Healthy Hair and Highlights

Healthy hair with highlights — Photo: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

Q: I have damaged hair from coloring and highlighting it so much. It was becoming dry and I noticed some breakage. For about 3 months I have been treating it with moisturizers, leave in conditioners, oils, and conditioning it a lot!

I only shampoo it 2 to 3 times a week, with special shampoo. I have noticed a huge difference in my hair. It looks and feels healthy again. So would it hurt if I did some highlights in it?

A: If your hair is again feeling healthy, you should be safe to have some highlighting added, but I advise keeping the highlighting subtle.

Avoid highlighting where the hair is "pre-lightened" (known as two-process color). Remember that the lighter the hair is made to become, the harsher the process is to the hair. You certainly don't want to undo the efforts you put into making your hair feel healthy again.

I would recommend that you have any highlighting done at a salon, so that you have a professional monitoring the process, and that you insist that a strand test be performed to make sure that the hair is able to withstand the processing without damaging it. The strand testing will also allow the colorist to be sure of the exact processing time for your hair and make certain of the results that will be achieved.

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See also:

Highlighting

What is a strand test?

How to care for chemically treated hair