giving into highlights

Most people don't chose to lighten their hair with highlights for winter, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

I've been growing my hair out for a few months now, so not only does my hair already look "blah" because of the awkward growing-out-a-bob-phase but the color looked super flat. Up until a few days ago, my hair color completely lacked depth and dimension so I decided to get a trim to liven up my locks and add a few highlights as well. I have given myself highlights out of the box once a year for the past few years in anticipation of summer, but have never gotten them done professionally. I decided it was time to splurge and have my stylist add in a few highlights to add dimension to my hair while I grow it out.

Since the goal wasn't to lighten up my hair (which I will do in the spring), I didn't want many highlighted pieces or super blonde ones. I had heard of balayage (French for "hair painting") highlights before and wanted to give it a try since they look so natural. The balayage technique, basically randomly placing highlights without foils, really appealed to me since I'm growing my hair out and don't want to go to the salon often for touch-ups.

Randomly selected pieces for a natural look 

Jen has been cutting my hair for years so I knew I trusted her to do my color as well. I showed her pictures and explained to her the look I was going for, which was to not change my natural color just enhance it. She painted lightener on my strands randomly all over, being careful to not go all the way to the roots which would defeat the purpose of "natural" looking. It was important to me to not go too light, but to keep the same color with a little more dimension. 

Jen and me! Please ignore the rat's nest that is my hair after a two-day bun...

After enjoying a glass of wine (is there any other way to get your hair done?!) she washed and trimmed my hair per usual. The end result of the highlights and a much-needed trim was just what I wanted! I think the balayage highlights will keep my in-between-length hair looking fresh and interesting for a while.

Right after my appointment. You can really see the dimension the highlights added! If only my hair would look this shiny and smooth all the time...

Different lighting at work the next day.

Still in the "awkward" growing out phase, but I actually like how my hair looks now!

What are your thoughts on highlighting?