Just the other day, I was visiting a men’s hair salon and noticed a man getting his hair highlighted. At first, I thought of it as “no-biggie” because I’ve seen this plenty of times. But then, I took notice of the number of foils (aluminum strips used to isolate the hair lightening chemical) he had in his hair and thought… this guy may be going a little overboard!
The practice of highlighting the hair is to create greater dimension in the hairstyle. Basically, it is a way to lighten the hair to accent the hairstyle as well as to bring more attention to the overall face (when the hair is longer). This is a very common practice in the hair-styling world. However, keep in mind that the shorter the hairstyle the more these changes will stand out. The same goes for covering gray.
So here’s the BASIC rule of thumb when highlighting or coloring (hiding gray) your hair. ~> Keep it subtle.
The more subtle the color change, the more natural this change will appear. This means asking your barber or stylist to avoid grouping chunks of your hair, and instead recruit less hair per foil. The same goes for applying color to the entire head at once when covering gray. As an alternative, brushing (or painting) the hair with color in key places or doing a quick comb through will create a more natural look.
This technique keeps friends and colleagues from noticing a drastic change immediately while also allowing for far less upkeep. As your hair grows, you’ll be spared the tell-tale sign of coloring: the dreaded line of demarcation between your natural color and the added color which, by default, allows you to go longer between color touch-ups.
Now you know!
