What To Know About Root Touch-Ups And Blonde Highlights

In this post I’m going to talk about my opinions on getting root touch-ups and blonde highlights as a combined service. This is a common service I see among women that have started to go gray, and color their hair regularly. I’ll cover what you should know about combining these services and what I actually recommend instead.

What are root touch-ups and blonde highlights as a service?

When I say root touch-ups and blonde highlights, what I’m referring to is getting a root or base color applied all over to cover gray roots, and then highlighting over that base color. Oftentimes you may get a base color root touch-up once or twice in-between the highlighting service.

Essentially, I am referring to highlighting over top of colored hair. So if you fit into this category, then this post is for you.

Why are root touch-ups and blonde highlights a bad combo

If you can’t tell yet, I do not normally recommend this combined service to my clients. Aside from this being an older and outdated color trend, there are 3 main reasons why I don’t suggest this:

1. It’s damaging to your hair

The first reason why root touch-ups and blonde highlights aren’t ideal is because it’s damaging to your hair. Anytime you color hair, it becomes chemically treated and is no longer considered “virgin” hair. This makes things more difficult when it comes to coloring your hair.

Chemically treated hair doesn’t lift (lighten) nearly as easily as virgin hair does. In order to highlight chemically treated hair, you NEED to use bleach. When highlighting virgin hair, you’re able to use regular color or high-lift hair color.

And in addition to needing to use bleach, you’ll also need to use a stronger developer with the bleach for better lifting power. You have to go in and strip or remove the color that was previously applied. This can’t always be done safely in one session, especially if the color that was applied is dark.

2. It can be difficult to get a clean blonde

Since lightening previously colored hair is more challenging than lightening virgin hair, you can’t always get to a clean and even blonde in one session. There will likely be bands on the hair strand from the previously colored hair. Bands are horizontal lines in the hair from each time the hair was colored.

This means that the highlights will be uneven, and it’s not always possible to get to the desired tone in one session. It can take several sessions to lift colored hair light enough for a cool or even neutral tone. Oftentimes, the highlights will wind up much brassier than desired, even after toning.

3. It’s high-maintenance

Especially when it comes to gray coverage, root touch-ups with blonde highlights can be high-maintenance. Root touch-ups in general are some of the most high-maintenance hair colors options. If your natural color is highly contrasted from the color you’re applying, then you’ll start to see roots show after just one week.

Highlights can help to blend in gray roots that grow in, but again this can become damaging to the hair. Below, I’ll give you several other recommendations to try instead. My clients are always ecstatic when I transition them to one of these other color options.

What to do instead

My best recommendation is to do gray blending instead of full coverage permanent hair color. Especially when paired with highlights, it all blends out and the grays aren’t noticeable. Gray blending means we are covering some of your grays, but not all of them. There are two ways to do this.

Demi-permanent hair color

The first way is to do the same root touch-up with blonde highlights service, but instead of using permanent hair color, you use demi-permanent. Demi-permanent is much easier to lift through than permanent color is. It doesn’t lighten the hair at all, it only deposits. It also fades out nicely.

Demi color won’t give you 100% full coverage if you have grays, but it definitely takes the harshness off. It will also be much less harsh of a regrowth line when your roots do grow in.

To learn more about the differences between permanent and demi-permanent, see my post here.

Highlights and lowlights

Another option is to not do a root service at all and instead highlight and lowlight the hair. This will blend the natural color throughout the hair. Essentially with this option, you’re utilizing the natural color as your base color.

The highlights and lowlights will blend grays as they come in to make it appear more intentional. This way you aren’t having to highlight through previously colored hair, nor will you have a harsh line that grows in after just a few weeks.

When are root touch-ups and blonde highlights okay to do?

There are instances where it’s okay to perform these services together. Typically, it’s when we are working with all lighter colors. If you aren’t applying a dark hair color, it’s okay to highlight over it in the future.

I recommend not regularly doing this service if your base color is a level 6 or lower. Level 7 and up doesn’t have as much lightening to do, so it’s not as damaging on the hair nor is it as difficult to achieve a clean blonde. Level 7 is also less contrast from gray than darker colors are, so roots wont be as harsh when they grow in.

To learn more about the level system to determine what level your hair is, see my post here.

Conclusion

Root touch-ups with blonde highlights are a commonly requested service in the salon. This post explains why I don’t recommend them as a combined service, and what I suggest instead.

Root touch-ups are where you are coloring the roots of the hair with permanent hair color. This is often done to cover gray hairs that have grown in. Highlights are commonly done to add dimension and make it a slightly harsher line when the roots grow in.

There are 3 main reasons why I don’t recommend these services together:

1. It’s damaging to the hair
2. It can be difficult to get a clean blonde
3. It’s high-maintenance.

Instead, I recommend doing a gray blending service. This can be done one of two ways:

1. Demi-permanent hair color
2. Highlights and lowlights

The only time root touch-ups with blonde highlights is an acceptable service option is when you’re working with all lighter colors. Typically level 7 and above is fine to do this service because there isn’t as many levels to lighten through to get to a clean blonde. It’s also not as harsh of a grow-out against gray hair as a darker level would be.

If you have any further questions for me on this topic, leave them for me in the comments! As always, Have A Good Hair Day!