MomSkoop
Getting highlights is exciting, but choosing the right hairstyle to show them off makes all the difference. The perfect cut and styling technique can turn subtle color into a stunning statement that catches everyone’s eye.
Whether you prefer casual waves or sleek straight locks, certain hairstyles are designed to maximize the dimension and depth that highlights bring to your hair.
1. Beachy Waves
Nothing showcases highlights quite like the effortless movement of beachy waves. When your hair has that perfectly undone texture, every strand catches the light differently, creating a multi-dimensional effect that flat hair simply can’t achieve.
The key is using a curling wand or sea salt spray to create loose, irregular waves that don’t look too polished. As your hair moves throughout the day, the lighter pieces peek through the darker base color, giving you that sun-kissed glow everyone wants.
This style works beautifully whether you have subtle balayage or bold chunky highlights, making it a versatile choice for any highlight pattern.
2. Layered Lob (Long Bob)
A layered lob creates the perfect canvas for highlights because the varying lengths add instant dimension. Each layer acts like a frame, displaying different shades and tones as they stack on top of each other.
The choppy, textured ends prevent your highlights from blending together too much, which can happen with blunt cuts. Instead, every piece of color gets its moment to shine, especially around your face where the shortest layers frame your features.
Stylists love recommending this cut because it requires minimal effort to look amazing—just blow-dry with a round brush and you’re done.
3. Face-Framing Layers
Strategic layers around your face act like spotlights for your highlights, drawing attention exactly where you want it. By concentrating lighter pieces near your cheeks and jawline, you create a brightening effect that makes your whole face look more radiant.
These layers work especially well if you’ve placed highlights intentionally around the front sections of your hair. The shorter pieces move independently from the rest of your hair, constantly revealing flashes of color.
Whether you style them straight or with a slight bend, face-framing layers guarantee your highlights won’t hide in the back of your head.
4. High Ponytail with Texture
Pulling your hair up into a high ponytail might seem simple, but it’s actually genius for showing off highlights. When you gather all your hair at the crown, every single strand becomes visible, creating a striped effect that displays your color work beautifully.
Add some texture by teasing the ponytail or wrapping sections around a curling iron for extra movement. The height of this style means your highlights catch overhead lighting, making them appear even brighter and more vibrant.
Wrap a small section of hair around the elastic to hide it, and you’ve got a polished look that’s both practical and pretty.
5. Messy Low Bun
A messy low bun proves that updos don’t have to hide your beautiful color. By intentionally leaving pieces loose and creating a relaxed, imperfect shape, you allow highlights to peek through in unexpected ways.
Pull out a few face-framing strands to showcase the lighter tones near your face, and don’t twist the bun too tightly. The looser you keep it, the more dimension shows through as different sections overlap and separate.
This style is perfect for second-day hair when your highlights have that lived-in look that makes them appear even more natural and blended.
6. Half-Up Top Knot
The half-up top knot gives you the best of both worlds by displaying highlights in two different ways simultaneously. The hair you pull into the knot creates vertical lines of color, while the bottom section flows freely to show horizontal dimension.
This contrast makes your highlights look more complex and professionally done. The top knot itself becomes a focal point, especially if you’ve got lighter pieces concentrated at your crown.
Keep the knot slightly messy rather than super tight, and let a few wispy pieces fall around your face to soften the look and add even more color interest.
7. Braided Crown
Weaving a braid around your head like a crown turns your highlights into an actual work of art. As you braid, the lighter and darker strands twist together, creating a rope-like pattern that looks incredibly intricate and intentional.
The beauty of this style is that it puts your highlights front and center, literally framing your entire face. Each twist of the braid reveals a new combination of colors, making even subtle highlights look bold and noticeable.
Gently pull apart the braid sections to make it fuller and more relaxed, which also helps separate the colors for maximum visual impact.
8. Dutch Side Braid
Unlike a regular braid that hides on top of your head, a Dutch braid sits on the surface of your hair like a raised design. This makes it absolutely perfect for showing off highlights because the braid itself becomes three-dimensional and highly visible.
Starting from one side and braiding across or down creates a diagonal path that displays your color from every angle. The raised sections catch light differently than the flat parts, adding even more depth.
For extra impact, pancake the braid by gently pulling the outer edges to make it wider and flatter, which spreads out the colors beautifully.
9. Soft Curls with Middle Part
A middle part combined with soft, romantic curls creates symmetry that makes highlights look balanced and intentional. The curls add volume and movement, ensuring that your color never looks flat or one-dimensional.
Each curl acts like a spiral showcase, wrapping lighter and darker tones around each other in a way that straight hair simply cannot replicate. The middle part also draws the eye downward along both sides of your face, creating two pathways for your highlights to shine.
Use a large-barrel curling iron and brush through the curls gently for that soft, touchable finish that looks expensive and salon-fresh.
10. Sleek Straight Hair with Blunt Ends
When you want your highlights to make a bold, graphic statement, nothing beats sleek, straight hair with blunt ends. This style eliminates all texture and movement, forcing the eye to focus purely on the color placement and contrast.
The straight lines of your hair act like vertical stripes, making chunky highlights look especially dramatic and fashion-forward. Blunt ends create a sharp, clean line at the bottom that adds to the overall polished appearance.
Use a flat iron and finishing serum to get that mirror-like shine that reflects light and makes your highlights appear even more vibrant and saturated.
11. Voluminous Blowout
A professional-looking blowout with tons of volume is like giving your highlights a stage to perform on. The lifted roots and rounded ends create space between hair sections, preventing your highlights from clumping together and losing their individual impact.
When your hair has body and bounce, it moves constantly, which means your highlights are always catching light from different angles. The rounded shape of a blowout also frames your face beautifully, putting lighter pieces exactly where they’ll brighten your complexion most.
Use a round brush while blow-drying and finish with the cool shot button to lock in volume and shine.
12. Tousled Pixie Cut
Short hair doesn’t mean you can’t rock amazing highlights—in fact, a tousled pixie might be the smartest way to show them off. With less hair overall, every single highlighted piece becomes more noticeable and impactful.
The tousled texture prevents the style from looking too flat or boring, and it creates shadows and light spots that enhance your color dimension. Running your fingers through a pixie or using texturizing product makes the different tones separate and stand out individually.
Plus, pixie cuts grow out in a way that naturally blends highlights, giving you that effortlessly cool vibe that longer styles sometimes struggle to achieve.