Hair Contouring- Accentuate Your Features With Highlights

You’re probably already familiar with the process of contouring. Most people do at least a little contouring every day when they apply their makeup. Contouring is the use of color to sculpt something to be more visually pleasing. It can make something appear thinner, wider, longer, or shorter. But makeup isn’t the only way you can use contouring to accentuate your features. It can be done with the strategic placement of hair color as well. Hair contouring uses hair color to create light and shadow using highlights and lowlight to alter the appearance of the shape of your face.

 

How Hair Contouring Works

It’s a combination of light and dark shades that make hair contouring work. Lighter colors draw the eye toward an area and darker colors draw the eye away. Hair coloring should be subtle with a natural look. There should not be a big contrast between the lighter and darker shades used to create your highlights and lowlights.

 

Hair contouring is an advanced form of the balayage highlighting technique and requires a skilled and experienced colorist. The placement of color is crucial, and it should be paired with a cut that also flatters your face shape. This is one color treatment that you definitely don’t want to try at home. When you go into the salon, discuss your face shape with your colorist. Tell them what you like about the shape of your face and what you would like to change a bit.

 

Highlight Placement Based On Face Shape

 

Round Faces- Round faces have a tendency to take on a ball-like appearance with the wrong cut and color. To avoid this and elongate your face ask your colorist to place lighter shades from ear to ear around your hairline and then use darker shades under your ears and toward the ends of your hair. This will draw the eye and make your face appear a bit longer and brighter.

 

Oval Faces- Oval is the ideal neutral face shape. If your face is oval-shaped, contouring will likely be focused on brightening your complexion and shaping your hair to make it look thicker. To play up your already well-balanced features ask your colorist to add highlights with a lot of depth and loads of shine. 

 

Square Faces- Square faces tend to have a very prominent jawline with wider set of facial features. The goal here is to soften the sharp angles and elongate your face. Ask your colorist to use layers of multi-tonal colors with highlights and lowlights applied at the corners of your face near your jawline and temples to soften those lines. Ask for darker shades next to your cheeks and a lighter color on top and on your ends to draw the eye up and down for a lengthening effect.

 

Heart-Shaped Faces- For those with heart-shaped faces, the goal is to slim the forehead and widen the jaw area for a more oval appearance. To achieve this darker shades should be applied at the roots to take the emphasis off of your forehead and lighter highlighted pieces placed around the ears and jawline to soften and widen the bottom half of your face.

 

Once you have your hair perfectly contoured with gorgeous highlights and lowlights you can keep your color beautiful longer by using color-protective products like Davines Minu Shampoo and Conditioner that are specially formulated to be gentle on color-treated hair.

 

Whatever features you would like to diminish or accentuate, hair contouring can be a very beneficial tool to help you achieve the look you want. The amazing colorists at  Pyara Spa and Salon are here to help you use highlights and lowlights along with an expertly styled cut and perfectly contoured makeup to sculpt your face and accentuate your best features. Give us a call at 781-270-9200 or book your appointment online. You’ll find us at 1050 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge.