Brunette hair color is rich, warm, and versatile.
While some brunettes opt to go fully blonde or add in streaks of bold colors, brunette highlighting creates dimension while allowing you to maintain your dark base.
The options are endless when it comes to brunette highlights, from subtle sun-kissed pieces to bold blonde accents.
No matter your natural shade or how dramatic you want your new look to be, there are stunning brunette highlights out there for you.
Keep reading for 13 beautiful brunette highlight ideas and tips for achieving them.
Subtle Sun-Kissed Highlights
The most natural brunette highlight is sun-kissed pieces that look like you spent time in the sun lightening random strands.
This style flatters all skin tones and creates gentle dimension without strongly contrasting against your natural shade.
To get the look, ask your colorist for fine highlights throughout the mid-lengths and ends using a hue just 1-3 shades lighter than your base.
The result is a soft, summery look that works on everyone from deep rich brunettes to chocolate and caramel shades.
Focus the highlights on the outer layers and underside of your hair to mimic how the sun naturally lightens hair.
Sun-kissed highlights grow out seamlessly, making them low maintenance.
They also pair beautifully with waves and curls to showcase the dimensional color.
Natural-Looking Baby lights
For brunettes who want subtle highlights with lots of dimension, babylights are the way to go.
Babylights are delicately hand-painted highlights using thin wisps of hair to mimic natural highlights.
Your stylist paints on the lightener to create tiny pieces of lighter hair throughout.
For brunettes, your colorist will use a shade slightly lighter than your natural and focus on lightening the mid-lengths and ends.
Babylights have a soft, diffused effect that blends in beautifully.
They create the illusion of natural highlights growing from the roots.
You can choose to get babylights all over or just frame your face for a pretty glow.
Babylights grow out seamlessly and work with any hair length or texture.
As your new growth comes in, get babylights touched up just on the ends to maintain a seamless look.
Face-Framing Highlights
Face-framing highlights focus lighter pieces of hair around your face to illuminate your features.
They provide dimension without drastically altering your overall hair color.
Your stylist will hand-paint fine highlights using foils, starting at the cheekbones and working down the lengths in front.
For brunettes, opt for highlights just 1-2 shades lighter than your natural base.
The subtle lightening creates a flattering glow while allowing your overall hair to remain dark.
Focus the highlights on the mid-lengths and ends to keep a rich root area that matches your natural shade.
Face-framing highlights complement all face shapes and skin tones when done with a soft touch.
They also seamlessly grow out into an overall highlighted look.
Face-framing highlights look beautiful with straight or wavy hair, allowing the lightened pieces to cascade around your face.
Rooted Bronde Highlights
The bronde hair color trend combines brown and blonde shades for a multi-dimensional look.
Brunettes can achieve a bronde effect through highlighting while still maintaining depth at the root.
Ask your colorist for beige and caramel blonde highlights painted through the mid-lengths and ends, leaving your natural roots untouched.
This creates a seamless blend from dark roots to light ends.
Focus the highlights on the outer layers and underside of your hair so they pop when you wear your hair down.
Rooted bronde highlights give you lots of contrast and personality while allowing you to stretch between salon visits.
Let your roots grow in several inches for optimal dimension.
Soft rooted bronde highlights look beautiful on any skin tone and work especially well for hazel, brown, and green eyes.
The mix of cool and warm hues flatters brunettes beautifully.
Chunky Caramel Highlights
Caramel highlights offer a rich warmth that looks gorgeous on brunettes.
For an eye-catching take, go for chunky caramel accents.
Your colorist will hand-paint wide ribbons of buttery caramel blonde using foils, taking strands the width of the foil rather than thin wisps.
Focus the chunky highlights around the mid-lengths and ends for lots of contrast against your dark roots.
Keep them to the outer layers and underside for the most drama when your hair is down.
When worn wavy or curly, the chunky caramel highlights create tons of depth and movement.
They stand out beautifully on straight styles as well.
Go for lighter caramel tones like cinnamon and honey blonde if you have medium to tan skin.
Richer brunettes can opt for deeper butterscotch and caramel shades.
Chunky caramel highlights are fun and attention-grabbing for brunettes who want to make a bold statement.
Bombshell Golden Highlights
Warm golden highlights lend a glamorous, bombshell effect on brunette hair.
The bold yet rich tones create show-stopping contrast on dark locks.
Ask your colorist for fine ribbons of radiant copper, honey, and amber painted through the mid-lengths and ends.
Keeping your roots dark prevents brassiness and allows the golden highlights to really pop.
For an edgier vibe, opt for shattered golden highlights, where the pieces are placed in an edgy, scattered pattern for lots of depth.
Sweeping golden highlights back from your face and temple in curved lines creates a flattering look.
Bombshell golden highlights make hazel and brown eyes pop.
They especially flatter warm, yellow undertones.
Embrace old Hollywood waves to really show off the shiny golden highlights cascading throughout your dark hair.
Spiced Cinnamon Highlights
For brunettes seeking warm red tones without a full commitment to red hair, spiced cinnamon highlights are perfect.
Your colorist will hand-paint fine ribbons of cinnamon spice, copper and burnt sienna, woven throughout the mid-lengths and ends.
Keep your roots dark for contrast.
The result is rich reddish tones that create allure and intrigue.
Cinnamon highlights look beautiful on straight and wavy styles, creating lots of dimension when worn down.
