Want to brighten up your chestnut hair with some blonde highlights? Here’s how to choose them to flaunt the most natural hairstyle.
Often mistakenly confused with brown hair (and sometimes even with dark blonde hair), Brown hair are a chic and elegant hair color right halfway between brown and blonde. It is also the most common natural hair color in France. So it’s a safe bet that you thought you were brown or brunette when you actually have brown hair! If chestnut hair has the advantage of not hardening the features like a brown color and of being less bland than some blondes, it however, may be a bit dull and lacking in shine. To counter this small defect, nothing like some blonde locks ! But you still have to choose them well so that they offer a natural effect and truly sublimate your chestnut.
Lighter than brown hair, brown hair can safely bet on blonde highlights to achieve a sun effect in their lengths. But as on all bases whatever they are, the blonde highlights on a chestnut base must lighten the hair by one to three tones at most (by discoloration) at the risk of obtaining an unnatural coloring.
Chestnut: a color with many nuances
To determine which color of blonde highlights is right for you, you must already understand what is your precise shade of chestnut because, yes, there is not a brown hair color but two, or even three to be exhaustive if we count the medium brown. But to simplify things a bit, we can say that you can either have hair light brown, either the hair dark blond. The difference is ultimately quite simple. Light chestnut is the chestnut that is closest to dark blonde. It is a shade of very light brown with rather cold reflections, almost like ash blonde. Dark chestnut is, unsurprisingly, the hair color most confused with brown because it looks a lot like it even though it is actually lighter than brown and with warm highlights which illuminate it naturally.
What blonde highlights on dark brown hair?
As we explained to you a moment ago, the locks – even blond ones – should not be more than three shades lighter than your hair color if you want to achieve a natural and elegant result. It is therefore towards locks of a caramel blonde, that is to say a warm blonde slightly darker than honey blonde (which is reminiscent of the greedy color of caramel), which you will have to turn to illuminate your dark brown. This shade of blonde in perfect harmony with your base, allows the blonde locks not to cut too drastically on the rest of your hair. Forget the light blondes Like platinum blondes that are too far removed from your color, they may not only create too much contrast, but also over-sensitize your hair.
What blonde highlights on light brown hair?
If you have a light brown base, your color allows you to opt for a lighter shade of blonde to achieve your locks. With this very light brown base, the ideal is still to bet on the sun effect of golden blonde or honey blonde locks to lighten your hair and bring a shot of light to your lengths, without deviating too much from your original color. The result will be very natural and chic.
But if you absolutely want to sport light blonde or cold blonde highlights, this will also be possible with the help of a hairdresser who will lighten your locks to the extreme while taking care not to weaken them to the point of breakage.
Classic or sweeping highlights: what type of locks to choose?
If the classic wicks are the first that come to mind, know that Balayage melted highlights are also an option. Unlike the classic technique which therefore consists in coloring a few strands from the roots with a color that contrasts radically with the other (like a tie and dye with clearly thinned ends), the sweeping relies on strands that do not start at the roots and are melted into the hair to create a more subtle effect, a little on the same principle of the gradient that creates theombre hair in lengths. Think about it!
If you are still unsure, rely on the advice of your hairdresser. Only a coloring expert who has seen your hair, its condition and your face, is able to give you an informed opinion on the question so that you can make up your mind.
Home or salon coloring?
For this type of hair transformation, we can only recommend that you entrust your brown hair to a hairdresser coloring expert. Only a colourist has the experience and knowledge to create blonde highlights perfectly suited to your chestnut base.
In addition, working with strands is much more complicated to do yourself than complete coloring or tie-dyeing because the blonde coloring is worked, as the name of the technique specifies, strand by strand. We strongly recommend that you do not use bleaching hair products yourself at home. The size as well as the quantity of locks must be determined by seasoned hairdressers who adapt both to your hair density as well as to your face for an optimal and personalized result.
How to maintain your blonde locks on brown hair?
Since you will only get them by going through a discoloration, your blonde locks on brown hair will require a minimum of maintenance at home. Before you fall for their illuminating effect, keep in mind that you will need redouble care, and more precisely nourishing and repairing treatments to keep hair in full health. But you may also need to use hair care specially designed for blond hair (like a blue shampoo for example) to counter certain unsightly reflections that the hair can take after bleaching (shades of red, orange or yellow).
Finally, you will need to plan a visit every two to three months minimum at your hairdresser to maintain your color at the roots.
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Passionate about writing and beauty, Elodie swaps her lipstick for her laptop to find the best in makeup, hairstyle and skincare trends, and professional tips …