Highlight Short Nape Hair

Female hairstyle with a very short buzzed nape — Photo: Shutterstock

Q: I have a question about short hair highlighting. My hair is pixie-short, with a short nape area. Should I highlight the small hairs at the neckline?

A: It’s usually not a good idea to highlight the hair in the nape area. Firstly, because the hair in this region is so short, the highlights can easily look spotty, often called “leopard spots”. This is because there isn’t enough length for the hair to fall over each other, creating movement and dimension in the hair.

The other reason is that because the hair in this reason is so short, it is very hard to highlight it. When working with very short hair, it’s easier to use the cap-method. Whether you use the highlight-cap method or foils, you have very little length to work with, which in effect means that you’ll need to get very close to the scalp.

When one has to work so close to the scalp, “bleeding” of the bleach is a high possibility. When the bleach “bleeds” is when you apply the highlights too close to the scalp, resulting in the bleach seeping out of the foil and spreading onto the scalp and surrounding hair. The consequence is a blotch of blonde, which is seriously unflattering.

Longer nape hair can be highlighted as long as you stay far enough from the scalp and you’ll have to use very fine highlights in this region to create a natural effect.

Also remember that the nape hair and all the hair along the hair line are finer and more fragile than the rest of the hair. This means that it will easily suffer chemical damage or breakage.

©Hairfinder.com

See also:

Highlight hair with a cap

Foil highlighting

The negative effects of highlights