Halo Highlights Is The Pretty Colour Technique For Lived-In Summer Hair

Forget simple highlights or lowlights because there's one technique that's set to leave your strands looking positively angelic. Halo highlights are being hailed one of summer's hottest hair trends and, like the name suggests, they light up strands and spotlight beautiful multi-dimensional colour, just like you'd expect a halo to.

It means you no longer have to choose between the eternal blonde vs brunette conundrum, because this clever colouring technique promises multi-tonal glory worthy of an honest-to-God cherub.

It may sound fancy, but the technique is actually pretty simple. The hair-colouring method works to emphasise the shape and style of a specific cut by delicately blending darker and lighter hair tones together with brighter sections focused up top, where the light of a halo would fall. In a nutshell, halo highlights subtly works colour through the top layers of hair to lighten the tone.

"Celestial threads of colour are placed around the halo section to create show-stopping blonde," explains Jason Hogan, Associate and Celebrity Colourist at Josh Wood Colour. "This ring of light keeps your colour dimensional, high-impact and ethereal, while also adding volume and lift."

Whereas regular highlights can often end up looking two dimensional, the specific placement of halo lights around the front of the head literally gives your hair an angel halo.

As for what to request in the salon, blonde hair expert, Chrissy Danielle, took to Instagram to show her followers exactly how it's done, by breaking down the different techniques that are brought together harmoniously to create halo highlights. It's a little technical, but at least you'll know the craft involved in creating effortlessly lit hair.

“Start with back-to-back babylights, feathering up, completely saturate,” says Chrissy. This should be done in a horseshoe shape around the under layers near the nape of your neck. Next she suggests “teasy lights with triangle drop sections,” which she says tips out light all the way around the hair for a lived in pop of colour. 

Looking along your front hairline, Chrissy says “don't forget the areas of recession, since they can leave a dark shadow.” And for versatile money piece face-framing pieces Chrissy recommends applying a foil “off the centre part, diagonally,” so they can be worn any way if you flip your parting. Finally, “go in horizontally to marry it together.” The result, she says is a perfectly connected halo.

The good news is, the colour technique is easy to upkeep and looks perfect whether you want to wear your hair down or scoop it up. "The placement of this colour and the way it blends from the natural hair means it grows out seamlessly," says Jason. “It also looks as good in an updo as it does worn down.”

But, like any colouring treatment, halo highlights do require a touch-up to keep the tone in tip-top condition. “I recommend a gloss every six weeks to keep the tone fresh and the colour vibrant and glossy,” says Jason, "just like Romee Strijd, Stella Maxwell and Martha Hunt."

So there you have it. Angel vibes just in time for summer.

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