Highlights, babylights, balayage, or ombre: which coloring technique is right for you?

So you're thinking of coloring your hair, but not sure where to begin? We got you, girl! With so many different types of coloring options, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and confused, particularly if you've never dyed your hair before. While you should consider your base hair color and skin tone when choosing a color, you should factor in your personality and desired aesthetic when deciding on a coloring technique.

Keep reading to get the scoop on the 4 most popular techniques: highlights, babylights, balayage, and ombré, so you can head into your next coloring appointment with a clearer picture of your desired look. 

Highlights  

What are highlights?

While highlights is often used as a catch-all term to describe any type of selective hair lightening (rather than a full head of color), it typically refers to the process of using bleach to add lightness and dimension to parts of the hair. The most common method of highlighting the hair used in salons is foil highlighting, whereby your colorist uses a brush to strategically apply lightener, using foils to separate the highlighted strands from your base color. While you can customize the number of highlights, where they are concentrated, and how light you decide to go, highlights (unlike other forms of coloring) go from root to tip, meaning the strands of hair are lightened from your scalp right to the ends.