Reverse Highlights, What Are They, Who Are They For & Why Opt For This Technique?

Reverse Highlights – A New Technique To Enhance Your Locks

Whether they’re created using a brush, a comb or the use of foils, highlights are a must-have technique for changing your look. Perfect for illuminating a hairstyle at the end of winter, highlights give you an extremely natural result with their very fine streaks.

The next big thing… reverse highlights. For the uninitiated, reverse highlights are often considered the cooler, lower-maintenance sister to the recently resuscitated chunky highlights, weaving in subtler hints of color and lightening your hair by focusing on the bottom sections for a more natural-looking effect. It’s a mix between a superchunky lowlights and extremely thick highlights. For extreme contrast, this look has even been featuring the darkened bottom half of the hair from the ears down, not the tips.

Whilst the process is different, the principle remains the same. It consists of a personalized treatment according to your hair color, your haircut and of course your desired look. If you have brown hair, the main aim is to add light and warmth with hazelnut, copper or chocolate tones, depending on your natural color. Orange tones are recommended for illuminating red hair. To enhance light brown hair, caramel highlights are perfect: they allow you to compensate for a lack of radiant shine.

If you’re looking for a bolder look, opt for fewer strategic, face-framing streaks. Or, if you want a subtler effect that brings this style from the ’90s to today, dial up your standard balayage. The best way to achieve this is by doing the highlights more delicate at the roots, gradually getting thicker and heavier toward the ends. It really comes down to strategic placement. There should be more depth at the root area so that there is absolutely no zebra effect, with the highlights framing the face, and spaced out throughout the hair to give lots of contrast.

Who Is This Highlighting Technique For?

Reverse highlights are perfect for anyone who wishes to boost their hair and change their look, without going for a full coverage coloring technique. These highlights are suited to long hairstyles as well as shorter haircuts, such as the bob or boyish hairstyles.

As for maintaining these highlights, they are less restrictive than a full coverage coloring technique. You just need to visit your hair salon every three months. Also, adopting a regime will allow you to preserve your hair’s radiant shine. At home, go for a routine specifically for colored hair to keep your hair looking luminous.

Why Opt For Reverse Highlights?

Chunky highlights made a huge comeback last year, with celebrities like Bella Hadid, Dua Lipa, Jennifer Lopez and Kylie Jenner all rocking this nostalgic trend – which by the way isn’t going anywhere in 2021. The reverse highlight has been making a grand appearance and along with shag haircuts is expect to be one of the hair trends of 2021. By playing with light and shade, this new technique will enhance your hair, whether it is tied-up or down. In fact, the lightest strands (at the bottom) are shown off when your hair is tied up into a chignon or half-ponytail. If you are a fan of cornrows or fishtail plaits, reverse highlights will create the most beautiful effects.