Some highlighting hints: because uniform stripes are a dead giveaway, the most realistic-looking highlights are slightly irregular in width and spaced at different intervals. And plenty of your base color should show through to create contrast; too many lightened strands will wash out, rather than wake up, your complexion. If these tips sound far too technical, go to a professional, who will use one of the following methods.
Basic highlights: in the most common highlighting method, a small section of hair is gathered with the point of a rat-tail comb and laid on a square piece of foil. Bleach is painted onto the hair until it’s saturated, then the foil is folded over the section.
Baliage: sometimes referred to as “hair painting”, this is a European coloring technique where highlights are painted on your hair without foils. (cotton batting or plastic wrap may be used to separate bleached sections from the rest of your hair). Baliage is the most artistic form of highlighting because the colorist can clearly see where he or she is putting the color. It’s also the least artificial-looking when your hair grows out, because the roots are less obvious (no foil means no strict lines of demarcation).
Chunking: popularized in the nineties, chunking is a technique in which big sections are lightened with one color. “Piecing” is a more evolved form of chunking. Colorists still work with sizable sections, but they use a number of light shades within each for a more three-dimensional, less bleached-out effect.
Lowlighting: darker strands are woven into lighter hair to create depth. This is also a common strategy for downplaying gray hair without subjecting yourself to a fully dye job.