Hair highlights

[Violet.]

If I was to just take a comb and use it to apply hair color to my hair, would that end up as highlights and how would it look?

My friend tried that yesterday but she has dark brown hair and used a color just a bit lighter so nothing showed up at all - but it gave me the idea to try it with the color I know would change my hair.

So I was wondering, how would that look, would it work at all? I don't dare to try it before I ask around. :confused:

[ositarosita]

HORRIBLE don't do it .. that's the technique my mother used on me once and I hated it ... my hair colourist hated it to because he had to correct .. DO NOT DO IT

[afu]

I would in no way recommend this!!! With highlights its very important not to let the coloured/bleached party touch the virgin hair, you need to use foils (or a cap on short hair) and preferably have experience. Development time depends on the hair, I wouldn't recommend doing it yourself, you are more likely to cause damage or have a colour disaster

[Nadine <3]

My mom did that to me when I was young. My hair was uneven and fried until it grew out.

[divinedobbie]

I don't recommend it either. I also tried this method and the results were horrible!! the colour did not "streak" evenly at all. In fact it ended up lightening all my hair basically instead of highlighting AND I had a weird patch that got too much bleach on it in the back and was fried.

[Violet.]

Thank you!! Does anyone have a picture of how it looks though?

[teddygirl]

Doing it the way you speak of will end up with too much product at the roots, and will look patchy.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2CeStZjz6Ls/UBGKVthh_cI/AAAAAAAABaM/nioyiWWt63E/s1600/bad+highlights.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y4dhwQ8-zrY/UAVgaSLkMTI/AAAAAAAABO8/r6-AcdLB0Qw/s1600/after+colouring.jpg.jpg

I'd highly reccomend you do not do this.

[Violet.]

Ewww, ew. That looks really bad. Not gonna do it! Thank you.

[ErinLeigh]

The closer the bleach gets to scalp the more it warms up. This causes the bleach to expand in that area giving a patchy blond spot along the hairline.
Also, if you don't protect the non bleached parts it will lie on the natural hair and leave spots also. That being said I have had good results doing Balayage highlights on myself in the past when I was braver..but I always placed foil under the pieces to keep them from getting elsewhere. I was also already a ligh strawberry blond when I did them. I dont think it would work on dark hair. Too much difference in color, plus it would be hard to develop fast enough without the heat of the foils.

EDIT. I am thinking about bleach...are you thinking about doing it with dye?
That would be really hard to get even considering the consistancy of color. I worry you would be very unhappy with the results. I would get it done professionally.
If you are just looking for a tiny bit of lightening on certain areas you could try Sun In. Just a light mist on desired area may bring it up a shade. Just don't use too much and go slowly or hair can fry. I have done the front sections of hair that way in the past.

As you can tell I do terrible things to hair.

[Weewah]

If you wanna do highlights at home, using a highlighting cap is virtually fool proof. But after a couple times you'll have to start getting them touched up at a salon because you can't really touch up the roots of just the highlighted hairs with the cap.

[Auburndreaming]

It's worth getting a highlights cap to do this instead maybe, my sister did it for me once and it turned out quite nice :)

[Violet.]

Thank you all for your replies!

I'm not in a rush to get them done, and I don't think I could do the highlighting cap thing. I just thought that combing them on would be easy so I thought about it, but if that doesn't work, salon it is.

[Rosetta]

It's funny as several highlighting products do come with a comb-like applicator - Feria Contraste, for example (http://i.ebayimg.com/t/KATE-MOSS-PUBLICITE-LOREAL-FERIA-CONTRASTE-/00/s/NDgwWDY0MA==/z/fdMAAOxyNo9SugTw/$_12.JPG). But yes, I did have a not-so-good experience with it, years ago ;)

[ErinLeigh]

If you were to try it at home i would try painting them on.
You get a lot more control.

Take sections of hair and hold pulled straight. Take a tint brush and tip it lightly into the bleach.
Ppaint the highlights onto the section lightly. I make a V almost on each section. Less on top, gradually more toward bottom. Looks better than foils in my opinion but i do both. Depends if stylist is doing (foils) or if i am correcting their work (painting)

[Unofficial_Rose]

You can get those Easi-meche things from beauty supply stores like Sally's or online to isolate the highlights from the rest of the hair. I would say pick out individual strands, don't use a comb or that will spread it all over.

[muddblood21]

I have not seen highlights that were done with a comb applicator that ever turned out very nice. If you were wanting to just brighten up the color with a few highlights, I would go with a cap kit (my personal favorite for many many years has been the Revlon Frost and Glow kit). They are pretty user friendly. If you were thinking you might want a more "all over" lightening effect, you might go take a peek at the honey lightening thread...I am sure it is much gentler than bleach.
Happy highlighting! :heart:

[SkyChild]

I would really recommend DIY baylayage for this. I've just done it and it looks great, much less contrived than foiled highlights and they grow out well too, looking natural.

This girl has the best video I can find for this. The bleach she uses is SmartBeauty too, which I can recommend - it's ethical and works too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaBYdZBQLXE&list=PLajmXUY1bXozJY9u9UXprnVV3iU0vWiVv

[Rosetta]

^ Interesting video - I've actually done highlights that way before, but didn't know it was called "balayage" (though I've heard the term) :)
But I don't think it looks more natural than foils, necessarily; both can look equally natural or unnatural, depending how you do it etc, and you can also do foils in just the face-framing hair, like she did.

And I've used Smart Beauty in the past, too, but I'm not sure how is their bleach more ethical than others..?
edit: got it now (on 2nd watch :p), it's not tested on animals, I think that's what you meant?