24 Stunning Examples of Blonde Hair With Lowlights

Chances are you've seen lowlights on your favorite celebrity or scrolling through Instagram. They're everywhere and seemingly nowhere all at once, the oft-overlooked stepsister to sunny highlights and beach-ready waves. Turns out, they're really important and have a lot to do with keeping your hair color looking great.

Before we delve into the many merits of lowlights, we set out to answer some essential questions, like what exactly are lowlights and what do they do? We reached out to some lowlight experts to get all the intel so you (er—me!) never feel clueless at a salon appointment ever again.

"Lowlights are the darker color either weaved/painted in or preserved while going lighter simulating or going deeper than the base color of the silhouette," Matt Rez at MèCHE Salon says. Lowlights are often mistaken or referred to as a “darker highlight,” which Rez is quick to point out they are not and should not be referred to as such.

Dirty blonde or blonde hair shades, as well as medium brown hair, all require a lowlight to be added in or preserved while coloring—this is "in order to have separation of color vertically along the hair to keep contrast and from hair looking muddy," Rez says.

Lorri Goddard, who has worked with a bevy of stars like Reese Witherspoon and Emilia Clarke, prefers to do lowlights either wrapped in foil or hand-painted slightly between key highlights. She calls it a “foilyage” technique and says that adding specific low-lights helps make highlights pop. “Adding strategic pieces of lowlights truly enhances one’s natural skin and eye colors,” Goddard says. 

It’s important to note that the best technique for you does depend on your individual hair texture. Straight, fine hair allows for much more threaded pieces, Goddard says, making the flow of depth look more natural, while curlier hair works differently.

"The more textured and or curled the hair, the more piece-y the lowlights should be," Rez says, noting that he spaces out weaves and does chunkier lowlights so that when hair is naturally styled, “lowlights shadow along the lengths without being too blended and drowned out by wavier textures."

Rez uses a demi-permanent hair color when depositing a lowlight, opting for the most neutral tone. "I want the depth of the base color to carry through,” he says, often looking to the client’s natural tone (which often ranges in the neutral to neutral-cool category).

Lowlights actually bring down the depth of the base so when new roots come in, the color is more broken up and regrowth is less eye-catching, Rez says. Plus, lowlights fade like any color does, which is why it’s best to keep them neutral or neutral-cool as those colors tend to fade more on tone.

Learn even more essential facts, and see them in action below. We've got all the hair inspiration you need. Keep on scrolling for the best lowlight photos we’re totally texting our hairstylist.