Are Highlights really that bad?

gurlw/curl

I've just been reading all these horrible things that have been happenening to peoples' hair after highlights.. is that really true? does that happen to everyone? I was planning on getting highlights right before my school started (it will be my first year in highschool and i want a good impression). is hair highlighting really that bad? if so.. what should i do? should i forget highlighting all together or are there things i can do to help prevent the mess highlights can cause? please help.....

GrecianCurls

hiya gurl...

I don't think highlights are always THAT bad, it probably depends upon the current condition of you hair and how light you want to go with your highlights. If your hair is in pretty good condition already and you only want to go a few shade lighter than your natural hair colour you will probably be ok. I think the general rule of playing it safe is don't go more than 3 shades lighter than your natural hair colour. I'd go to a professional and just have a consultation at first, talk to them about your concerns and if you have a picture of what you want it'll vastly reduce the chances of them doing something you don't want.

I had some very gentle highlights done, i'm naturally dark brown and i've had kind of warm caramel / auburn, they're very suble but add depth. I can't say i've noticed any damage or extra frizz but my hair was in good condition before i had the colour done and the hairdresser reassured me that she would only need a gentle ammonia (if such a thing exists) to lift my natural colour. There are plenty of curlies on this site who colour / highlight to great effect. If you have a look back there are quite a few threads on this subject.

Let us know if you go for it how you get on!

GrecianCurls

sorry... double post

gurlw/curl

o thank god. i was really scared there. i really wanted highlights but i was scared about my hair. I'm getting my highlights in august so it is a while.. but ill let u know how it goes! THANK U SO MUCH!!

GrecianCurls

my pleasure... i tried to take photographic evidence of my highlights but the light just bounces everywhere so its not a very good one but hopefully you can kind of see them and that they haven't destroyed my curls!

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/renejeffy/detail?.dir=a4aere2&.dnm=cbf1re2.jpg&.src=ph

sweetpeacurli

Hi all! Long time no see!

gurlw/curl, fear not re: the highlighting. I got it in my head that I wanted to put bright red highlights in my dyed-since-I-was-12 (I'm 30 now) dark dark dark brown hair. Yes, it dried my hair out a bit, but after a week or so of TLC it was back to normal. It's now a few months later and I'm still loving the way the bright red strands look woven in with my dark brown curls, and the week of TLC was manageable enough that I'm sorely tempted to get my highlights redone now that the roots are getting hard to ignore.

If you decide to go for it, please post pics!

Here are some of me the day after I had the highlights put in. Curls are a little messy because I didn't style that day. Kids are someone else's, I was just having fun playing with them. :P

CurliLocks

gurlw/ curl - did you ever get those highlights done?

sweetpea! - I was thinking of you the other day and wondered where you'd gone. Good to see you! I love the red highlights! 8) Hmmm... got me wanting to highlight again.

sweetpeacurli

CurliLocks wrote:

gurlw/ curl - did you ever get those highlights done?

sweetpea! - I was thinking of you the other day and wondered where you'd gone. Good to see you! I love the red highlights! 8) Hmmm... got me wanting to highlight again.

Hi! Yeah, I've been off in the land of the social. Working, buying my first condo (yay!), renewing my obsession with gardening and houseplants... you know how it goes.

I'm at the point now where I need to decide whether I'm going to get my highlights redone (probably not), dye over them, or just let everything grow out. My goal is virgin hair, so I have to decide whether to cover up the highlights and then grow, or just let them grow and tell anyone who thinks I look funny to go shove it. :P

I have a box of Robert Craig in Light Chestnut that is just begging me to use it...

RylandCurl

I think it's the bleach that ruins the curl, or at least here is my experience - fair warning, I know nothing about the science of it.

I have medium brown hair thanks to color, my regular hair color is a bit darker brown with alot of gray. The first time I got highlights done on my dyed hair, she did it a caramel color (and said that the color she used would only go to caramel, no lighter, so maybe it was simply hair color just a few tones down from my natural, which I think either did not involve bleach or not much). Anyway, my hair came out terrific, looked great, the curls were as before, and everything was shiny. The next time, she forgot the caramel deal, and used bleach - my highlights came out yellow blonde, not a good color for me, and all of a sudden, my hair was DAMAGED and frizzy and the highlights were all frizzy. So for me, it seems that blonde highlights strip the curl. I'll never do blonde highlights again!

Jaxie

Every time that I have gotten blonde highlights, it has damaged my curl. It pulled it out and left my hair dry and brittle.
I've decided to get my natural color back in tomorrow, and just leave it alone from now on!