How to Spice Up Your Hair Color With Golden Halo Highlights

Face-framing highlights go by many different names, including the money piece, skunk stripe or most recently halo highlights. What they all have in common is the way they instantly brighten your features, frame your face and elevate your hair color. Halo highlights are a trendy spin on face-framing color and as the name suggests, this technique envelopes your features with warm-toned, piecey highlights that mimic the glow of a halo. 

If you’re ready to give your strands an angelic, multi-dimensional makeover, read on as we share the lowdown on halo highlights, including how to get the look at home and how to maintain their golden shine.

What Are Halo Highlights?

Just like the way face-framing highlights enhance your features, halo highlights use golden, luminous ribbons of color to do the same. Halo highlights and a money piece have a similar look but the former includes more hair than just the strands surrounding your face. The biggest difference is halo highlights also incorporate delicate babylights to create blended strands of golden color that are woven throughout the hairline and front sections of hair 

Since halo highlights are typically golden blonde, they’re going to require bleach to get the look, especially if you have a dark brown or black base color. With that said, halo highlights can easily be done in ashy blonde or warm auburn variations. It’s as simple as asking your colorist for the more unconventional shade.

How to DIY Halo Highlights

If you are no stranger to at-home hair color, you’ll know that DIY highlights are a bit more difficult than all-over color, but they’re not impossible with the right supplies. To get halo highlights at home, use the L’Oréal Paris Frost & Design.

Rather than adding balayage highlights to your whole head, focus on the hair that surrounds your face and the hairline. The kit includes a cap that allows you to pick each individual hair you want to highlight.

How to Care for Halo Highlights

Since halo highlights are known for their luminous, golden color, your hair care routine needs to be centered around keeping your color vibrant. Here are a few upgrades for your routine to help you maintain your halo highlights.

1. Use a Glossing System for Color-Treated Hair

Maintain your angelic highlights with a glossing shampoo and conditioner, like the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Glossing Shampoo, pH Balanced and L’Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Glossing Conditioner, pH Balanced. This system is infused with argan oil to cleanse hair without stripping color, leaving it silky, shiny and smooth.

It also includes an in-shower glossing treatment, the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Glossing In Shower Acidic Glaze, which helps to keep colored hair shiny and vibrant. First, cleanse your scalp and hair with the shampoo, then spray the in-shower glaze on wet hair and let it sit for one to three minutes, (do not rinse) and follow up with the conditioner.

2. Use a Toning Gloss

Since halo highlights are known for their luminous glow, routine glossing treatments are key to maintaining their vibrant, golden undertone. Rather than heading to the salon for a pricey gloss every six weeks, opt for an at-home treatment like the L’Oréal Paris Le Color Gloss One Step In-Shower Toning Gloss in Honey Blonde.

In as little as 15 minutes, this toning gloss corrects faded, lackluster color and deep conditions dry strands, adding a luminous shine. It’s a great and affordable way to keep your color looking fresh on your own schedule.

3. Incorporate Purple Shampoo and Conditioner

While halo highlights have a golden undertone, they can still get brassy. To maintain your warm color without unwanted yellow or orange tones, use a purple shampoo and conditioner, like the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Brass Toning Purple Shampoo and the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Brass Toning Purple Conditioner. This toning duo contains purple dye to banish brassy tones while keeping your hair smooth and moisturized.

4. Try Heatless Styling and Embrace Heat Protectant

Halo highlights require bleach, which can be very drying and damaging to the hair. Because of this, embracing heatless styles like overnight braids can really help to preserve the integrity of your hair. If you have curly hair, use a leave-in conditioner like the L’Oréal Paris Elvive Dream Lengths Curls Non-Stop Dreamy Curls Leave-in Conditioner to bring out your natural wave.

Along with that, using heat protectant every time you use hot tools is a great habit to make, especially when you have color-treated hair. If you need some recommendations, we love the L’Oréal Paris Elvive Dream Lengths Frizz Killer Serum Leave-In, a leave-in serum that works on dry hair and also helps to manage frizz. Another option is the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Weightless Blow Dry Primer, Heat Protectant, a leave-in cream for wet hair that helps to keep strands smooth and enhance shine.

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Written by: Reece Andavolgyi, Photo Credit: IG @/allure_thesalon, Design Credit: Sarah Duvivier