SAEDNEWS: How to Choose the Perfect Background Color for Bone, Honey, and Other Hair Highlights
The base color plays a key role in the final result of highlights. It determines whether highlights appear natural, luminous, and professional, or, conversely, mismatched and artificial. Even the most beautiful highlight color can lose its effect if the base is unsuitable, making the hair look flat or lifeless. Choosing the right base color ensures better harmony with skin tone and face shape while enhancing the longevity and vibrancy of the hair. Here, we’ll explore the best base colors for different types of highlights so you can achieve your desired result confidently and safely.
For caramel highlights, warm and natural bases such as caramel brown, medium hazelnut, or coffee tones work best. These shades make the caramel highlights appear bright, natural, and glossy.
This combination is especially suitable for warm skin tones, giving the face a fresh look and enhancing the overall style of the hair. For optimal results, start with a base close to the natural hair color and apply highlights a few shades lighter.
For ash highlights, a brown base is an excellent choice. It allows the ash tones to stand out naturally without creating excessive contrast. This base works well for warm to neutral skin tones, giving the face a vibrant and balanced appearance.
A warm, natural base produces the best results for honey blonde highlights. This base ensures that the highlights appear bright and harmonious, without harsh contrasts. It’s ideal for fair to warm skin tones, giving hair a sunny, natural glow. This combination is a great example of a modern, attractive, yet natural-looking highlight style.
Chocolate brown highlights look very sophisticated and seamless on a natural dark brown base. This combination ensures that the highlights appear natural, without strong contrasts, making it perfect for those seeking a modern, uniform, and stylish look. Using a dark brown base with chocolate highlights is one of the most popular combinations and works well with warm skin tones and natural hair shades, producing a professional finish.
For bold fantasy highlights, such as blue, purple, or red, a deep, dark base like black or very dark brown is essential. This background makes fantasy colors vivid and intense while keeping the hair’s base looking natural and uniform. This approach is ideal for anyone wanting a striking, eye-catching combination of base and highlights.
If your natural hair is black or very dark brown, using the same color as the base with light highlights can often create harsh contrasts and obvious lines. In this case, ash or very light highlights may not work well.
The best option is a base that is one to two shades lighter than the natural color, such as chocolate brown, warm dark brown, or soft smoky brown, to achieve seamless, professional-looking highlights.
Check the health of your hair before coloring.
Bring reference photos of colors you like, but don’t expect an exact match.
For first-time highlights, start with a base close to your natural color and subtle highlights.
Very dark bases are not recommended for hair with a high percentage of gray.
Choosing a base that doesn’t suit your skin tone can create a mismatched appearance.
Prioritize hair health to avoid breakage or dullness.
Consult a professional and review real-life examples before proceeding.
