There are a ton of different types of highlighting options out there now to give some depth and contrast to anyone’s natural hair color. You’ve got balayage, lowlighting, mini highlights, full highlights, ombré, foiled highlights and cap highlights (which are often used in home highlighting kits due to easier usage by a lay person). 

The options keep evolving as hair trends change. Highlights are usually viewed as a way to spice things up and add interest and complexity to natural hair color. However, as you get older, they can also be used as a really great way to help camouflage greys. This is especially true if you have a naturally dark hair color and greys tend to be more obvious due to the contrast. In case you’re wondering, yes I’m speaking from personal experience. 

I’ll write out the smiley emoji that would normally go here, emojis unfortunately mess something up with the coding on these blog pages! I do use highlighting as a way to help camouflage the increasing population of greys, it’s a great way to not have to use darker toxic hair dyes for the rest of my life (read about less toxic, more natural hair dye options). Plus I kind of like that it brightens everything up from my normal light brown color. 

More Natural Highlighting Alternatives 

Keeping in mind that if you’re going to go for dark hair dye, or highlights, highlights are definitely considered the less toxic option to begin with. Although highlighting chemicals can be harsher on the hair and more damaging, they actually are not considered as potentially toxic as the chemicals used to achieve dark hair color. 

Natural Highlighting Kits 

There are some natural highlighting kits out there that use less harsh chemicals and bleaches to achieve a lighter color. If you’re a do-it-your-selfer, these can be a great way to achieve some fun highlights on your own at home. The results may not be as dramatic but you can also pretty much bank on the fact that you won’t be exposing your hair to as much damage either. Highlights loose their "oomph" so you can even brighten your highlights in between servicing and use a glossing agent - there's a few on the market that don't damage the hair and really work. 

On a side note, if you have highlighted hair, I’m very excited to share with you that we are working on an intensive repair shampoo directed at those with concerns about over-processed or highlighted or damaged hair. Look for its release over the next few months! Related: How to Help Remedy Porous Damaged Hair

Salon Highlighting 

Some salons, especially those with a focus on keeping things more natural, or who tend to carry product lines that have more natural ingredients, may offer services with natural-geared ingredients for those that are concerned about chemical exposure. Just call and ask. Even salons that are not more natural-minded may offer these types of highlighting services. 

Since it’s become more common for customers to worry about chemical exposure, there are more offerings in this arena. You can ask about the features of the more natural processes offered, such as active ingredients, or the presence of specific chemicals you’re concerned about like resorcinol, ammonia, or even peroxides (although it must be noted that to lighten hair, peroxide is most often a requirement). 

Ingredients Most Often Excluded in Naturally-Geared Highlighting Products 

•  Ammonia 

•  Resorcinol 

•  Peroxide or Bleach 

•  Paraben Free 

•  Artificial Fragrance Free 

•  Free of Animal Cruelty in Testing 

•  Free of PPD 

•  No Pthalates 

•  Sulfate Free 

Highlighting Sprays for Sunny Days! 

Remember the product that was so populate in the eighties “Sun In”? I sure do! Well, there are still products out there like that, and Sun In actually still exists itself believe it or not. I’ve seen a few highlighting sun sprays out there that are really naturally-minded too. You will likely get more subtle effects from something like this. 

The good thing is, you can control how much you want the highlights to take by controlling how long you are in the sun or under the hair dryer. By the way, these types of products can be used in the sun and warmth to activate their ingredients, or you can often just replicate this effect under the hair dryer. Related: Keeping Long Hair Healthy

After all, they need to make these spray type highlighting products useful even for those that don’t happen to live in sunny warm climates. This is a great way to get totally natural highlights because it will look more random and naturally occurring than strategically placed sections from a professional application or kit.