36 Blonde Hair With Lowlights Examples to Show Your Stylist

hailey bieber with blonde hair and eyes closed in sunlight — @haileybieber

Whether you go lighter or darker, adding color to your hair can enhance your look. But combining different coloring techniques, well, that opens up a ton of doors. For example, pairing highlights and with lowlights, can give depth and dimension to hair. "Lowlights are the darker color either weaved/painted in or preserved while going lighter, simulating, or going deeper than the base color of the silhouette," says celebrity hair colorist Matt Rez of MèCHE Salon.

While they can create magic, lowlights fade as any color does, which is why it’s best to keep them neutral or neutral-cool as those colors tend to fade more on tone. Don't worry, Rez and hair colorist Lorri Goddard will explain.

Meet the Expert

Lorri Goddard is a Los Angeles-based hair colorist and stylist.
Matt Rez is a celebrity hair colorist specializing in all techniques of hair coloring including the art of balayage. He is based at MèCHE Salon in Beverly Hills.

Blonde Hair with Lowlights

Choosing a shade: Rez says it’s best to keep the base and lowlights on the neutral/neutral-cool side. Incorporate a warmer midlight to keep hair from looking disconnected and muddy, and opt for a neutral to warm tone with the highlights, he says. "This way the allover appearance of the silhouette is neutral and will flatter most skin tones, as skin is multi-tonal usually."

Maintenance level: When done correctly, lowlights are not a high-maintenance choice, and Goddard says they can even help add longevity to any color.

Goes great with: A natural makeup look, bold lip

Similar shades: Dirty blonde, ash blonde, medium blonde.

Price: Lowlights start at $150, depending on the salon.

Keep reading for some inspirational photos of blonde highlights and lowlights, thanks to our favorite celebs.

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Dimensional Hair

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Dimensional — @colorbymattrez / Instagram

This style often incorporates a darker dimensional tone to the hair, and it's where Rez actually came up with the concept of a midlight technique.

Byrdie Tip

The midlight technique uses a color that's darker than the highlight and lighter than the lowlight/base color. It's typically used to clear up the bridge between highlights and lowlights.

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Chocolate Base

Laverne Cox with a mix of highlights and lowlights — Nicholas Hunt / Getty Images

Laverne Cox's rooty look pairs a chocolate-hued base with strands of blonde highlights and lowlights. We love how the lighter shade is concentrated near her face, which draws attention to her best features. Dirty blonde or blonde hair shades, as well as medium brown hair, all require a lowlight to be added in or preserved while coloring—this is "in order to have separation of color vertically along the hair to keep contrast and from hair looking muddy," Rez says.

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Evenly Toned Waves

Long Hairstyles Soft Martha Hunt — @marthahunt

Martha Hunt is known for her silky highlighted hair, but after taking a second look, it's the lowlights that bring everything together.

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Warm Blonde

The warm blonde base of Zendaya's bowl-cut pixie offers a honey-hued contrast to the darker lowlights throughout. For this look, use a texture spray, which amps up the dimension in the hair.

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High-Contrast

Beyonce with blonde highlights and lowlights — Getty Images

Beyoncé's mix of highlights and lowlights look especially dramatic when worn stick-straight. The style allows for a closer look at all the dimension and the contrast between the dark and lighter shades of blonde. Celebrity hairstylist Lorri Goddard prefers to do lowlights either wrapped in foil or hand-painted slightly between key highlights. She calls it a “foilyage” technique and says that adding specific low-lights helps make highlights pop. “Adding strategic pieces of lowlights truly enhances one’s natural skin and eye colors,” Goddard says.

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Warm Bronde

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Blake Lively — Getty Images

Whether lighter, darker, or strawberry, Blake Lively's warm blonde hue always has such a great dimension in terms of lowlights. No wonder everyone's been loving her hair for ages.

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Face-Framing Highlights

Jennifer Lopez wears dark blonde hair with light golden champagne blonde highlights — Getty Images

J.Lo's mix of highlights and lowlights looks natural, thanks to the lighter color being focused on the strands that frame her face. It's where the sun would naturally hit, with a few lighter pieces scattered throughout her bob, as well.

