What Highlighting Technique Is Best For You?

Whether you color your own hair or just don’t know what to ask for at the hair salon, it can be a challenge wondering what highlighting technique is the best choice. In this blog post I’m going to give a summary of 4 different highlighting techniques, give the pros and cons for each, as well as explain what situations the technique is best for.

In all honesty, there is not one highlighting technique that is superior to all of the others. They all have their place in the hair coloring world. And often times I will combine a few of these techniques together.

Below, you can see my Youtube video where I compare each of these techniques with the results from my mannequin demonstration.

What are the 4 main highlighting techniques?

While there are MANY different techniques to choose from when it comes to highlighting hair, there are 4 main ones that we see across the board in modern salons today. Those 4 highlighting techniques are: Teasy Lights, Air Touch Highlights, Balayage, and Traditional Highlights.

Teasy Lights

Teasy lights are becoming more and more popular today. This is mainly because lived-in and low maintenance hair color is extremely desired in this economy. Teasy lights were one of the very first highlighting techniques to offer a grown out, yet blended looking blonding service aside from balayage.

They’re done simply by teasing the hair before it is highlighted. The hair is placed in a foil to process, and then rinsed and toned as normal.

One of the main pros to this technique is that it produces a lived-in look while still maintaining a bright and light blonde. Balayage was the original technique for a lived-in look, but it doesn’t produce as light of a blonde because of how it processes.

Since foils are used with teasy lights, they will process further levels allowing you to get a brighter, and/or cooler toned blonde if desired. They’re also a great option if you have a lot of ground to cover, meaning you’re taking a solid brunette to having all of the ends of the hair blonde.

The main con to teasy lights is that it can be difficult to untangle the hair, especially if the hair is extremely fine. It’s also difficult to put the teasing in if the hair is oily or extremely healthy. The hair just doesn’t tease as well if it’s slick and smooth.

Click here to read my blog post on teasy lights, and you can watch my video demonstration here:

Air Touch Highlights

Air touch highlights are the newest technique on this list. And they are actually my favorite highlighting technique for a seamless blended highlight. The look it produces is extremely natural, while still maintaining some brightness towards the root of the hair. This technique is done by using a blow dryer to blow out the shorter hairs so that only the longest hairs are highlighted.

This is very similar to teasy lights because it’s essentially doing the same thing, only instead of the shorter hairs being squished to the top of the section, they’re blown out of the way. This allows you to highlight the hair all the way up to the scalp, while keeping an extremely blended look.

Because the shorter hairs are blown away, this is usually the best technique for hair that may be damaged because it will blow the damaged hairs to the side, only highlighting the long and healthy hair.

Like teasy lights, you can get a much lighter and cooler toned blonde than balayage because foil is used. This look is best if you want a natural blend, not a lot of dimension. It’s a more subtle look and not as bold as teasy lights can be.

The main con to this technique is that it can take more time to do. This is because you’re having to pick up the blow dryer and set it back down between every section. This adds significant time to the totality of the service. But in my opinion, it’s still worth it for the extremely natural and blended look that it produces.

To read more on air touch highlights, see my post here. And you can watch my video demonstration for how this technique is done below.

Balayage

Now as I mentioned earlier, balayage has been around a bit longer than the last two highlighting techniques. It’s actually been around since the 70’s, but it only became more known in the last 20 years. The term balayage is a french word that means “to sweep”.

The technique is named this because you are painting onto the hair using sweeping movements with the brush. The lightener that’s used is a clay lightener that hardens on the hair and forms a shell. Because of this, foils are not used with a true balayage.

And since foils are not used, the hair does not produce as much lift as the other highlighting techniques. Balayage produces an extremely natural, sun kissed look. The tone you get is often a warmer tone that resembles what your hair would look like after spending the summer in the sun.

This is the most low-maintenance highlighting technique on the list because you don’t need to have the hair toned as often as cooler toned shades, and it grows out extremely well reducing the need for frequent salon visits. This technique is great for brunettes wanting some dimension or brightness, or blondes wanting a warmer and natural looking blonde.

The main con to balayage is that it doesn’t produce a cool toned result. You can go over the hair a second time in a second session to achieve a brighter blonde, but the hair above it that’s only been hit once will still have warmth to it. I also find that it’s a bit messier to apply and not quite as controlled as a foil application.

You can read more about balayage on my post here, or watch my video below where I demonstrate this technique.

Traditional Highlights

Traditional highlights are the OG highlighting technique. This technique has been around forever and was the go-to when someone came in requesting “highlights”. It is done by either weaving or slicing a section of hair and placing it into a foil. The hair that’s weaved out can either be low-lighted (with a darker color) or not colored at all.

If this is done on a full brunette, the entire ends of the hair are not usually blonde unless you also highlight the sections weaved out (like I did in my video below). Because of the foil used, this technique does produce a bright and light blonde. The foils are also usually placed right up to the scalp, so it gives a bright blonde all the way to the top of the head.

Because of this, this technique is best for blondes or anyone wanting to maintain brightness all the way up to the root of the head. If you are wanting a root-y or lived-in color, this shouldn’t be your go-to techniqe.

The cons of this technique are that it does not blend in very seamlessly to the natural hair color. It can give a stripe-y look unless a root smudge is applied (a darker toner at the root to marry the blonde in) which requires an entire second process. It also grows out poorly because of the harsh line of demarcation again unless a root smudge is applied.

You can read more on traditional highlights here, or watch my video demonstration below.

Highlighting Technique Conclusion

The world of hair color has evolved drastically over the last 20 years and we have the ability for so much creativity and customization when it comes to creating the hair color of your dreams. And while there are many different highlighting techniques to choose from, there are 4 main methods used in hair salons today.

Teasy Lights:

• Produces bright blonde tones
• Best when you need to cover a lot of ground
• Produces a seamless blend into the natural color
• Can be dimensional and bold if desired
• Produces a root-y look
• Not ideal for hair that tangles easily
• Must be done on clean hair that isn’t too slick

Air Touch Highlights:

• Produces bright blonde tones
• Blonde can be applied right up to the scalp
• Produces a seamless blend into the natural color
• Best for hair that may be slightly damaged
• Extremely subtle and natural looking
• Not super dimensional or bold

Balayage:

• Produces a sun-kissed, warmer blonde tone
• Extremely low maitnenance
• Very subtle and natural looking
• Can be dimensional if desired
• Produces a root-y look, not up to the scalp
• Best for brunettes

Traditional Highlights:

• Produces bright blonde tones
• Is usually applied right up to the scalp
• Best for blondes that don’t want a root-y look
• Is higher maintenance
• Often requires a root smudge
• Not as blended of a result
• Can be dimensional

If you have any questions or comments, drop them for me below! And make sure you subscribe if you want to make everyday a good hair day!