting you want. You can have thin highlights just around your face, for example. This would frame your face and help to show off your eyes and complexion. Or, you can frame your face with highlights plus add subtle highlights to the rest of you hair.
If you want the lines of your hair cut to be highlighted, you can have the color of your choice combed through.
Here are some more ideas for your hair: people who have long, straight hair can leave the top of their head their original dark color. Then, the long sides can be highlighted a shade or two lighter. Or, the highlights can be a gold tone or a copper color. You may even choose a shade of blonde if you want a more contrasting color.
Older people sometimes choose to have a white or gray highlight put in their dark hair. While the color tends to age a person, these colors can give a person a certain distinguished look.
Keep in mind, that, no matter what color(s) you choose to highlight your hair with, you'll need to have it redone in just a few weeks. The length of time will depend on how fast your hair grows. Nothing looks worse than having your original dark color growing in at the ends of your colored hair.
Also, if you're not sure about how well you'll like the color(s) you have chosen, you can choose a temporary color that will wash out with just a few shampoos.