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Sun-Kissed

Jemima Kirke's sun-kissed 'do looks evening-worthy with a side part and waves. Adding texture and movement to the hair draws further attention to the use of color throughout.

Byrdie Tip

"The more textured and or curled the hair, the more piecey the lowlights should be," Rez says, noting that he spaces out weaves and does chunkier lowlights so that when hair is naturally styled, “lowlights shadow along the lengths without being too blended and drowned out by wavier textures."

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Blended Blonde and Brown

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Blended Eileen Gu — @eileen_gu_ / Instagram

We love this medium-toned bronde shade on Olympic skier Eileen Gu, as you can see how the lowlights add such great dimension.

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Cool Blonde

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Medium — @olaplex/ Instagram

Think of your favorite cool blonde shade. Does it look like this? Like most highlighted hair, a lowlight is often required to preserve hair while coloring. Lowlights actually bring down the depth of the base so when new roots come in, the color is more broken up and regrowth is less eye-catching, Rez says.

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Golden Curls

Jasmine Sanders has the prettiest curls and here, you can see how her lowlights add extra depth and blend into her hair naturally.

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Blended Blonde

Margot Robbie with blonde hair with highlights and lowlights — Samir Hussein / Getty Images

Margot Robbie is generally our all-around inspiration but we're really coveting her perfectly blended lowlights that make for a more seamless root grow-out.

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Tousled Ombré Lob

Jourdan Dunn tousled lob with blonde highlights and lowlights — Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images

This textured lob shows off the way lowlights and midlights can make the transition from brunette to blonde in a seamless ombré.

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Naturally Blended

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Blended — @colorbymattrez / Instagram

Another great creation by Rez, these darker pieces really help the lighter colors pop, creating a beautiful, natural look we love.

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Perfect Blonde

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Hilary Duff — @hilaryduff

Here, Hilary Duff shows off the perfect lowlights. While her hair looks amazing here, and Nikki Lee at Nine Zero One Salon does an amazing job creating her natural-looking color, Goddard warns that if you're working with parched or over-bleached hair, adding lowlights can pull a hollow tone. She recommends speaking to your colorist about a custom combination as that's the best way to figure out what works for you.

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Balanced Tones

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Balanced Ciara — Getty Images

Skin tones are never the same throughout anyone’s complexion, so it's important to create a well-balanced allover appearance. Blending warm, cool, and neutral tones is the best way to go.

Byrdie Tip

"Glossing the highlights to complement the primary skin tone of a client's hair is always a good idea," Rez says. Just make sure lowlights are neutral.

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Neutral Blonde

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Mae Whitman — Getty Images

Mae Whitman's blonde waves incorporate a great mix of neutral tones. Rez uses a demi-permanent hair color when depositing a lowlight, opting for the most neutral tone. "I want the depth of the base color to carry through,” he says, often looking to the client’s natural tone (which often ranges in the neutral to neutral-cool category).

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Glossy Waves

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Karlie Kloss — Getty Images

Karlie Kloss looks exceptional no matter what, but her lowlight-toned waves are a particular favorite of ours.

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Slightly Highlighted

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Subtle Soo Joo Park — @soojmooj / Instagram

If you have a negative base, don't worry, you can totally get lowlights, it just might not happen right away. When moving to more subtle highlights such as these, it's best to start slow and add as you go.

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A Darker Root

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Dark Root Taraji P. Henson — Getty Images

The good thing is that keeping a dark root doesn't change the coloring process. Just carrying down the base color along with the strategic placement of lowlights allows for a natural root and a more graceful grow-out.

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A Golden Lob

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Golden Lob Hailey Bieber — @haileybieber / Instagram

This textured cut on Hailey Bieber is seriously amazing, and the hair color looks effortless, too.

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Textured Lowlights

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Curls Fleur East — Getty Images

The more texture, the chunkier the lowlights—so as not to lose them within the silhouette. You can see that method at work here.

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Darker Waves

Gigi Hadid Blonde Hair Instagram — @gigihadid

Gigi Hadid usually keeps to a darker blonde hue, and it's easy to see how the added lowlights help create movement and body in her long waves.

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Bronde Lowlights

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Priyanka Chopra — @priyankachopra / Instagram

For brunettes who want a touch of the blonde lifestyle without potentially damaging processing, a bronde style achieved with highlights and lowlights can be a great choice.

