Highlights, the shimmering strands of color woven into our hair, have long been a coveted beauty treatment. They can add dimension, brighten our complexion, and give us a fresh, youthful look. But beneath the surface of sun-kissed locks lies a darker truth: highlighting your hair comes with a range of disadvantages that every potential highlight devotee should carefully consider. Before booking your next salon appointment, let’s delve into the potential pitfalls of this popular hair coloring technique.
Damage, Damage, Damage: The Toll on Hair Health
The most significant and widely recognized disadvantage of highlighting hair is the damage it inflicts. The highlighting process, by its very nature, involves harsh chemicals that strip the hair of its natural pigment. This stripping process weakens the hair’s structure, making it prone to breakage, split ends, and overall dryness.
The Chemical Breakdown: How Highlights Harm Your Hair
The key culprit in hair damage is the chemical lightening agent, usually hydrogen peroxide or bleach. These chemicals penetrate the hair shaft, oxidizing the melanin (the pigment that gives hair its color). This process lifts the hair’s cuticle, the protective outer layer, allowing the lightening agent to access the inner cortex. Once the melanin is oxidized, the hair becomes lighter, but also weaker and more porous.
Porosity Problems: Increased Vulnerability
The increased porosity resulting from highlighting makes the hair more susceptible to environmental damage, such as UV rays and pollution. Porous hair absorbs moisture quickly, but also loses it just as rapidly, leading to dryness and frizz. It becomes a constant battle to keep highlighted hair hydrated and healthy.
Breakage and Split Ends: The Visible Signs of Damage
The weakened hair structure leads to visible signs of damage like breakage and split ends. Hair may snap easily when brushed or styled, and the ends become frayed and unsightly. Regular trimming is often necessary to maintain a semblance of healthy-looking hair, but this can be frustrating for those trying to grow their hair longer.
The Financial Burden: Highlighting’s Costly Affair
Beyond the physical toll, highlighting your hair can also take a significant toll on your wallet. The cost of professional highlighting can be substantial, and the expenses don’t stop there. Maintaining highlighted hair requires specialized products and regular salon visits, adding up to a considerable financial investment.
Initial Investment: The Salon Price Tag
Professional highlighting services can range from moderately expensive to extremely costly, depending on the salon’s location, the stylist’s experience, and the complexity of the highlighting technique. Techniques like balayage or ombre, which require more artistry and precision, often come with a higher price tag.
Maintenance Costs: The Ongoing Expenses
The initial cost is just the beginning. Maintaining highlighted hair requires regular touch-up appointments to address root growth and prevent brassiness. Specialized shampoos, conditioners, and hair masks are also essential to combat dryness and damage, further adding to the ongoing expenses.
The Hidden Costs: Repair and Prevention
In addition to regular maintenance, you may also need to invest in reparative treatments, such as protein treatments or deep conditioning masks, to combat the damage caused by highlighting. These treatments can be costly, but are often necessary to prevent further breakage and maintain the health of your hair.
Time Commitment: The Highlight Hustle
Highlighting your hair is not a quick and easy process. It requires a significant time commitment, both in the salon and at home. The initial highlighting appointment can take several hours, and regular maintenance appointments are also time-consuming.
The Salon Stay: Hours in the Chair
The initial highlighting appointment can be a lengthy affair, often lasting several hours depending on the desired effect and the length and thickness of your hair. This can be a challenge for individuals with busy schedules.
The Home Routine: Extra Care and Attention
Maintaining highlighted hair requires a more extensive hair care routine. You’ll need to invest time in washing, conditioning, and styling your hair with specialized products to prevent damage and maintain the color. Air drying is often recommended to minimize heat damage, further adding to the time commitment.
Scheduling Challenges: Fitting It All In
Between salon appointments and home hair care routines, highlighting your hair can create scheduling challenges. Finding the time for regular touch-ups and treatments can be difficult, especially for those with demanding jobs or family responsibilities.
Color Concerns: The Potential for Unsightly Outcomes
While the goal of highlighting is to enhance your hair color, the results can sometimes be less than desirable. Brassiness, uneven color, and unwanted tones are common problems that can arise with highlighted hair.
Brassiness Blues: The Yellow Tint
Brassiness, a yellow or orange tint that can appear in highlighted hair, is a common concern. This is caused by the underlying warm tones in the hair becoming exposed as the lightening agent fades. Counteracting brassiness requires specialized shampoos and toners, adding to the maintenance costs.
