Highlights are a hairstyle that will always be trendy, especially because of their versatility. Over the years, there have been a variety of new ways to create highlights that are bold, natural-looking and multi-dimensional. There is a highlight style that works for everyone, which is what continues to drive the popularity of this technique and look year after year.
But if you or your clients have long and thick hair, they could spend hours and hundreds of dollars in the salon to get their dream highlights. However, there is a solution for both clients and hairstylists that allows everyone to embrace highlights, but with half of the time commitment and half the cost.
Half head highlights — also known as partial highlights — have long been a staple in the industry, but they are gaining new popularity as hair trends and demands evolve.
So, how exactly do these differ from a full head of highlights? We’ll tell you all about it in this blog post.
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Highlights are achieved using a professional hair lightener throughout sections of the hair to brighten the client’s overall hair color and look. There are many different kinds of highlight styles and techniques — for example, balayage, teasy lights, traditional highlights and babylights. But how they are translated and look in the hair depends on how and where they are placed. Let’s talk about the difference between full highlights and half head highlights.
Full Highlights — Full highlights wrap around a client’s entire head. Typically, balayage or dimensional looks — which could also require the use of demi permanent hair color — add levels to the all-over hair color. These services usually come at a higher cost and can take more time to complete.
Partial Highlights— However, with partial highlights, stylists may only use highlights to frame the face and then sparingly paint the remainder of the highlights throughout the under layers of the hair. This still gives the illusion of having highlights throughout every layer of the hair without actually having them. Since the stylist isn’t performing an entire head of highlights, this style usually takes less time and costs less — depending on the client’s goals and needs.
How to Achieve Half Head Highlights
As a stylist, you may be interested in learning more about how to achieve the partial highlight look for yourself or your clients. Here is a step-by-step process for you to follow!
Offer a Consultation
Having a consultation with your clients can help you better learn their expectations, as well as set expectations for what’s achievable for their price point and the condition of their hair. If you’re going to do partial highlights, make sure you talk about placement with the client to get a better understanding of how they style and wear their hair.
Choose a Highlighting Technique That Reflects Your Client’s Vision
Did your client come in with hair inspiration pictures or a mood board? Since there are many different techniques when it comes to highlighting, you have plenty of options to create the perfect half head of highlights. These are some of our tried and true highlighting techniques:
Balayage— If your client wants natural-looking highlights that are painted in, go with a balayage technique.
Babylights— If your client wants bright highlights in a subtle way, babylights are our go-to. You can achieve the brightest blonde with this technique and you can alter between thin pieces and chunkier lights to build dimension.
Sombre— For clients who want a lived-in look, sombre highlights are where it’s at. These highlights start at the middle of the hair and get brighter toward the ends.
Since you conducted a thorough consultation, you most likely know how your client wears and styles their hair every day. This information should be top of mind as you determine where to place your foils. And since these will only be partial lights, you will want to place foils in spots where the highlights can make a big impact.
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Tone It to Perfection
After your client is done processing, you will need to tone the new highlights to your client’s desired shade. Whether they wanted more of an ashy blonde or a natural caramel tone, all that magic happens in the shampoo bowl.
Educate Clients on Upkeep
With partial highlights, your clients are going to want to keep their blonde looking vibrant and fresh, which is why it’s important to send them home with care products they will need like deep conditioning masks and purple shampoo.
Whether it be full highlights or half head highlights, we love them all! But seriously, don’t underestimate the power and impact of partial highlights.
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