Highlighted hair is one of the most beautiful curly hairstyles. Curly hair highlights, especially on naturally curly hair, create a unique and beautiful look that no other hair type can present.
The look is playful, interesting, vibrant and original. Highlighted curls are not very common, but the final look is quite amazing.
Charming Curly Hairstyles with Highlights
Following are the trendy curly hair highlighting ideas for women to flaunt their curls.
1. Dark Curls with Warm Brown Tips
If you are a brunette, you can easily change your look only by enlightening the tips of your hair. A dark curly hair with highlights will always look natural and healthy, especially if you keep your mane long and layered. Warm highlights can be kept close to the base colour or made brighter for stronger contrast.
2. Short Curls with Blonde Tips
Natural curly hair highlights will make your African American hair look ravishing. Keep the hair medium short and complete the look with a pair of glasses with thick frames. Smile, and you will beautifully beam.
3. Pink and Purple Highlights
Curly Pintura highlights keep the roots in their natural state and aren’t as damaging as other hair procedures. Take advantage of this marvelous option and create pale pink, fuchsia, and purple highlights because they will amazingly blend.
4. Ash Blonde Highlights
Ash blonde highlights on curly hair are truly magical, and they immediately work their spells by making the hair look modern, cool, and undoubtedly eye-popping! The darker roots astonishingly blend with the blonde tones, and the outcome is breathtaking.
5. Auburn Highlights on Loose Spirals
Curly hair with partial highlights looks ravishing because the newly added color blends beautifully, and it offers a magnificent hidden shade. The curls will have more texture and will mesmerizingly stand out. Copper and red-brown tones offer related warm variations; keep the curl pattern and colour placement in mind when choosing a reference.
6. Caramel Highlights on Tight Ringlets
When you are getting ready for the summer, it is also a great idea not only to change the outfits but also to add some curly blonde highlights to your mane. You will obtain a warmer shade that will make you look sun-kissed all the time.
7. Hint of Mahogany
Ladies with naturally black curls can keep it low-key yet stylish with this simple look. The curls are tinted in a coppery light mahogany hue midway to the ends creating a subtle highlighted effect. This style is low-maintenance as the hair grows out beautifully.
8. Platinum-Tipped Curly Pixie
Give your curls a fresh makeover by chopping them off into a boyish haircut with neatly trimmed sides and a relatively long top.
The look features a caramel blonde base with vivid platinum blonde highlights on the top creating an enchanting two-toned tousled hairstyle.
9. Lifted Afro with Platinum Highlights
Platinum blonde hair is a constant favorite, and curly-haired ladies can take part in it too.
Ask the hairstylist for cool platinum blonde pintura highlights to stand against the naturally dark afro. Tease the top creating a messy pile on the head that won’t go ignored.
10. Orange Peekaboo Highlights
These curly hair highlights are a must-try for those who want to turn around some heads. Dye the mane in a dark burgundy red shade while separating an underlayer and adding a vivid rusty orange hue that melts into a bright yellow color bringing the sunset on your head.
11. Honey Balayage with Curly Bangs
A subtle soft balayage looks flawless on curly hair. This look features armpit-length tresses with curly bangs falling on the forehead.
Hand-paint the curly strands in a honey blonde shade with a touch of light blonde on the ends resulting in a gorgeous highlighted effect.
12. Swept-Back Curls with Blonde Ribbons
Get noticed from a distance by dancing around with these luscious curls. Go for a shoulder-length deva haircut before dyeing the hair in a dirty blonde shade. Finish off with vivid light blonde highlights adding an instant refreshing glow to the face.
13. Green, Yellow and Orange Curls
Can’t decide on a single color? No worries! Gather all the shades you like and add them to the curly mane creating a pop of colors on the head.
Recreate this bold yet high-maintenance look by opting for orange, yellow, light green, and dark emerald green highlights.
14. Fiery Red Curls
Highlights look exceptional on kinky afro curls. African-American ladies can express their wild side by adding a rusty red hue on the tips of their curly strands to stand against their remaining black hair. This look is effortless to maintain as the highlights fade out beautifully.
15. Blonde Face-Framing Streaks
Those who don’t want to overpower their natural hair color can consider this style. Separate out the middle-parted strands just behind the eyebrow-grazing bangs and dye them in a blonde shade resulting in chunky highlights framing the face while the rest is piled up in a messy updo.
16. Yellow and Green Earloop Highlights
This charming curly hairstyle with highlights is ideal for young girls. The tips of the shoulder-length coils are dyed in a warm caramel hue while a chunk from behind the ears is colored in a bright yellow shade melting into the light green tinge creating stunning earloop highlights.
17. Fine Golden Highlights
If you are a brunette and want to give your hair some shine and texture, we advise you to get a hair glaze and some warmer curly highlights for brunettes. They will totally transform your look and the hair will have the shine you always craved for.
18. Burgundy Highlights
If you want to give your hair even more volume, cut your hair in layers that keep the bangs in a medium length. Opt for curly burgundy highlights every time you crave for a unique nuance and your ringlets will look impressive.
19. Gray Highlights with Curly Bangs
Opt for a layered haircut that allows your ringlets to shine and stand out and get curly gray highlights to obtain a marvelously modern look. Also, go for some bangs that will cover the forehead and smile, girl, you look ravishing!