Uneven Highlights: The Patchy Look
Uneven highlights can occur if the highlighting process is not performed correctly. This can result in a patchy or streaky appearance, which can be difficult to correct. Choosing a skilled and experienced stylist is essential to avoid this problem.
Unwanted Tones: The Color Catastrophe
Sometimes, highlights can take on unwanted tones, such as green or ashy hues. This can be caused by mineral buildup in the hair or by using the wrong type of toner. Correcting unwanted tones can require additional salon visits and specialized treatments.
Maintenance Mayhem: The Challenges of Keeping Highlights Fresh
Maintaining highlighted hair requires a dedicated effort. Without proper care, highlights can fade, become brassy, or lose their luster. This can lead to disappointment and the need for frequent salon visits.
Fading Color: The Loss of Vibrancy
Highlighted hair is prone to fading, especially when exposed to sunlight, chlorine, or hard water. This can result in a dull or washed-out appearance. Using color-safe shampoos and conditioners can help prolong the life of your highlights.
Root Regrowth: The Constant Battle
Root regrowth is an inevitable consequence of highlighting. As your natural hair grows in, the contrast between your roots and your highlights becomes more noticeable. This requires regular touch-up appointments to maintain a seamless look.
Product Dependence: The Need for Specialized Care
Highlighted hair requires specialized products to maintain its health and color. This can be a financial burden, as these products are often more expensive than regular shampoos and conditioners. However, using the right products is essential to prevent damage and prolong the life of your highlights.
Styling Struggles: The Limitations of Damaged Hair
Damaged hair from highlighting can be more difficult to style. It may be prone to frizz, breakage, and lack of volume. This can limit your styling options and require the use of heat protectant products to minimize further damage.
Heat Sensitivity: Avoiding Styling Tools
Highlighted hair is more susceptible to heat damage. Excessive use of heat styling tools, such as flat irons and curling irons, can cause further breakage and dryness. It’s essential to use heat protectant products and minimize the use of heat styling tools.
Frizz Factor: Taming the Unruly
Highlighted hair is often more prone to frizz, especially in humid conditions. This can make it difficult to achieve smooth and polished styles. Using anti-frizz serums and leave-in conditioners can help tame frizz and add shine.
Volume Void: The Lack of Body
Damaged hair can often lack volume. Highlighting can weaken the hair shaft, making it limp and lifeless. Using volumizing shampoos and conditioners can help add body and bounce to highlighted hair.
The Potential for Allergic Reactions: A Serious Concern
Although less common, allergic reactions to the chemicals used in highlighting are possible. These reactions can range from mild skin irritation to more severe symptoms like swelling and difficulty breathing. It’s crucial to perform a patch test before highlighting your hair to check for any allergies.
Skin Sensitivity: Irritation and Redness
The chemicals used in highlighting can irritate the scalp and skin, especially for individuals with sensitive skin. This can result in redness, itching, and discomfort. Using gentle, sulfate-free shampoos and conditioners can help soothe irritated skin.
Severe Reactions: When to Seek Medical Help
In rare cases, allergic reactions to highlighting chemicals can be severe. Symptoms may include swelling of the face, lips, or tongue, difficulty breathing, and hives. If you experience any of these symptoms, seek immediate medical attention.
Patch Test Imperative: Prevention is Key
A patch test is essential to prevent allergic reactions. This involves applying a small amount of the highlighting chemicals to a discreet area of skin, such as behind the ear, and waiting 24-48 hours to see if any reaction occurs. If you experience any redness, itching, or swelling, do not highlight your hair.
Overall Hair Health: The Long-Term Impact
Frequent highlighting can have a detrimental effect on the overall health of your hair. Over time, the damage can accumulate, leading to chronic dryness, breakage, and a loss of shine. It’s essential to prioritize hair health and take steps to minimize damage.
Cumulative Damage: The Build-Up Effect
The damage from highlighting is cumulative. Each highlighting session adds to the existing damage, making the hair weaker and more prone to breakage. It’s essential to space out highlighting appointments and give your hair time to recover.
Compromised Strength: The Weakened Strands
Highlighting can weaken the hair shaft, making it more susceptible to breakage and split ends. This can result in hair that is difficult to manage and style. Using protein treatments can help strengthen the hair and prevent further damage.
Loss of Luster: The Diminished Shine
Damaged hair often lacks shine and luster. Highlighting can strip the hair of its natural oils, leaving it dull and lifeless. Using hydrating shampoos, conditioners, and hair oils can help restore shine and vitality.
