How Often Can You Safely Highlight Your Hair?

Determining the Optimal Frequency for Hair Highlighting

From subtle touches of brightness woven through dark strands to bold flashes of vibrant color, hair highlighting offers endless options for transforming locks. But how often can you safely color treat hair for highlights before risking damage?

The Effects of Highlighting on Hair Health

Highlighting requires applying bleaches, lighteners or color chemicals only to targeted sections of hair to create dimension. This avoids fully coating every strand with dye. However, chemicals still penetrate the cuticle layer to alter underlying pigments.

Frequent highlighting sessions using peroxide and ammonia can dry out strands, leading to:

• Brittleness
• Frizz or flyaways
• Breakage
• Split ends
• Faded color

Luckily, modern highlighting formulations utilize lower volumes of gentler chemicals. When spaced properly, highlighting generally causes minimal damage compared to all-over color treatments.

Factors Impacting Safe Highlighting Frequency

No definitive rule dictates precisely how often to highlight hair. The optimal schedule varies based on:

• Hair Type & Texture - Fragile, thin hair withstands fewer chemicals than thick, resilient strands.
• Current State of Hair - Preexisting damage means hair cant take more dyeing sessions.
• Highlighting Method - Foils help minimize chemical contact over balayages.
• Products Used - Gentler formulas with nourishing ingredients are less harsh.

The 4-6 Week Guideline

As a general guideline, aim to wait at least 4-6 weeks between highlight sessions. Skipping a month or more allows the scalp's natural oils to replenish protective barriers damaged by chemicals. This fortifies locks before exposing them again.

However, those with past damage may require 8-12 week lulls between appointments. Schedule regular trims to snip away split ends in the interim, assessing if the ends feel rough or look frayed.

Maintaining Healthy Hair Between Highlights

While scheduling highlights further apart helps, improving daily hair care is also key to keeping strands healthy and minimizing color fade. Here are tips:

Deep Condition Weekly

Use a weekly mask or hydrating conditioner containing proteins and fatty acids, leaving this concentrated moisture treatment on for 20+ minutes before rinsing out. This helps repair and protect hair fibers.

Shampoo Less Often

Washing too frequently strips the oils that seal in moisture. Focus shampoo mainly across the scalp and roots only, limiting harsh detergents on already dried-out ends unless hair is excessively dirty.

Rinse with Cool Water

Heat causes the cuticle protective layer to open and allow moisture escapes. Rinsing with cool water helps seal cuticles closed.

Avoid Heat Styling

Limit using hot tools like blow dryers, curling irons and straighteners to preserve delicate locks after highlighting.

Apply Leave-In Treatments

Hydrating, color-sealing leave-in sprays or creams containing UVA/UVB filters protect vulnerable hair between washes while combatting environmental damage from sun exposure.

Upgrade Accessories

Swap out tight hair ties for gentler scrunchies, clips and pins. At night, switch to satin pillowcases. This collective reduction in friction helps minimize breakage of fragile strands.

Get Regular Trims

Schedule a trim 6-8 weeks after highlights to snip away split ends before they travel further up the hair shaft. Let stylists assess the current texture and condition to advise the next safest steps.

Signs Its Time for Another Highlight Treatment

Rather than blindly sticking to a highlighting calendar, pay attention to telltale signs your hair is ready for refreshed color:

Regrowth Reaching Half an Inch

Dark re-growth at the roots becomes visible against lightened ends around the 6 week mark for most. Get ahead of the skunk stripe effect.

Brightness Beginning to Fade

If shiny dimension dulls to muddled tones past the 4 week mark, the color likely requires a reviving boost.

New Hair Growth Feels Healthy

Run fingers across the scalp near sections growing from the roots. Do new strands feel smooth and strong? If yes, hair should withstand further lightening.

Stylist Gives the Green Light

During trims, ask whether hair seems healthy enough to highlight again soon. Trust experts assessments from closely examining the integrity across all areas.

Experimenting with Low-Maintenance Highlight Alternatives

If aiming to stretch time between intensive highlight sessions, consider lighter-commitment options for a temporary refresher boost...

Highlighting Shampoos & Conditioners

Between salon visits, specialized products deposit temporary pigments onto strands as you lather, adding a hint of radiance to faded color. The results last until the next shampoo.

Highlighting Makeup Sprays

Similar to hair shadow powders, quick-fix highlighting sprays blanket strands with sheer tones to illusionally mimic brighter tips and dimension. The temporary coloring washes away overnight.

Highlighting Pencils & Chalks

For last-minute touch-ups, colored wax sticks and chalk pastels brush onto hair acting as faux highlights. The sheerer effects simply shampoo out the next day.

Bleach Pens

Targeting only the most faded sections in between full appointments, safe cosmetic bleach highlighter pens boost brightness on dull pieces as needed. Similar to erase-marker touch ups between colorings.

When to Seek Professional Guidance

While spreading out highlight treatments preserves hair health, be cautious of excessive gapping which causes roots to overgrow. Seek professional help if:

• Unflattering two-tone effects make daily styling difficult
• Dark re-growth reaches 2+ inches and requires constant concealing
• Highlights grow out fully and no dimension remains

Stylists can assess whether to professionally color-correct growth phases or transition hair to more natural tones if health no longer permits consistent highlighting.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new treatment regimen.