20. Rose Pink and Fuchsia Curls
If you want an eye-popping shade and a hairstyle that will make even other women turn their heads on the street to admire you, curly hair with pink highlights is certainly the best option for you.
21. Blue Highlights
This blue shade is deep and it makes a gorgeous blend with the dark brown curly hair. You will obtain a unique, fantastic look and people will compliment you wherever you go. Get ready to feel like a real rockstar.
22. Caramel-Accented Dark Curls
Caramel is part of the blonde shades. However, on brown hair, it might present with a red undertone. The final highlighted look is a glowing, rich hair color with curls that are shiny and eye-catching.
23. Silver Corkscrew Curls
The silver highlights on a dark base create a cool and trendy look. The silver highlights on curls are best shown on a black base. The color blends wonderfully and gives an extremely trendy and unique look.
24. Copper Highlights
Copper highlights add a warm reddish-orange contrast to a dark base. It is a shiny and pigmented color that is used in the highlighting technique to add life to the curly hairstyle. On the long hairstyles, it comes as light and warm shade, making the curls bouncier and interesting.
25. Rose Gold Highlights
A trendy and very stylish and fashionable hair color that is most usually used as a highlighting color is the rose gold.
The combination of gold and rose tones gives a nice contrast to any dark hair, especially accenting the shine and the rose and red undertones.
When done as curly hair highlights, the strands themselves present in a wonderful rose light and the shine illuminates the whole hairstyle.
26. Purple Highlights
The vibrant and strong colors make a nice appearance on curly hair. In the case of purple curly hair highlights, some of the curls coming on the top layer are done in a purple color. For a more appealing look, the shades of purple can be different.
27. Blonde-Tipped Auburn Curls
The blonde highlights on red-brown curls present an ultimate look. The change of color and the nice blending between the blond and the reddish tones are chic and very modern. The blonde highlighted curls appear at the end of the hairstyle, giving it a sun-kissed appearance.
28. Honey Blonde Highlights
Honey blonde is one of the most common hair colors when it comes to highlighting. It looks natural and can vary in paler and darker shades depending on your hair color. On long curly hair, these highlights give even greater volume.
29. Red Ombre Curls
Red is a bold, daring and intense hair color that suits women with a stronger attitude. The desire to show off is seen in the red highlighted curls that are colorful and strong.
The curls are tiny, and while the base stays dark, the red gives a nice dose of color and complements the skin tone.
30. Beige Blonde Ringlets
The blonde highlights on curly brown hair might seem like an ordinary look, but they are very beautiful. This curly highlighted look is a dynamic and fashion-forward style. The number of highlights and lowlights through the whole hairstyle makes the color pop.
31. Lavender Highlights
Adding some color to your curls can be done with a pop of pink. The blush is hidden as an undertone in the lavender gray hair color.
This highlight makes the curls brighter and more vibrant. Even though we are talking about a pink shade here, the final look still looks natural.
How to Get Highlights on Curly Hair (Pintura + Foilyage)
Balayage and highlights are techniques for coloring parts of the hair in a different shade. Both techniques have been around for decades, and each is still a very popular coloring trend. They can be done on all hair types, but when it comes to curly hair different techniques come into action.
The first one is foilyage, which combines balayage-style hand-painting with foils. This technique is used on curly or wavy hair for achieving blonde shades. It can be precise, and very defining.
The other technique is Pintura. It comes as a special technique just for curly hair that highlights the hair without looking too try-hard or standing out of its natural movement. It means “to paint”.
During the process of Pintura, colorists are hand-painting the curls without any use of foils so that they can add dimension and accentuate the curls. Lightening the curls brings a different look to each face, but it certainly becomes brighter and lighter.
Always remember that highlighting can and might damage your hair, and with that your curls too. Depending on the size of your curls, choose the proper technique that you want to do the highlighting with.
Pintura technique is best to be used on the tighter curls because they have to be brightened to be seen. The looser curls and waves already reflect more light, and they can be done with any other highlighting technique.
Watch The Following Video to Learn How to Do Pintura Highlights on Natural Curly Hair
Tips to Maintain Healthy Colored Curls
Curls are the most beautiful attributes of hair. No matter if they are colored or not, they demand special daily care, treatments, and routine. The proper nurture will result in healthy and beautiful curls.
Chemical treatments cause damage to the curls and they have to be treated so that the curls will remain as healthy as possible and the color will be vibrant and long-lasting. These are some of the tips that you should incorporate in your maintenance routine:
- Skip sulfate shampoos on highlighted curls: they fade fresh color and dry out the curl. A gentle cleanser protects both the tone and the texture.
- Coloring dries out the curls, so for them to be bouncy and healthy, you will need to moisturize them a lot. Use a silicone-free conditioner to detangle them. Leave-in deep conditioners are great for nourishing and reviving your curls.
- The regular cotton towel can cause friction of your curls that will result in frizz. For maintaining healthy curls, use a microfiber towel. It will suck the excess water but let the curls dry and define themselves without causing frizz.
- Sleeping on a satin pillowcase will reduce the friction that can build between your hair and an ordinary pillowcase, which eventually results in frizz and breakage. A satin pillowcase will help you maintain your curls.
- Using a diffuser on the hairdryer is important for curly hair. The heat from the hairdryer is more evenly distributed with a diffuser, preventing frizz and maintaining the natural curl pattern.
These are the popular curly highlights ideas that you can rock any time of year.
