Highlights are a fabulous way to give your hair new life and vibrancy without needing to dye all of your hair. You can use highlights to transform your look or even touch up grey hairs and reintroduce color.
However, a very common question many people have about getting highlights done in their hair is how long it takes. This can be important to know if you are planning to go to a hair salon to get it done by a professional.
So how long does it take to get highlights? It takes approximately 2 to 3 hours to get highlights in a hair salon. For example, simple highlights will be completed within approximately 2 hours. However, more complex highlights such as ombre, foiling, and balayage can take 3 hours or longer, especially if you have long hair.
This means that the amount of time it takes to get highlights done in your hair will greatly depend on what you are having done. Also, the amount of coloring needed, and your hair’s length.
Things That Influence the Time Needed For Getting Highlights
As we’ve mentioned previously, there can be many things that will influence the amount of time you will need when getting highlights.
Even though getting highlights added to your hair will usually take you approximately 2 – 3 hours if you go to a hair salon or hair professional. There are still a few things you should consider that may make your visit to the salon take much longer than you think.
Here are some things that influence the time needed for getting highlights:
- The hair salon you choose to go to
- The level of experience your colorist has
- The length of your hair
- The highlighting technique you will be using
So, if you want to know more about what to expect when getting highlights done at a salon. We highly recommend that you consider the following details.
The Hair Salon You Choose to Go To
It’s important to know that picking the right hair salon to go to when getting highlights done can be half the battle! As it’s bound to take much longer if they don’t frequently highlight people’s hair.
So to help ensure you are choosing the right salon for your needs. You will first need to do your research, check online reviews, and look for a salon in your area that has a lot of experience with highlighting hair.
This is especially important if you plan on going back to them later to get your highlights redone, or touched up on a schedule. So pick your preferred salon wisely to save yourself time.
The Level of Experience Your Colorist Has
Another major factor in the length of time it will take you to get highlights added to your hair is the experience of the colorist. A beginner colorist may take much longer to achieve the look you want for your hair.
Practice makes perfect. So it’s a simple fact that a hair professional with a lot of experience doing highlights in people’s hair will get it done much quicker and usually do a better job.
So if you are looking to make an appointment at a salon, or with a hair professional. It’s always a good idea to ask a few simple questions relating to highlights, what you want for your hair, and how frequently they usually do the kind of hair coloring you’re looking for.
The Length of Your Hair
If you are looking to highlight long strands of your hair, this will inevitably take a colorist much longer when compared to shorter hair.
For example, when getting highlights applied to short hair this may only take a colorist 1-2 hours to achieve the look and color you want in your hair. Whereas for longer hair, it can take up to 3 hours or more due to the number of long hair strands your colorist needs to work with.
So no matter the color or type of highlights you want to be applied to your hair by a colorist or hair professional. When you have long hair it’s bound to take much longer to get your highlights done in a salon.
The Highlighting Technique You Will Be Using
Lastly, one of the most important factors that will influence how long it takes you to get highlights added to your hair is the highlighting technique that is used.
Most salons and colorists will usually offer to achieve your highlights using two widely used methods. The cap technique or the foil wrapping technique. Both of these methods may be offered to you and can be used to apply highlights to your hair by a colorist.
If your colorist is using the cap technique to apply highlights to your hair. This will usually take longer than foil wrapping. Simply because they will need to pass sections of your hair through the holes in the cap to allow them to highlight your hair.
This means that when using the cap technique to highlight your hair. It can be very time-consuming. The amount of time it will take to complete your highlights will heavily rely on the skill, experience, and precision of your colorist.
Let’s take a look at how to choose the right technique for your hair to save yourself some time!
How to Choose the Right Highlights Technique
In general, there are currently two main highlighting techniques widely used by salons and colorists all over the world. The cap technique and the foil wrapping technique.
So what exactly are they, how long do they take, and which one should you choose when getting highlights done in your hair?
In short, the cap highlights technique involves using a specialized cap with tiny holes in it that the strands of your hair will pass through before highlighting your hair. The foil wrap technique involves strands of your hair being wrapped in foil once your colorist has applied dye to them.
Both of these highlighting techniques are widely used but may change based on what your colorist thinks is best to achieve the look your want for your hair.
Here are some further details on the differences between these two popular hair highlighting techniques.
Cap Highlights Technique
Using the cap technique for highlights is ideal if you want good overall coverage, or need to cover up a lot of gray or white strands in your hair. It’s a versatile highlighting method that’s suitable for most types of hair such as straight hair, curly, and wavy.
One advantage of using the cap highlights technique is that it will usually leave you with highlights that only need to be touched up every two months.
The downside to the cap highlighting method is that it’s fairly time-consuming. So it’s not ideal if you want your highlights done in a hurry, or only want the procedure to take a few hours.
In short, when getting your highlights done with the cap technique. Your colorist will need to pass sections of your hair through the cap before dyeing. This can take a long time (up to 3 hours or more), especially on long hair and it may tangle during the procedure.
