What Are Highlights? How Long They Take and How Often to Refresh

Highlights are one of the most asked-about and least explained colour services. This guide covers what they are, how long the appointment actually takes, how often they need refreshing, and where they part ways with balayage and ombré.

What Highlights Are

Highlighting means lifting and colouring selected strands rather than the whole head. The French word behind it — reflet, meaning reflection — describes the effect: instead of one flat colour, the hair keeps fine ribbons that catch the light. Done well, it adds depth, movement and the impression of volume, and the difference is most striking on hair that reads as a single flat tone.

How Long Do Highlights Take?

A typical highlighting appointment runs 2–3 hours. On short, fine hair it can come down to 1.5–2 hours; on long, thick or dark-based hair it can reach 3–4. The time breaks down roughly as: 30–45 minutes sectioning the strands into foils, 25–35 minutes of development, 20–30 minutes to wash and tone, then blow-dry and styling. How many levels of lift you want matters just as much — going from dark brown to pale blonde is not a single-session job but a staged one.

How Often Do Highlights Need Refreshing?

Classic foil highlights leave a visible line at the root, so they want refreshing every 6–8 weeks, and at the latest every 2–3 months. Softer, blended techniques such as babylights and foilyage leave the root area diffused, so regrowth shows far less — those carry comfortably for 3–4 months. If low maintenance matters to you, the technique you choose decides your refresh interval at least as much as how fast your hair grows.

Classic Foil Highlights

Distinct, evenly lifted ribbons. This is the right technique for covering grey or for a clear, deliberate contrast. Because the foil isolates the lightener from the surrounding hair, the result is controlled and repeatable.

Babylights

Very fine strands lifted the way a child's sun-bleached hair looks. The effect is natural light rather than stripes, and it leaves no hard line as the hair grows. It takes longer to apply because far more fine sections are separated — but the refresh interval stretches in proportion.

Foilyage

Balayage technique combined with foils. The lightener is painted on freehand and then wrapped, so you get balayage's natural distribution together with the lifting power foil provides. It suits anyone who wants to go lighter without a hard regrowth line.

Highlights vs Balayage vs Ombré

Highlights are strand-based: fine ribbons are lifted and distributed through the length. Balayage is painted on freehand and concentrates toward the ends, with a soft transition. Ombré is zone-based: the top stays dark and the lower section is clearly lighter. All three are lifting techniques; what differs is how the lifted area is chosen — which is also why their maintenance intervals differ, with classic foils needing the most frequent refresh and ombré the least.

Aftercare

Don't wash your hair for the first 48 hours — the colour settles in that window. After that, colour-protecting shampoo, a purple shampoo once a week to balance yellow tones, and a weekly nourishing mask will extend the life of the work. Lifted strands lose moisture faster than untreated ones, which makes aftercare as consequential as the colour choice itself.

Highlights at TEO

At TEO Beauty Centre in Mall of İstanbul, we assess your base colour, everything the hair has been through before, and the tone you are aiming for — then choose the technique accordingly. Mentioning your hair length and any previous colour when you book lets us set aside the right amount of time.