Highlighting and Lowlighting involves placing color on select strands of hair and leaving the rest of the hair in its natural color. Both color applications can be used separately to add color dimension to hair or in conjunction with each other.

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Highlights add strands of lighter color to the hair. Blond, light red, caramel and beige are popular highlight colors.

Lowlighting adds strands of darker color to the hair. Chestnut brown, auburn, mahogany and black are popular lowlight colors.

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Hightlights and lowlights create dimension, interest and movement and result in a subtle color change. However, some application techniques, such as chunking, result in clearly defined chunks of color.