How To Get Red Hair with Blonde Highlights

If you want to try a bold new hair color, look no further than red hair with blonde highlights. Red hair is undeniably gorgeous, and blonde highlights are a pretty way to update your hair color without changing it completely.

Here you will find what you need to bring this dimensional hair color idea to life, whether you go to a salon or DIY it at home. Below is everything you need to know, including base-match details, professional techniques, and crucial at-home maintenance steps to keep your multi-tonal mane glowing.

Why You Should Consider Adding Blonde Highlights to Red Hair

There is no denying it: Red hair is stunning on its own, but blonde highlights can add a major facet of dimension and brightness to your hair color. So, whether you are a natural redhead or you get your red hair color from a box dye, consider adding some blonde highlights throughout your red hair to kick things up a notch.

Incorporating lighter pieces introduces a multi-faceted quality that transforms your look:

• Brightness and contrast: Instead of a flat, monochromatic tone, red and blonde highlights create high contrast, making the entire mane pop in natural light.
• Customized base pairing: Whether your underlying shade is a vivid copper, deep auburn, soft strawberry blonde, or dramatic deep red, lighter pieces can be customized to match your warmth or coolness.
• Modern styling techniques: Using a soft balayage or sweeping face-framing pieces lets you experiment with hair trends that draw attention to your eyes and cheekbones, adding a contemporary feel to classic red hair.

What You Need to Know About Adding Highlights to Red Hair

If you have ever colored your hair, you know the process can be tricky. And that is especially the case for blonde highlights, which require a certain skill and technique to apply. That means you may want to leave this one to a pro. A colorist will be able to seamlessly paint on highlights—whether traditional foil ones or through the use of the balayage technique—for a custom look.

Before trying to highlight red hair blonde, consider these core technical realities:

• Pigment persistence: Red pigment is notoriously difficult to lift out of the hair shaft. During the chemical lightening process, the hair matrix often reveals underlying warm yellow or deep orange tones that require expert neutralizing.
• Natural vs. color-treated differences: If you are highlighting natural red hair, your strands may lift more predictably than hair that has been previously colored with synthetic red box dyes, which tend to hold onto pigment stubbornly.
• Transformation factors: Your final results depend directly on your starting color, your hair condition, and your desired blonde shade.
• Bleaching: Highlighting your hair will require bleaching, and the darker your starting red hair color, the more work and sessions it may take to achieve your desired shade of highlights.
• Maintenance variations: Keep in mind that balayage highlights are much lower-maintenance than traditional highlights—so balayage highlights might be a good option for you if you do not have a ton of time to pop back into the salon for touch-ups.

Set up a consultation with your colorist before having your strands dyed to discuss what you would like, so you are happy with the outcome at the end of the process.

At-home vs. salon blonde highlights for red hair

When choosing your path, it helps to understand a direct comparison between the salon chair and a DIY method:

Choosing the Best Blonde Highlights for Your Shade of Red Hair

If you’re wondering what color highlights look good on red hair, it comes down to balancing tones. What highlights go with red hair depends entirely on your specific starting base.

For copper and strawberry blonde hair

To create a gorgeous look on bright copper or strawberry blonde bases, focus on low-contrast blending techniques that deliver natural-looking, sun-kissed dimension. For this type of hair, we recommend weaving in honey-blonde, golden-blonde, or strawberry-blonde highlights.

For auburn and dark red hair

When working with a rich auburn or dark red base, your goal is to create visible contrast without appearing too harsh or unnatural. We recommend using warm golden-blonde and caramel-blonde tones to give your red hair color with highlights an expensive, dimensional finish. Because you are shifting deeper pigments from a dark red hair to a blonde highlights state, multiple lifting sessions may be required over a few weeks to preserve hair health.

For bright or vibrant red hair

For those rocking a true fashion-forward red, high-contrast blonde placement is the perfect choice for a bold, statement look. Concentrating your highlights into high-impact face-framing panels or wide balayage sweeps creates an amazing contrast against the vivid background.

When you combine a vibrant red base with blonde elements, emphasizing proper toning is critical to keep the blonde pieces looking clean, bright, and pure without absorbing red color bleeding. If you put blonde over red hair without proper sectioning, you may get a muddy orange, which is why isolated placement is everything.

Our Best At-Home Highlights to Use on Red Hair

If you have decided to go the DIY route to get red hair with blonde highlights, try the L'Oréal Paris Colorista At-Home Hair Bleach and Lightener. This at-home highlighting kit allows you to lighten all over, get gorgeous highlights, or create an ombre effect to customize your look.

This product is an excellent way to design a beautiful, high-precision red hair color with blonde highlights look from the comfort of home. Make sure to follow the instructions included with the packaging.

