Types of highlighting brown hair

A great way to give your look depth, dimension, and brightness is to highlight your brown hair. There are many different highlighting techniques to fit your style and preferences, whether you’re going for bold contrast or subtle sun-kissed streaks. Your natural hair color can be enhanced with the right highlights, giving it a more vibrant, alive appearance.

Selecting the ideal kind of highlights for your brown hair can be overwhelming because there are so many options. From classic foil highlights to the gaining popularity of balayage, every method produces a different look. Gaining the desired look can be made easier by understanding how these techniques differ from one another.

You’ll learn about the most common highlights for brown hair with this guide. You’ll learn which looks go well with your shade and how to make the highlights accentuate your best features.

Type of Highlighting	Description
Balayage	A freehand technique that gives a natural sun-kissed look with soft transitions.
Ombre	Gradual transition from dark roots to lighter ends, creating a smooth, blended look.
Babylights	Subtle, fine highlights that mimic natural hair lightening from the sun.
Foil Highlights	Precise sections of hair are lightened, creating more contrast and dimension.
Chunky Highlights	Bold, thick highlights that add noticeable contrast to the base color.

Brown hair can be highlighted in a variety of ways to accentuate its inherent beauty, from subtle, sun-kissed tones to striking, contrasting streaks. Popular hairstyles that cater to a variety of tastes and styles, such as balayage, ombre, and babylights, can add depth and dimension while still producing a vibrant, new look. Regardless of your preference for subtle or dramatic highlights, there is a highlighting technique that works well for brown hair and can accentuate your best features while bringing in a hint of brightness.

Advantages and disadvantages of the procedure

Brown hair highlights have several indisputable benefits.

• It hides gray hair well;
• It gives splendor and volume;
• It makes the face look younger and fresher;
• It does not require applying dye to the roots, so it is considered gentle;
• It can be done once every few months;
• It adds that notorious highlight to the image that everyone keeps talking about.

Regarding the drawbacks, they exist as well:

• The procedure for highlighting dark strands takes from 3-5 hours;
• As a rule, it cannot do without lightening with the help of aggressive chemicals;
• It cannot be done on recently dyed or curled hair;
• It is not always possible to do it at home, while in a salon such a service is quite expensive.

What kind of highlighting is suitable for chestnut hair color?

Since chestnut hair color is regarded as universal, there are numerous options for highlighting it. Using these images as a model, let’s examine the most common approaches.

The entire length of the hair is dyed uniformly in the traditional method. Depending on the desired look and unique qualities of the hair, the strands’ width can range from 2 to 5 mm. One thing, though, will make your hair appear more natural: the lighter the highlighting. For this kind of coloring, nut, light brown, honey, coffee, beige, sand, and dark brown hues work well.

Vital! For brown hair, each individual strand needs to be strongly highlighted. To give your hair a truly fashionable color and to lessen the sharp contrast that comes from bleaching, use a toner or gentle dye.

This gentle procedure will be a safer option than traditional highlighting for thin, sensitive hair. Only the top layer of hair is bleached when using the zonal technique. The remaining hair is either dyed using products free of ammonia or left entirely unaltered.

Flamboyage, which means "to blaze" or "to flame" in French, is a unique method created by Angelo Seminara, the winner of the British Hairdresser of the Year award. The well-known stylist uses davines, a unique paper that enables you to create harmonious and natural color transitions, to accomplish this highlighting.

Blonding dark hair is a fairly common procedure that should only be done by a qualified colorist in a professional salon. Should you be fortunate enough to locate one of these masters, you can anticipate an amazing outcome – dark hair with hints of blond looks opulent and expensive. Generally speaking, coloring is done with both cold (light nutty, pearl, mother-of-pearl, beige) and warm (golden, wheat, creamy, caramel) notes.

Vital! You should expect your hair to turn an unpleasant yellow if you decide to try this coloring technique again at home. To get rid of it, use a tint composition with beige or golden tones.

Of all the techniques currently in use, this one may be the softest. Chestnut curls are lightened by shatush in such an effortless and natural way that it looks as though the sun styled your hair! You’ll need two shades from the same color palette to achieve this effect. The majority of contemporary fashionistas aim for a barely perceptible lightening, which is achievable with this combination. Without a doubt, the biggest benefit of shatush is that it eliminates the need for monthly hair appointments. No more than one correction may be made every six months. I promise that your hair will look put together and well-groomed the entire time!

Vital! Shatush is most definitely not appropriate for women with more than 30% gray in their hair.

The process of Venetian highlighting entails coloring individual hair strands in multiple complementary hues. Without the use of any additional tools, the strands are chosen at random and lightened outside. This solution gives the hairstyle a voluptuous and stunning appearance.

Girls who are particularly bold like to use bright, sometimes even crazy colors to tone down their rich chestnut complexion. Crazy colors, as these highlighting techniques are called, encompass a sizable color spectrum. Red, blue, pink, purple, green, orange, and other vibrant hues are safe to use. Crazy coloring’s fragility is its primary benefit. The truth is that a specific paint that is removed after 6 to 9 washes is typically used for this procedure. As a result, you have the ideal method for broadening your image while on a trip or vacation.

Vital! Crazy-colored highlighting looks fantastic on bangs. Don’t forget to embellish it with a few strong lines.

Highlighting and coloring are two techniques that are combined to create bronzing. The most exquisite natural shimmer of coffee, honey, nutty, light brown, and brown hues is the outcome of this union. The notes of blond, shining in the sun, are subdued by these dark hues. If preferred, you can paint the lower portion of your hair in a brown, chocolate, or coffee tone and only bronze the top portion. This adds a unique touch to the hairdo.

