MORSi ROAStS IRAN - Kuwait Times

FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2012
Did you ever go through a gothic phase in high school, when
you couldn’t stand even a slight fade to your jet black hair color?
Those days, you probably thought highlights were only
meant for the carefree blondes or the sun-kissed brunettes of the
world — tortured soul, much?
Or maybe you had a head full of highlights — bright blonde strands
scattered on top of your dark brown hair — and wish you could transport
your current colorist back to your life circa college. You know, so
he could talk you out of those fake-looking streaks.
Whatever your highlight history, it’s time to think about revisiting
them. Highlights offer the ability to switch up your hair color without
getting a dramatic overhaul, and they can bring depth and life to an
otherwise blasÈ brown or dull blonde.
The key to great, natural-looking highlights, say experts, is knowing
what shades will work best with your hair color. To get the inside
scoop, we turned to hair colorist Marco Pelusi, owner of Marco Pelusi
Hair Studio, Inc. in West Hollywood, Calif. Here are his best tips on how
to get the right highlight shades for every hair color (even jet black, for
all of you goth queens out there).
Choosing the right highlights for you
Before you find out what your best highlights are, read the following
tips to avoid a hair coloring disaster:
• Go to a professional. While there isn’t much risk with doing an
allover color at home, there’s a lot more room for error with highlights
— from the thickness of the streaks to the tones and shades.
Getting highlights should definitely be reserved for the salon.
• Know if you look better in cool or warm tones. A simple way to figure
this out is to hold a swatch of silver (cool tone) and a swatch of
gold (warm tone) against your face. Whichever looks best against
your skin tone tells what type of color family you should stay in.
Just make sure you do this test without makeup and with sunlight.
• Decide if you’re getting highlights, lowlights, or both. Pelusi says
highlights are shades that are lighter than the allover hair color,
while lowlights are dark colors applied to lighter hair. Lowlights
tend to soften a dark color while highlights bring depth.
If you have platinum blonde hair
Try lowlights in a deeper blonde shade.
Gwen Stefani’s hair is as blonde as it gets. If you have similarly borderline-white
hair, Pelusi recommends getting “lowlights in a deeper
blonde color woven throughout.” It would require touchups every
three to four weeks, and over time you can gradually move to a darker
color if you wish. If you want to go for an edgier look, you can concentrate
the streaks like Gwen with her lowlights in the center.
If you have light to medium blonde hair
Try lowlights in deep blonde.
Reese Witherspoon is the quintessential blonde and can wear just
about any hue. This light blonde shade has a sun-kissed look with
highlights that are a few shades darker. For natural looking highlights,
Pelusi recommends looking at your natural hair color
when coloring any part of your hair, then picking a color in the
same family, but lighter.
If you have light brown hair
Try ashy blonde highlights.
Have gorgeous light brown hair like Jennifer Lopez, but
looking to change up your look? Pelusi recommends incorporating
more blonde pieces throughout the hair, specifically in
the lower half, as J.Lo did.
If you have dark brown hair
Try caramel highlights.
Pelusi recommends incorporating shades of caramel, not much
lighter than your natural color, into your hair. “Caramel, rather than
reds or oranges will produce a subtler look,” he says. And, to keep the
look even more natural, start the highlights a “little off the scalp” so
that they blend easily. The trick is to use two or three different shades
to create a more natural and vibrant effect, as Jessica Alba did.
— www.totalbeauty.com
BEAUTY