So it’s usually best to opt for the cap highlights technique if you are happy to have the procedure take 3 hours or more, and want to avoid frequent revisits to the salon.
Foil Wrap Technique
If you want highlights to be added to your hair in only a couple of hours, then the foil wrap highlighting technique will be for you. As it can be a lot less time-consuming than the cap highlights technique.
The foil wrapping technique involves the colorist wrapping strands of your hair with foil once the dye has been applied. It’s can be used on most types of hair, just like the cap technique.
So using this method to add highlights to your hair will usually take a lot less time. As the approach is quicker, easier, and less time-consuming for both you and an experienced colorist.
This means a major advantage of the foil wrap highlights technique is that the procedure can be completed in only a couple of hours. This makes it perfect if you need to plan a salon visit around a busy schedule.
It’s also great for those of you that want to get highlights done on dark hair. As the effect the foil wrap technique creates can look better on darker strands of hair.
The only real downside to the foil wrapping highlights technique is that it will have a much shorter maintenance time (approximately 30 days). This means that you will need to revisit the salon for touch-ups a lot more frequently.
Also, read our post about how long highlights last, to get a better idea of the maintenance and hair care that is needed when getting highlights for your hair.
So now that we’ve helped you pick the right highlights technique to use on your hair to save yourself time. You should consider both methods when they are offered to you at a salon, and weigh up the pros and cons of the cap technique, and the foil wrap technique.
Tips On Choosing Your Highlights Color
If you want to save yourself a lot of time when getting highlights done at a salon. It’s always a good idea to have a very clear idea of what you want and the highlights color you’re looking for.
One thing that can sometimes slow down a highlights procedure is your indecisiveness about the color you want for your hair. So it’s highly recommended to plan ahead and know exactly what you want your colorist to do.
You can look for examples, or even take some colors with you to the salon to help explain to your colorist what highlights you want for your hair.
If you are unsure about the exact highlights color you want for your hair. You can always ask the opinion of your colorist who will be able to help you in picking the right color, tones, and shades for your hair.
Here are a few tips on choosing the color of your highlights:
- If you need to cover a lot of grey or white hairs, consider blonde highlights, light colors, and natural shades or tones.
- Match your highlight color to the tone of your eye color. This will make your eyes naturally compliment your hair.
- If you have ashy hair and want to add color and warmth. Use caramel or honey colors.
- If your hair leans towards red, consider picking ashy shades.
So if you use the tips above, you may be able to save yourself some time when explaining to your colorist the exact color you want for your hair.
Do Highlights on Long Hair Take Longer?
Yes, the longer your hair is, the longer it will take a colorist to complete your highlights. They will have to spend longer pulling sections of your hair through a cap or wrapping your hair in foil. So if you have long hair, you should expect highlights to take approximately 3 hours or more.
Unfortunately, if you want to get highlights added to long hair. There is no way around it being fairly time-consuming to complete.
This is simply because the colorist will have more hair to work with. They will need to dye sections and long individual strands of your hair, which can be very time-consuming. Then they will also need to allow time for the dye and highlights to set in your long hair.
So getting highlights done on longer hair is bound to take a lot longer than on shorter hair. It takes time, and can also depend on the highlights technique they use, the experience of the colorist, and any styling you want to be done after it has been dyed.
How Long Does it Take to Get Highlights on Short Hair?
If you are getting highlights done on short hair, this may only take approximately 1-2 hours for an experienced colorist to complete. Simply because they have a lot less hair to work with and dye.
It’s a simple fact that if you have short hair, or you are only looking for basic highlights. It will take a lot less time than getting highlights done on long hair.
So getting highlights added to short hair is a relatively quick procedure and shouldn’t take you a lot of time.
This is particularly true if the salon you go to has a lot of experience in doing the type of highlights that you want, and the procedure or colors you are looking to be added to your hair are not too complex.
How Long Does it Take to Get Blonde Highlights?
If you have blonde or light hair, then it may only take 1 – 2 hours to get blonde highlights added to your hair. However, if your hair is darker you should expect to spend up to 3 hours in the salon. Simply because it takes longer for darker hair to be bleached and absorb dye.
So if you have darker hair you should expect your visit to a salon or hair colorist to take up to 3 hours to get blonde highlights.
If you want to get highlights added to short hair, or you already have light, blonde hair. Then the time it will take will be significantly reduced. As it takes a lot less time to add blonde highlights to shorter hair, and hair that already has light shades or tones.
Final Thoughts On “How Long Does it Take to Get Highlights?”
So how long does it take to get highlights done in your hair?
The time needed to get highlights at a hair salon is between 2 – 3 hours. Simple highlights, for example, will be finished in around 2 hours. In comparison, more complex highlights like ombre, foiling, and balayage might take three hours or more, particularly if you have dark or long hair.
This means if you are considering getting highlights done at a salon. You should strongly consider all of the things mentioned throughout this post that may affect the amount of time you need to achieve the look you want for your hair.