Face framing highlights sit right by your cheekbones, so brass shows up there first. Here are purple shampoos, toners, glosses and one very good clip to keep those front strands bright.
Keeping Face Framing Highlights Bright Between Salon Visits
The money piece is a nineties idea that the internet rediscovered. Allure traces the look back to that decade, and the colorist it quotes points to Geri Halliwell as the main inspiration, then notes it has come back in a softer, more refined form. The technique is simple to describe: lighten only the strands that frame your face, usually three or four shades brighter than the rest, and you get brightness exactly where people look. The catch is that those face framing highlights are also the strands everyone sees in every photo and on every video call, so a bit of yellow is obvious fast. The fix most colorists point to is a purple shampoo. Purple sits opposite yellow on the color wheel, so a little violet pigment deposited during a wash cancels out yellow and orange tones rather than dyeing the hair. No color product appears in this edit, only care and finishing. Begin with four toning shampoos, each with a different personality. Dae, founded by Amber Fillerup Clark in Arizona, took its name from dawn, afternoon and evening. Olaplex began in 2014 with Dean Christal and two chemists, so its Blonde Toning shampoo comes from a bond building background.
Shampoo, serum and conditioner
The second grid is about keeping blonde bright without drying it out. Davines is a family company from Parma: Gianni and Silvana Bollati started a research lab in 1983, and the name blends the names of their children, Davide and Stefania. The Heart of Glass shampoo and the bonding glow serum are both made for lightened hair, the shampoo for buildup and hard water residue and the serum for a finish with shine. Oribe's Bright Blonde conditioner carries violet pigment in a conditioner format, which is gentler if a shampoo feels too strong. Shu uemura was founded by a Japanese makeup artist of the same name, and its Yūbi Blonde shampoo uses a cool pigment technology the brand developed with Japanese ink makers. My tip is to use a toning shampoo on damp, not dripping, hair. One professional guide notes that sopping wet hair forms a barrier that blocks the pigment, and two to five minutes is the usual window.
Gloss, heat and clips
The third grid is what I reach for after the color work is done. Kérastase was created by L'Oréal in 1964 in Paris, and its Chroma Absolu gloss is a rinse out treatment for color treated hair. Amika started in Brooklyn in 2007 and its name means friend, and the Flash mask is a sixty second hair gloss. K18 was founded in San Francisco in 2019 by Suveen Sahib, building on about ten years of research behind its patented peptide, and its HeatBounce leave-in is the heat protectant I use before blow drying. Emi Jay, which Julianne Goldmark began at fourteen by dyeing elastics in her kitchen, made the Popstar clips for holding sections out of the way. What I would skip is reaching for purple every wash. Brands and colorists alike describe it as a treatment wash, and too much can leave a cool tint, so use it only when the warmth returns and let the gloss handle shine in between.
The front pieces, afterward
When the front pieces are the brightest part of your hair, they need to be the best looked after. A violet wash now and then, a conditioner that detangles, and a little heat protection keep them clean and light. I like that none of this takes more than a few minutes, and most of it happens in the shower. Pick the one or two products you will actually use each week and let the rest wait.