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Caramel Tones

megan thee stallion with caramel curly hair — @theestallion

This beautifully blended brunette to caramel bronde style hits all the right notes. Something you always want to avoid here is too dark or red-based lowlights as they don't always mesh well with dirty blonde to medium brown hair.

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Dimensional Blonde

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Dimensional Lili Reinhart — @lilireinhart / Instagram

This flowing style incorporates so many different blonde tones, but really, it's the subtle highlights and lowlights that give it an edge. It's the perfect blend.

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Baby Blonde Curls

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Curls Julia Garner — Getty Images

This is just another example of exceptional dimension. The key to achieving this particular style hinges on creating a contrast between color and tone, which these amazing curls definitely have.

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Beachy Lowlights

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Beachy Camille Kostek — @camillekostek / Instagram

Take it from Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Camille Kostek's beachy look when we say lowlights are the way to go.

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A Deep Base

Blonde Hair with Lowlights Darker Base — @olaplex / Instagram

Lowlights bring down the depth of the base. That way, when new roots grow in, the color looks more broken up, making regrowth less noticeable.

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Honey Highlights

Caramel Hair Colors Honey Ana de Armas — Getty Images

Besides the fact that Ana de Armas honey-colored eyes perfectly match her hair, it's the honey highlights and caramel lowlights that really get us. The lighter colors seem to enhance her darker base, not hide it, which is what lowlights are meant to do.

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Seamless Blonde

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley - Lips — @rosiehw

We can't have a blonde roundup and not include Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Here, her base at the root is a shade or two darker than the rest of her hair, which sprinkles in a few golden blonde strands to further illuminate her face.

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Golden Beige

As Rez explains, the best technique for mixing highlights and lowlights depends on your individual hair texture. Straight, fine hair allows for much more contrast, making the flow of depth look more natural, while curlier hair works a bit differently. Serena Williams's golden beige color with deeper lowlights is a testament to that.

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Multi-blonde

Sofia Richie Grainge with blonde hair swept back in claw clip — @sofiarichiegrainge / Instagram

Sofia Richie Grainge's swept up hair has so many different blondes going on that it somehow melds beautifully into a high contrast look of deep lowlights and almost white blonde ends.

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Brunette Base

lowlights for brown hair: lob — @stephengarrison

If you are a brunette but want to gradually incorporate some blonde, adding lowlights to a wavy lob will help to give your hair dimension, even if the color change happens towards the middle to end of the hair.

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Super Subtle

Gwyneth Paltrow with center-parted hair and glowy makeup at the Veuve Clicquot Celebrates 250th Anniversary With Solaire Exhibition — Steve Granitz / Getty Images

Gwyneth Paltrow is known to keep her hair pretty simple and low maintenance, but that doesn't mean she doesn't let her blonde hair take center stage. An ever so subtle mix of ash blonde roots that cascade into lighter yellow blonde waves has become Paltrow's signature look.

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Balanced Warmth

Chrissy Teigen blonde beach waves with side-swept bangs — JB Lacroix / WireImage / Getty Images

Bronde, ash blonde, yellow blonde, the gang's all here. This is one of Chrissy Teigen's warmer looks, and we can see why. The blend of colors complement her skin tone perfectly.

The 31 Best Blonde Hair Colors for Cool Undertones

36 Blonde Hair With Lowlights Examples to Show Your Stylist

Dimensional Hair

Chocolate Base

Evenly Toned Waves

Warm Blonde

High-Contrast

Warm Bronde

Face-Framing Highlights

Sun-Kissed

Blended Blonde and Brown

Cool Blonde

Golden Curls

Blended Blonde

Tousled Ombré Lob

Naturally Blended

Perfect Blonde

Balanced Tones

Neutral Blonde

Glossy Waves

Slightly Highlighted

A Darker Root

A Golden Lob

Textured Lowlights

Darker Waves

Bronde Lowlights

Caramel Tones

Dimensional Blonde

Baby Blonde Curls

Beachy Lowlights

A Deep Base

Honey Highlights

Seamless Blonde

Golden Beige

Multi-blonde

Brunette Base

Super Subtle

Balanced Warmth

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