Ultimately, the decision to highlight your hair is a personal one. Weighing the advantages against the disadvantages is crucial. Understanding the potential drawbacks – the damage, the cost, the time commitment, and the potential for color issues – will empower you to make an informed decision that aligns with your hair health goals and lifestyle. If you do choose to highlight your hair, prioritizing proper care and maintenance is essential to minimize damage and maintain healthy, beautiful locks.
FAQ 1: How does highlighting hair damage it?
Highlighting involves bleaching, which chemically alters the hair shaft to remove its natural pigment. This process weakens the hair’s protein structure, making it more porous and susceptible to breakage. The cuticle, the protective outer layer, is lifted and damaged, leading to moisture loss and increased frizz.
Furthermore, repeated highlighting sessions exacerbate this damage, leading to split ends, dryness, and a straw-like texture. Over-processed hair loses its elasticity and becomes more prone to tangling, requiring extra care and conditioning to manage and maintain its health.
FAQ 2: Can highlights cause hair to become dry and brittle?
Yes, the bleaching process inherent in highlighting significantly contributes to hair dryness. Bleach strips away the natural oils and moisture from the hair shaft, leaving it dehydrated. This lack of moisture results in a dry, brittle texture that’s prone to breakage and split ends.
Additionally, the increased porosity caused by highlighting makes it harder for the hair to retain moisture from conditioning treatments or styling products. Consequently, highlighted hair often requires frequent deep conditioning and moisturizing to combat the dryness and brittleness and maintain a healthy appearance.
FAQ 3: What are the potential long-term effects of frequently highlighting hair?
Frequent highlighting can lead to significant long-term damage, including permanently weakened hair follicles. Over time, repeated bleaching weakens the hair structure to the point where it struggles to grow and may even break off at the root, resulting in thinning and reduced hair density.
Beyond structural damage, long-term highlighting can alter the hair’s texture permanently. What was once smooth and manageable hair can become perpetually dry, frizzy, and difficult to style. Reversing these long-term effects often requires drastic measures, such as cutting off damaged sections and focusing on intensive hair repair treatments.
FAQ 4: Are there specific hair types that are more susceptible to damage from highlights?
Fine and naturally dry hair types are particularly vulnerable to damage from highlighting. Fine hair has a smaller diameter, making it more susceptible to breakage when the protective cuticle is compromised during the bleaching process. Similarly, naturally dry hair lacks sufficient moisture to begin with, and highlighting further exacerbates this dryness, leading to increased brittleness and damage.
In addition, previously chemically treated hair, such as hair that has been permed or relaxed, is also more susceptible to damage. These treatments already weaken the hair structure, and adding highlights compounds the damage, making it more likely to experience breakage, split ends, and other signs of over-processing.
FAQ 5: How can I minimize the damage when getting highlights?
Prioritize your hair’s health before getting highlights by using deep conditioning treatments and moisturizing masks for several weeks beforehand. This will help to strengthen the hair and improve its moisture levels, making it better able to withstand the bleaching process. Choosing a skilled and experienced stylist who uses high-quality products is also crucial.
After highlighting, focus on intensive hair care to replenish lost moisture and repair damage. Use sulfate-free shampoos and conditioners designed for color-treated hair. Incorporate regular deep conditioning treatments, leave-in conditioners, and hair oils to nourish and protect the hair. Minimize heat styling, as heat can further damage highlighted hair.
FAQ 6: What products should I avoid after getting highlights?
Avoid shampoos and conditioners containing sulfates, as these harsh detergents can strip the hair of its natural oils, leading to further dryness and fading of the highlights. Also, limit the use of products containing alcohol, as alcohol can also dehydrate the hair and make it more prone to breakage.
Additionally, be cautious with styling products that contain silicones. While silicones can create a temporary illusion of smoothness and shine, they can also build up on the hair, preventing moisture from penetrating the hair shaft. Over time, this buildup can make the hair feel heavy, dull, and even more prone to damage.
FAQ 7: Is there an alternative to traditional highlights that’s less damaging?
Yes, several alternatives to traditional highlights can minimize damage. Lowlights, which involve adding darker shades to the hair, use dye instead of bleach and are generally less damaging. Hair painting techniques like balayage and ombre involve a more gradual and blended application of color, which reduces the concentration of bleach and minimizes the stress on the hair.
Furthermore, ammonia-free and peroxide-free highlighting options are available, although they may not provide as dramatic a lightening effect. These gentler alternatives use less harsh chemicals, which can help to preserve the hair’s integrity and reduce the risk of damage. Consulting with a stylist about the best option for your hair type and desired result is crucial.