Beauty Beat: Low-Down on Lowlights

Okay, summer is over princess frosty locks.

Tone down your bleach blonde over-highlighted tresses with lowlights, which help create a vibrant hair color, brings out your skin tone and complements all those winter shades you'll be wearing for the coming months.

Rosina Luca, stylist and marketing manager at Avalon Salon and Aesthetic Day Spa in Hyde Park, says many of her clients come in for lowlights this time of year. According to Luca, a "lowlight" color can range from a dark blonde to a red, brown or black.

In general, she says, going a little darker in winter is best. Darker lights are better for skin that is often paler in winter and won't drain the color from the face.

Lowlights can also act as a slow transition into a dark color, versus a drastic change like Victoria Beckham's platinum-to-chocolate forklift upgrade.

You can get creative with the lowlighting technique, as well. Luca says Avalon uses a product called Wella Color, which has a "Colors of the World" technique guide. "It provides different techniques for different cuts," she says. "It really enhances the end result."

As for the time you need to invest in such a treatment, it really depends on how much hair you have to process, color and the health of your hair. "We know that not everyone gets out of here in a cookie-cutter time frame, because we're well trained to go through all the steps and processes to make that color vibrant and dynamic," says Luca, "not muddy, pink or ashy."

The price also varies depending on how much experience your stylist has and how many processes are required for your treatment. But, Luca says, upon consultation, your treatment will start at $85.

Visit Luca or one of the other expert stylists at Avalon for more information about lowlights. Avalon is also an aesthetic day spa, which means you can visit their in-house physician about their many medical treatments offered at Avalon. In fact, they're having a special "open house" to learn about Radiesse, a dermal filler, on Nov. 30. Call 513.533.1700 to find out more.