Highlights or Airtouch: why I don't do classic foil highlights

When it comes to Airtouch vs highlights, I choose Airtouch, and I don't do classic highlights or fine micro-highlights at all. It isn't about trends. Highlights are hard to correct safely without losing hair, and very fine micro-highlights woven with a veil comb are practically impossible to pick up again when you want to switch to another technique. Airtouch gives a light result that can be changed, corrected in a controlled way and taken safely to full blonde.

What classic highlights look like and why the root shows

With classic highlights the colourist selects strands and lightens them from the very root. Each light strand starts at the same point as the natural hair next to it. Until the roots grow, it looks neat.

But hair grows, and within about four to six weeks a band of natural colour appears between the scalp and the light part. The line is sharp, because the lightening started at the root in a straight line. Getting rid of it takes a touch-up, and you need them often.

Micro-highlights and the problem of overlap

Micro-highlights are very fine, dense strands. They're picked up with a veil comb that catches just a few hairs at a time. Visually you get an almost solid light colour with barely visible depth.

The problem comes with repeat appointments. To lighten the regrowth, the same fine strands have to be picked up again, exactly along the old line. Hitting every single one is physically impossible: the strands are fine, there are lots of them, and some lightener inevitably goes over hair that's already lightened. That's called overlap. Hair that's been lightened a second or third time becomes brittle, and over time you get breakage along the lengths, as well as stripes of different colour.

Why this kind of colour is hard to fix safely

After several rounds of highlight touch-ups, one head ends up with strands that have very different histories. Natural hair sits next to hair lightened once and hair lightened several times. Their porosity differs.

Porous hair absorbs toner quickly and deeply, then loses it just as fast. Denser hair takes pigment more slowly. So the same toner goes on patchy: too dark in places, already faded to yellow in others. And if you want to move to another technique, such as Airtouch or full blonde, you're working with hair where every strand reacts differently. The risk of losing some length is much higher, and it would be dishonest to promise it won't happen.

After veil-comb micro-highlights it's even harder. Those strands can't be picked up precisely again to, say, darken some of them or redistribute the blonde. They're so mixed into the natural hair that you have to work with the whole mass at once.

Airtouch vs highlights when it comes to touch-ups

Airtouch solves exactly these problems. The light hairs near the root are sparse and finely woven into your base, so grow-out doesn't create a sharp band. If up to half of your hair is blonde, I recommend a touch-up roughly every four months, or you can skip it, since the hair grows out smoothly. With a lot of blonde the line is sharper and you need to come in more often.

At a touch-up I lighten only the regrowth, and there's no need to put lightener on the lengths that are already light again. The shade on the lengths can be refreshed with toner, no powder involved. I explain how that works in my piece on the Airtouch touch-up. And the technique itself is covered here: what Airtouch is.

It matters to me to choose techniques that can be changed, corrected in a controlled way and that let you grow your length. With quality products, that's achievable. I wear long blonde myself and test everything on my own hair first.

What to do if you already have old highlights

It's very common, and it isn't a dead end. But there's usually no "switch to even Airtouch in one appointment" either. It depends on how many times the hair has been lightened, how porous it is and whether there are already brittle areas.

As a rule we go in stages. First I assess the condition of the hair and do chelation to remove mineral build-up, which gets in the way of even lightening and adds unwanted yellow. Then we even out the colour with toner and gradually work Airtouch into the new growth, while the old highlights are cut off over time. How many stages it takes only becomes clear after a consultation. If the hair is already snapping, that needs addressing first, and there's a separate piece on it: hair breaking after lightening.

Switching to Airtouch with me

I'm a colourist in Odesa working with blonde and light hair, using Viart products. Airtouch with me includes chelation, lightening, toning and reconstruction and costs from 3,200 UAH for all zones. A partial service is possible, for example just the face frame, the top and the temples.

If you have highlights or micro-highlights and want to grow out of them, message me on Telegram: t.me/le2chris. Send photos of your hair in daylight and briefly describe how long ago and how often it was lightened. I'll take a look and tell you where to start.