When it comes to trendy color ideas, black hair with highlights is a beautiful and fashionable look that can take your hairstyle to the next level. Highlights on black hair can add dimension and depth to your style, offering a stylish look that will make a bold statement. The right highlights can be combined with different hair types, lengths and skin tones to create beautiful black hairstyles. Whether you want blonde, brown, caramel or platinum, there are many great highlights for dark hair.
Some women may want blonde streaks for a light touch that looks stunning, while others may prefer brown highlights for an effortlessly flattering finish. With so many different black hair color ideas, it can be a challenge choosing the perfect highlights.
To inspire you, we’ve compiled a list of the best black hair with highlights ideas. From blonde to brown, explore these trending highlights for black hair to find cute styles!
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Highlights on Black Hair
Black Hair with Blonde Highlights
Black hair with blonde highlights adds life to dull hair by creating eye-catching texture and contrast. For a subtle style, choose creamy blonde tones that are one or two shades lighter than your natural base color. This will brighten the hair and instantly lift the features for an irresistible appearance. To keep your look seamless, diffuse your blonde highlights throughout for a face-framing effect.
Black Hair with Caramel Highlights
Black hair with caramel highlights to add dimension and the illusion of fullness to your locks. The contrast of stark black dye with a lighter shade adds warmth, depth and luster to brunette hair. To achieve this stunning look, get graduated highlights from just below the roots to the ends of your hair. Keeping color light at the top and concentrated at the bottom will give your tresses a stunning glow that still looks natural.
Black Hair with Blonde Ombre Highlights
Black hair with blonde ombre highlights can help create the perfect summer style. The warm blonde tones will revitalize dark locks and add depth to your facial features with minimal effort. For a natural look that’s in keeping with the traditional ombre technique, start near the roots and deepen the color at the ends to leave no trace of black. The result should be a fashionable, sun-kissed style that looks multidimensional.
Black Hair with Brown Highlights
Jazzing up your black hair with brown highlights can take boring locks to new heights. Depending on your taste, you can keep things subtle with dark brown highlights or create a more noticeable contrast with light brown tones. When blended seamlessly into the surrounding hair, this look can add fullness and body to the hair while enhancing your rich base. Contemporary and easy to maintain, the style is an excellent choice for women who prefer a natural look.
Platinum Highlights on Black Hair
Platinum highlights on black hair are a popular look and can help you stand out from the crowd with a chic style. Platinum highlights create an impressive contrast that complements light skin with cool undertones, resulting in a beautiful hairstyle that always looks fresh. Before taking the plunge, you’ll want to know that this option can be high maintenance. With regular visits to the salon and an at-home silver toner, you can keep this edgy style looking sharp.
Honey Blonde Highlights on Black Hair
Honey blonde highlights look exceptional on black hair and perfectly balance beach-chic vibes with classic elegance. These highlights add natural lightness and lift to the locks without looking harsh. They can also complement textured hair for an undone, bedhead appearance. To achieve a sexy and blended look, ask your stylist for a subtle graduation from the crown to the ends. This should create an effortless transition across the hair that incorporates light streaks of color where the sun would naturally hit.
Copper Highlights on Black Hair
The rusty tone of copper highlights adds an earthy dimension to black hair. Copper is a versatile choice that offers an intense style or a subtle finish for depth. Using rich burgundy tones at the crown will complement your dark hair, and the graduation into glimmering copper promises to add shine to your style. To brighten your look, add a couple of gold strands to the mix.
Full Highlights on Black Hair
Full highlights on black hair are an option that can give your style a much needed boost. This look involves highlighting every part of the head for a more dramatic look. Although you can stick with one tone from root to tip, mixing darker and lighter brown shades throughout can add a beautiful dimension without clouding your base color. This style is a versatile option for any woman, allowing fine hair to look textured and accentuating natural shine on thick hair.
Burgundy Highlights on Black Hair
Burgundy highlights on black hair can create a youthful glow that’s sexy and refreshing on women with warm-toned or darker skin. If you’d prefer a muted look, ask your stylist for deeper highlights that blend seamlessly with your black hair. For something more vibrant and dimensional, subtle notes of caramel placed throughout your tresses can create a smooth transition from dark to light locks. Whichever option you choose, visit your hairdresser regularly to keep your color looking fresh.
Balayage Highlights on Black Hair
Balayage highlights can offer depth and movement to black hair by adding sweeping, delicate layers of color to your strands. Seamlessly blending with your base shade, this technique softens the hair and brightens your features by creating a seamless transition from dark roots to light ends. Balayage requires little maintenance but it can be time-consuming to achieve. This contemporary style takes almost 4 to 6 hours to complete, but it is well worth the time for such a chic hairstyle.
Natural Highlights on Black Hair
Women wanting to switch up their style without overwhelming their base shade should get natural highlights on black hair. To brighten your tresses for an effortlessly classy look, choose dark, medium or ashy brown tones. For a natural style, start close to the crown and blend through the ends of your hair. Elegant and understated, natural highlights are easy to maintain and will keep your locks looking their best.
Black Hair with Red Highlights
Having black hair with red highlights allows women to showcase their fiery side. Bold red can lend a sexy and daring edge to any cut. You can choose vibrant ginger tones for a casual style or cool cherry reds for a modern and trendy appearance. For maximum impact, start right at the roots and blend them through the remaining strands. You can keep the highlights stark or ask for gentle graduation from roots to ends for something more natural.
Dark Red Highlights on Black Hair
Dark red highlights on black hair can provide a sexy style for women who want a vibrant look. While deep red shades still add dimension to your locks, they’re more wearable and mature than vibrant colors. For best results, get your stylist to focus their attention on the midsection and ends of your hair. Although you can weave subtle red tones through the crown and roots, concentrating dark highlights at the ends gives your tresses a unique and modern twist.
Black Hair with Purple Highlights
Black hair with purple highlights offers a daring and punkish look for a bold fashion statement. Great for lighter skin tones, purple can give off an edgy, fun vibe that will provide a stylish finish. Women who want a bold look can choose full highlights that start on the crown and graduate to a concentrated color at the ends. For something subtle, get partial highlights that are gentle weaved throughout the hair. Don’t be afraid to experiment with deep purples, bright amethysts and pastel lilacs. To keep your locks in excellent condition, make sure to incorporate a purple shampoo into your hair care regimen.
Black Hair with Grey Highlights
Looking effortlessly chic and brightening your features, black hair with grey highlights is a fashion-forward hairstyle for women of all ages. Grey is a versatile shade but looks best when concentrated on the midsection and ends of the hair. Not only will this create a gorgeous contrast, but it makes maintenance much easier when your roots start growing. Grey dyes fade relatively quickly but you can extend your time between salon visits by shampooing less and investing in a purple-toned shampoo to maintain your cool, silvery tone.
Black Hair with Blue Highlights
Black hair with blue highlights never fails to look glamorous with its mermaid-like appearance. Blue is a strong color that can be used on a few strands for a playful look or all over for a bold and trendy style. To keep things subtle, choose darker blues that start at your ear for a look that seamlessly blends with your base color. If you’re not afraid to stand out, choose a vibrant pastel blue for the ultimate rock-chic vibe.
Black Hair with Auburn Highlights
If you’re looking for a hairstyle that looks equally stunning year-round, try out black hair with auburn highlights. Thanks to the shade’s natural warmth, auburn brings brightness to medium and olive skin tones. As this color is relatively minimalist, you can rock anything from a full look to glimmers of auburn weaved throughout for a natural boost. Low-maintenance and subtly sexy, these highlights never fail to look rich and dimensional.
Black Hair with Blonde Streaks
Black hair with blonde streaks can create a contrasting look that will have all eyes on you. Blonde streaks on dark hair will offer a strong color difference between your base and highlights, enhancing your natural texture while framing your face. For a youthful statement, choose cool-toned highlights at the front of the face to draw attention to your facial features. Women looking for something more wearable can mix honey tones through the midsection and ends of their tresses for a dimensional style that’s perfect for summer.
Golden Highlights on Black Hair
Golden highlights on black hair add instant warmth and dimension to dull strands while brightening the features. Blonde tones work best for the ultimate sun-kissed appearance, but caramel and brown shades are understated alternatives that look equally stunning. You can get a traditional style that start near the crown or a natural balayage that adds body and texture. Whether you have long or mid-length hair, golden highlights promise an effortlessly feminine aesthetic.
Subtle Highlights for Black Hair
Subtle highlights can be a classy and timeless option for women with dark hair who want to experiment without committing. To make this style work, get streaks or a blended balayage in tones that are near-identical to your base shade. Sticking with colors that are one or two tones apart is most effective. By weaving color subtly through your strands, you can achieve a deep and dimensional style that can be worn for any occasion.
Chestnut Highlights on Black Hair
Chestnut highlights on your black hair will add a natural dimension to your locks. This shade is warm and earthy, making it the perfect choice for women with medium-toned skin. Chestnut can be a more subtle color compared to bright blonde or vibrant pastel. To create a signature style, ask your stylist to vary the chestnut tones slightly with deeper browns and ashy tones. The result will be a multidimensional look that catches the light in a unique way for an effortlessly glamorous finish.
Short Black Hair with Highlights
Short black hair with highlights can add vibrancy and fullness to your style. If you have a punkish pixie cut, draw attention to your tips with vibrant platinum or purple highlights for an edgy style. Women with slightly longer hair may wish to weave color through the lengths of their hair for a blended style that looks highly dimensional. As you have less length to work with when rocking short hair, you may wish to stick with lightly contrasting tones to avoid overwhelming your base color.
Short Black Hair with Blonde Highlights
You can easily revitalize short black hair with blonde highlights. Black locks can look harsh without any dimension, and blonde shades can effortlessly soften your look by altering how your tresses catch the light. For a natural and wearable style, consider a light blonde balayage. The more delicate painting technique will subtly blend your tones for a romantic appearance that looks fresh and modern. If you want a sharper contrast, start at the root and end at the tips for a trendy and eye-catching look.
Partial Balayage on Dark Hair
A partial balayage on dark hair involves lightening only a small section of the hair using small sweeping motions. Ideal for women who want to experiment with balayage without committing to the full process, it offers a natural finish that looks delicate and refined. You can get a blonde balayage for a classic look or choose brown shades for a low-maintenance look that blends effortlessly into the surrounding hair. This style requires minimal trips to the salon for upkeep and is easy to grow out when you’re ready for a change.
How To Highlight Black Hair
You can highlight black hair at home with box dye from the drugstore, but it’s best to leave complex styles in the hands of professional stylists. Your hairdresser may wish to use bleach to lighten strands before applying dye for a more vibrant color, but you can also use a high lift dye to subtly color your hair without the damage.
If you’re willing to spend a few hours at the salon, a balayage is a less-damaging option that always looks incredible when done correctly. Although it’s more expensive and time-consuming than traditional methods, the gradual dimension is soft, romantic and timeless.
To showcase your unique style, consider a purple, blue or pink balayage. If you’re not sure what color to go for, ease yourself in with shades that are slightly lighter than your black hair. This will give your locks dimension without looking overwhelming.
When it comes to maintenance, you’ll want to invest in quality hair care products. Purple shampoos will keep blonde highlights from turning brassy, while shine serums will bring out the gorgeous undertones of red and caramel colors.