They also work well for curly hair when painted throughout for defined ringlets.
Cinnamon tones especially flatter brunettes with fair, peach or olive skin.
Bold red lipstick completes the spicy look.
Since the highlights are woven and don’t touch the root, you can go 6-8 weeks between glossing to keep the colors fresh.
Spiced cinnamon highlights are vibrant yet wearable for brunettes.
Shadowed Brunette Highlights
For an edgy take on highlights, try the shadowed look.
It combines darker lowlights with strategic light accents for tons of depth and attitude.
Your stylist will hand-paint buttery caramel and beige blonde highlights through the ends only, leaving the roots and mid-lengths your natural shady brown.
Then, they’ll add chocolate brown and espresso lowlights throughout the mid-lengths and concentrated around the roots.
The result is a bold yet completely natural look.
The warm brown lowlights create shadows and dimensions while the light ends provide contrast.
This highlighting technique works well on straight or wavy hair.
The messy combo of lowlights and reverse highlights lets your natural texture shine through.
It allows dark roots and enhances the dimensionality of your hair.
Shadowed brunette highlights make brown and hazel eyes pop while giving an edgy vibe.
Ash Blonde Accents
Cool ash blonde highlights provide an edgy yet refined contrast on rich brunette hair.
The ashy tones play against warmth to create definition without brassiness.
For a bold yet trendy look, ask your colorist for fine ribbons of platinum, ash and sand blondes painted through the lower portions of your hair.
Keep your rich roots intact to maintain a dimensional base.
Ash blonde highlights pop against nearly black locks for a striking look.
Dimensional ash blonde lowlights can also create the look when blended with darker neutral brown lowlights on medium to lighter brunettes.
A mix of ash blonde and neutral brown babylights delivers more natural contrast.
Whether bold and bright or delicately blended, ash blonde highlights lend modern intrigue to classic brunette hair.
Icy Platinum Highlights
Make a seriously bold statement by embracing platinum highlights on your dark brown hair.
The contrast is eye-catching and on-trend.
Ask your stylist for fine ribbons of icy platinum blonde painted through the lower two-thirds of your hair.
For extra drama, opt for chunky platinum accents.
Keep your naturally dark roots to prevent brassiness and let the icy pieces shine.
Platinum highlights make brown and green eyes dazzle and provide a striking contrast against warm skin.
They bring dimension and style to straight, wavy or curly brunette locks.
Get ready to turn heads with this eye-catching combination.
Ensure your hair stays healthy by using a good conditioning mask weekly and getting a gloss or toner every 4 weeks to maintain the icy tones.
Sunkissed Balayage Highlights
For a low-maintenance look, sunkissed balayage highlights are the way to go.
Balayage involves hand-painting highlights in a sweeping or scattered motion for a soft, diffused effect.
To get the sunkissed look, ask your stylist for buttery beige and golden blonde shades painted through the mid-lengths and ends in ribbons, leaving the roots your natural brunette.
You can opt for fine highlights swept back from the face or a more scattered paintbrush application.
Balayage highlights provide dimension while growing out naturally at the root.
As your hair color grows in, the highlights blend for a seamless grow-out.
Your stylist can refresh them by touching up the ends only.
The seamless regrowth makes balayage highlights low-commitment for busy brunettes.
They deliver beautiful dimension whether your hair is straight or wavy.
Bronde Balayage Highlights
A mixed brown and blonde balayage creates the on-trend bronde look with less damage than full bronde color.
Ask your colorist for a hand-painted mix of beige, caramel and honey blonde swept through the mid-lengths and ends in soft ribbons.
Focus on painting lighter pieces on the outer layers and underside of your hair for maximum dimension.
When worn wavy or straight, the bronde balayage highlights deliver lots of depth and visual interest.
Your natural roots transition seamlessly into the lightened ends.
As the highlights grow out, the bronde effect remains.
Get your color refreshed every 16-20 weeks, asking your stylist to touch up the ends to maintain saturation.
Bronde balayage highlights work with cool or warm skin tones to give vibrant dimension to brunette locks.
Spicy Red Velvet Highlights
Vibrant red highlights lend an exciting pop of color to dark brunette tresses.
Rather than going fully red, red velvet highlights let you test the waters with bold yet wearable accents.
Ask your colorist for fine ribbons of rich ruby and coppery auburn painted through the lower portions of your hair.
Leaving your roots dark prevents an overly bright result.
Red highlights look especially striking swept back from the temples in curved lines.
For brighter skin tones, opt for deeper burgundy and wine highlights.
Darker complexions can rock true red and vivid copper hues.
Your stylist may pre-fill your strands with gold tones to prevent red tones from going muddy.
Red velvet highlights make brown and hazel eyes dazzle thanks to their complementary color effect.
They bring life to straight, wavy or coily dark hair for a vibrant style.
Brunette hair color opens up a world of highlighting possibilities.
Whether you opt for subtle sun-kissed hues or bold platinum accents, strategic highlights create dimension while playing up your beautiful dark base.
Work with your stylist’s expertise to find the right brunette highlighting shades and placement to match your skin tone and achieve your desired look.
Any of these 13 sensational brunette highlighting techniques will illuminate your beautiful features and take your dark locks from basic to bombshell.
Polished yet playful, brunette highlights allow you to experiment with lighter hues while maintaining the richness of your dark hair.
Find your perfect match and get ready to highlight your inner star.