Balayage is a great option for women with dark hair. On both short and long strands, it looks fantastic. Additionally, owners of graduated haircuts will like this kind of highlighting. Using two colors is the traditional way to achieve balayage on chestnut hair. The ends take on a lighter shade while the top stays extremely dark and rich. With careful brush shading, the transition is rendered nearly invisible. In actuality, the primary benefit of balayage is that it appears as though the strands have just burned out in the sun.

Examine a bolder color scheme with ends tinted in bright red, copper, red, and golden-honey if you want to stand out from the crowd. You can obtain the alleged "tongues of flame" in this way. You can use other vibrant colors if you’d like. The most important thing is that they blend in and complement one another.

Shimmer or multi-tone

This kind of highlighting is frequently used on chestnut-colored hair because of the fashionable way the highlights play. It’s even referred to as one of the most luxurious choices! Generally, the multi-tonal technique uses caramel, honey, copper, nutmeg, chocolate, and coffee. It’s interesting to note that highlights can be multicolored in addition to monochromatic. It should be remembered that the overflow is softer and more exquisite the more "native" the shades used.

The "sun bunnies" or babylights technique saw a resurgence in 2024. The partial lightening of individual curl ends is the essence of this coloring. Light brown hair looks the best with this burnt-out hair effect.

Another well-liked method, available in a number of stylish iterations:

• Two-tone – involves stretching the color from dark roots to light or colored ends. The border can be clear or very blurred. The ratio of the length of the light and dark parts also depends only on your preferences. The most extravagant individuals prefer blue, purple, pink and red colors;
• Multi-tonal – it is characterized by a multi-stage transition from one color to another using intermediate shades. The main requirement is the correct selection of the color palette and the absence of a sharp border. Only a real professional can do such an ombre;
• Creative multi-tonal is a great option for the bold and young. To make sure that the eyes of others are riveted to your hairstyle, do an ombre in the form of a rainbow, in which the chestnut roots smoothly turn into multi-colored tips. Here you can use any combination, even the most unimaginable;
• Ombre + bronde or grown-out bronzing is a real hit of the season. With this method of highlighting, the roots remain dark, and the tips are lightened using the bronzing technique. The width of the dark zone can be any;
• Ombre in a frame – this type of ombre is ideal for owners of cascading and layered haircuts. It involves lightening the ends, which smoothly turns into a frame of the entire contour. This solution gives the layered haircut depth, volume and charm.

Majimesh or French

For girls with cinnamon-honey undertones in their hair color, French highlighting is designed. This technique won this country’s affection a few seasons ago, and rightfully so. Majimesh makes the hair shimmer and shine by adding volume and light highlights. Most importantly, the structure of the strands is not harmed in any way because French highlighting is carried out using dyes free of ammonia. It’s true that these paints can only alter hair color by two shades.

This is really interesting! See the French highlights and coloring options.

American-style or American-colored

Feel free to select this option if you want to draw attention to the dark chestnut color with incredibly beautiful strands. Use three to five shades and apply them to the hair in a specific pattern to achieve the desired look. The master employs multicolored foil so that he does not become confused in such a variety.

Guidance! Experts agree that wearing American colors is a complete no-no for those with light brown hair. In this instance, it’s likely that the result won’t be very beautiful or elegant.

For brown hair, California highlighting is likewise regarded as delicate. It creates a vast space for creativity! This technique’s key component is a very gentle transition from the deeply darkened roots (about 3 cm) to the lengthened, lighter length.

The paint application strands are chosen at random and come in a broad range of widths. Some masters work on emphasizing different geometric shapes or blending curly hair with straight hair. By doing this, a natural outcome is guaranteed because the line separating the dyed hair from the newly grown roots will eventually be nearly invisible. You can also give your hair a quick brushing with a fine comb. Golden, coffee, red, and cinnamon tones are perfect for Californian highlights.

Vital! The entire length will be uniformly colored because this process does not involve the use of foil or thermal paper.

This kind of highlighting uses vibrant hues that smoothly blend into the foundation color. This coloring creates a stunning contrast for people with chestnut hair. This method suits both long and short hairstyles. It is usually done in one color, which produces a distinct border for the transition. Two or three shades are used occasionally.

Be extremely cautious if you choose to highlight your dyed chestnut hair. Wait at least two weeks to avoid spoiling the strands that have already been negatively impacted by the paint’s aggressive ingredients. This recovery period should ideally last for a full month, as this will allow the hair to fully heal and allow you to highlight it without running any health risks.

Advice on highlighting hair that has already been dyed:

Highlighting brown hair is a fun way to give your appearance more depth and individuality. There is highlighting technique to fit your style, whether you like bold, eye-catching contrasts or soft, natural tones. You can update your hair’s color without having to get a whole new look with balayage or foiling, two techniques that each have their own special effects.

Highlighting’s versatility is what makes it so great. Warm caramel or honey tones can be used to accentuate your hair, or for a more modern look, try ash blonde or another cooler shade. To ensure that your highlights look perfect, your hairstylist can assist you in selecting the appropriate colors that go well with your skin tone and natural hair color.

Whichever highlighting technique you decide on, it’s critical to preserve the health of your hair by using color-safe products and giving it regular treatments. If you take good care of your highlights, they will remain vivid and new, giving your brown hair a fashionable and lively appearance.

Video on the topic

Fashionable highlighting – 2025. Time to refresh your bob: 18 stylish highlighting options for short hair

Venetian highlighting on dark hair in the Naturel Studio beauty salon

Highlighting on brown hair