How to Take Care of Red Hair with Blonde Highlights

After you have colored your hair, it’s a good idea to adjust your hair care routine. Preserving both your fiery red base and your delicate blonde pieces requires a balanced maintenance routine focused on color preservation, structural repair, and routine color adjustments.

Follow these tips for caring for red hair and blonde highlights:

1. Use products designed for color-treated hair

It is time to set aside your regular shampoo and conditioner in favor of products formulated specifically for color-treated hair to preserve color vibrancy and extend the time between touch-ups.

To maintain both your red and blonde tones, use this targeted care system:

• Pre-shampoo: Start your routine with L'Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Bond Repair+ Pre-Shampoo Treatment, which deeply penetrates the hair cortex to reverse damage and repair weak bonds.
• Shampoo: Follow up with L'Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Bond Repair+ Shampoo to gently cleanse color-treated locks while delivering intensive repair and smoothness.
• Conditioner: Finish by applying L'Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Bond Repair+ Conditioner to strengthen and shield color-treated hair against future breakage.

2. Prevent brassiness in blonde highlights

It is no secret that bleached hair can turn brassy over time, and red hair, in particular, tends to pick up unwanted warm tones more quickly. When you notice your blonde highlights getting brassy, swap the above shampoo and conditioner for a violet toning system. This crucial step helps maintain bright, balanced blonde tones by using purple pigments to neutralize common yellow and orange tones, supporting your highlights without replacing your normal salon color services.

• L'Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Purple Toning Shampoo: This purple shampoo neutralizes brassy yellow and orange tones in blonde, bleached, highlighted, and silver hair. Formulated with hibiscus extract, it deeply cleanses while moisturizing color-treated hair, keeping color bright and balanced. Apply it to wet hair up to three times per week, let it sit for one to three minutes, and rinse.
• L'Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Purple Conditioner: This purple conditioner complements the shampoo by deeply hydrating and neutralizing even more brassy tones. It leaves color-treated strands soft, shiny, and vibrant. Smooth it through your damp strands after cleansing, leave it in for up to 5 minutes, then rinse thoroughly.

3. Protect hair from damage and color fade

Sometimes, strands with hair color, highlights for redheads included, need a little extra TLC. Combining deep hydration, structural strengthening, and heat protection into a routine will minimize damage from heavy processing and daily styling, preserving incredible shine and hair health after any lightening session.

• L'Oréal Paris Elvive Total Repair 5 Damage-Erasing Mask: This rinse-out hair mask treatment is formulated with almond oil and a protein repair concentrate to target five visible signs of hair damage: split ends, weakness, roughness, dullness, and dehydration. Once or twice a week, swap out your conditioner. After shampooing, apply the hair mask and leave it on for three to five minutes, then rinse out thoroughly with lukewarm water.
• L'Oréal Paris Elvive Dream Lengths Heat Slayer Leave-In: This lightweight leave-in iron spray is formulated to protect hair from heat damage up to 450°F. Infused with fine castor oil and vitamins, it helps reduce frizz, lock in sleek, straight styles, and keep lengths shiny and protected during heat styling. Always spray it evenly onto damp or dry sections before blow-drying or using hot flat irons.

4. Schedule touch-ups and gloss services

We get it: It is easy to get busy and totally forget that it is time for a root touch-up. Set a reminder on your phone so you remember to schedule your appointment well in advance. This will help ensure your look remains as fresh and vibrant as can be. Maintenance frequency varies significantly by highlight placement and technique: a traditional foil touch-up occurs every six weeks, whereas balayage placement can look seamless for up to twelve weeks.

Additionally, scheduling a professional gloss or glaze at the salon can help add incredible shine to your strands, refresh your tone, and seal the hair fiber, even if you dye your hair at home.

For your at-home maintenance between those larger color sessions, you can laminate your hair cuticle and boost reflection using a dedicated glossing duo:

• L'Oréal Paris Elvive Glycolic + Gloss Shine Boosting Shampoo: This gloss-boosting shampoo is formulated with a glycolic acid gloss complex to cleanse and laminate the hair cuticle. It works beneath the surface to smooth rough fibers, enhancing hair shine, silkiness, and vibrancy. Massage it into wet hair to activate the glossy lather, then rinse thoroughly.
• L'Oréal Paris Elvive Glycolic + Gloss Shine Boosting Conditioner: This shine-enhancing conditioner helps seal the hair cuticle and lock in moisture. It provides intensive detangling benefits, leaving dull or rough hair fibers smooth, silky, and looking glossy. Apply it to your lengths after shampooing, leave it on for up to three minutes, and rinse completely.

Next Up: How To Do Chunky Highlights at Home

Photo courtesy of L’Oréal Paris