Bring some sun-kissed glow to your hair color with blended blonde highlights! No matter if you want an all-over or partial head of blonde highlights, there is sure to be one that suits both your style and skin tone perfectly.
Balayage and foilyage are popular techniques used to blend blonde highlights with your brunette base. Balayage uses hand-painted techniques that create natural gradients while foilyage utilizes foils to highlight darker areas of the hair.
Cool Skin Tone
Platinum, ash blonde and silver blonde shades can help cool skin tones look their best without overshadowing their complexion. A hint of grey pigment helps neutralize yellow tones that could otherwise cause their complexion to look flat or sallow.
Warm blonde balayage is an attractive choice for those with cooler skin tones who don’t wish to go too light with their hue. While this look might be slightly bolder than its classic blonde counterpart, it still creates an airy and natural-looking hue, such as what Solange Knowles wears in her signature voluminous bob.
Cool skin tones look fantastic in rich honey blonde or caramel blonde hues. This harmonious shade makes an excellent alternative to buttery blonde shades and looks particularly striking on brunettes with cool undertones such as Bella Hadid or Zooey Deschanel. A skilled hairstylist should carefully balance your highlights for this shade to ensure a seamless finish.
Warm Skin Tone
If you have warm skin tone and dark hair, the ideal blonde highlight shade to complement both is one which complements its natural shade. Instead of opting for platinum highlights, consider sandy or honey hues to give a sun-kissed effect and brighten up brunette strands while enhancing the beauty of your complexion.
Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause wears a stunning toasted coconut blonde look with honey highlights that frame her face and emphasize the natural texture of her wavy locks. To maintain the warmth in this golden blonde shade while adding depth, use a blue-toned leave-in spray like Matrix Brass Off All-In-One Toning Leave-In Spray as part of her look.
Rose gold highlights with light golden bases are another stunning way to achieve a blended blonde look, adding an air of glamour to any ensemble and especially flattering on those with medium-warm skin tones. Finally, pearl blonde is another stunning option for women with warm skin tones; its rich hue – which blends golden and caramel hues together and features subtle butterscotch and tan notes – provides dimension and shine.
Neutral Skin Tone
No matter your hair color, blended blonde highlights can still help transform your look. The key is finding a shade that complements your complexion; for instance icy shades like platinum are best suited for cool undertones while beige blonde or golden hues may look too warm on you.
If you’re having difficulty determining your skin tone, try looking at the veins on the inside of your wrist – blue or green indicate cool undertones while yellow or orange represent warmer ones. You could also ask a colorist to test your tone by bleaching small sections of hair for you.
To create an effective blend that suits you perfectly, request that your colorist apply beige or beige-y blonde hues with neutral balayage on the roots and lightened mid-lengths and ends for a balanced, natural finish. This combination of warm to cool tones will produce an ideal finish.
Natural Hair Color
If your client has naturally dark hair, adding blonde highlights can help them achieve the soft and seamless look they’re going for. Blending with darker tones may create more natural looking blonde hues while making regular salon appointments less likely necessary.
Balayage and foilyage are excellent coloring techniques to use when seeking to achieve an organically blended blonde look with gray roots. Balayage allows lightened sections to be hand-painted onto natural roots and grays; in contrast, foilyage uses teased and wrapped sections of hair which are then foiled together for added brightness and dimension.
Illuminate Color used a blend of Blondor Freelights +9% and Multi-Tone +6% to craft this balayage style, dark-rooted dishwater blonde bob. This combination allows for longer periods between touch ups as it doesn’t lighten the entire head at once.
