Have you noticed your highlights are growing out and are now wondering what to do? While many women do choose to cover up their grown-out roots, we recommend learning what your other choices are – you might be inspired!
How Do I Know If My Hair Highlights Have Grown Out?
Just in case you’re new to the world of highlights, the easiest way to tell if your highlights have grown out is by looking at your roots to see if your natural hair color has ‘separated’ from where your highlights were applied.
Depending on your natural hair color and the color of your highlights, it may or may not be very noticeable. For example, blonde highlights on blonde hair won’t be as noticeable as blonde highlights in brown hair.
What to Do When Hair Highlights Grow Out?
You have three options for your grown-out highlights. You can let the hair grow to your natural hair color; you can chop off the highlights or try other coloring techniques like lowlights, ombre to darken the highlights.
#1. Let It Grow to Your Natural Color
If you’d rather see what happens if you don’t cover up your roots, let your hair breathe a bit and continue to grow out your highlights! When your roots grow out, it can actually make for a no-cost opportunity to give your hairstyle an edgy look. In fact, many people, including celebs, are making dark roots a new trend.
Look in any fashion magazine, and you’ll see that celebs like Rihanna, Margot Robbie, and Kim Kardashian have rocked a hairstyle with grown-out roots. If you’re a woman who needs to see other well-known individuals doing something before you try it, you can rest easy knowing you won’t stand out if you do decide to go natural.
If you have a lot of highlights it can take between 3 months and 7 years to grow out depending on the length of your hair. That’s why hairstylists recommend having lowlights and/or toner to create a more natural look.
In the meantime, there’s no reason you can’t rock your grown-out roots with confidence. Style your hair as normal daily, get a new haircut packed with body-building layers, or add voluminous waves to dress it up. The only person you need to make happy is yourself.
#2. Cut Off The Highlights
Some might call chopping off the highlighted parts of your hair a drastic move. Others welcome the bold change.
The con to cutting your highlights off is that if you have long hair and your highlights haven’t grown out that much, and you have a pretty good chance of ending up with a short haircut. If you’re rocking a pixie cut, cutting off the highlights won’t be that much of a chance since you’re already used to short hair.
It all comes down to the current length of your hair and how much of a difference there would be if you chose to have your highlights cut off.
If you want to keep your long hair or you’re not one to welcome bold, cut-throat changes, then we don’t recommend this option.
On the other hand, if you’re okay making a temporary change and aren’t easily scared off by big hair changes, asking your stylist to take the scissors to your mane may be the option for you.
You can always guess what your hair would look like with the big chop and then check out potential haircuts suited to that length. There is a multitude of attractive styling options for any hair length!
And in the worst-case scenario, you can always add extensions if you decide you don’t like your hair length after cutting out the grown highlights.
#3. Try Another Color Technique
Ombre and lowlights are both coloring options for disguising grown-out highlights. Lowlights, which is a darker version of highlights, are usually what most stylists will recommend first. They work with either dark or light roots, last for months at a time, and start at about $60.
Since everyone’s hair naturally has both dark and light shades, lowlights look natural when combined with highlights. They also add dimension.
Ombre is better suited for women whose roots are noticeably darker than their highlights. This is because ombre naturally starts as a dark color and fades to light. It’s also quite flattering to the face because the lighter color begins at the eye-line.
Think about your options before deciding what to do with your grown-out highlights. Rash decisions, especially regarding hair, may lead to bad results.
If you’re still on the fence about how to handle your highlights, consult your hairstylist. They’re experienced and have seen it all, so they’ll be able to give you sound advice about what color or cut will not only look great but make you feel great as well!