- The cap technique is the quickest and easiest way to have highlights done.
- It’s a quick technique because it takes 2 to 3 hours, at most. If you did them with aluminum foil, it could take twice as long.
- It’s an easy technique because you don’t need advanced coloring skills. Once you get the strands of hair out through the perforations in the cap, you have to apply the bleaching mixture. It’s that simple.
The two most used techniques for highlights are cap and foils.
A stylist will perfectly handle both of these two techniques and, thanks to her knowledge and practice, she will do it in the minimum required time.
However, when you don’t have the experience or specific training, it’s best to choose a quick and easy way to achieve perfect highlights in your hair.
In this case, the best is the cap technique. It’s the fastest, as the whole process can take two or three hours at most.
But if you use the foil technique, it may twice as long. In addition, the results you get may not be what you expect.
The cap technique is the easiest because it doesn’t require advanced knowledge of coloring techniques. You just need to buy the materials and a little patience. Here, I want to stop for a moment.
Although the cap technique is simple and takes less time than the foil technique, it requires patience and attention to detail.
If you don’t have either of these, your best bet is to get your highlights done in a professional salon. You’ll spend more money, but they will look good. That being said, let’s get back to what we’re here for.
Are you willing to be patient and devote all your attention to the moment you get your highlights done?
Then, stay with me, because I will tell you:
- Why the cap technique is the fastest way to make the highlights
- 3 tricks to speed up the application of highlights with the cap technique
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Why the cap technique is the fastest way to make the highlights?
Quick and easy. In short, we’re all looking for the same thing. A road without nooks and crannies and with many shortcuts to achieve the best results in the shortest time possible.
And although “all roads lead to Rome”, you should choose the one you feel most confident about, as well as speeding up the process.
What do I mean by this?
I’ll tell you a story so you can understand.
Once a year, I close the salon for a fortnight, to take a well-deserved vacation. Yes, we hairdressers also need time to relax on a beach at our leisure.
The days before the temporary closure of the salon, my agenda does not have any free space for appointments because all my clients want their hair to be impeccable until my return. Therefore, I don’t always have time for all of them.
That was the case with Andrea, who called me for an appointment to have her hair done. When I told her I no longer had the time, she asked me to give her some advice to do her hair herself at home.
My instructions were clear and forceful: “Make your highlights with a cap, because this way you can select the highlights more accurately and you don’t have to watch the bleaching process every five minutes.”
When I came back from vacation, I think it took only two minutes for my body and mind to recover the stress I thought I had left buried in the sands. A crying and desperate Andrea was waiting for me, with hair of different sizes and colors.
What had happened?
As she couldn’t find the cap to make her highlights, she decided to make them with the foil technique.
Results?
It took her over six hours to get the highlights. But that wasn’t the worst of it.
Her hair looked like stripes, because you couldn’t call that highlights. They were thinner in some places and, in others, they were thicker. If that wasn’t enough, the tone in each one of them was different. (Here I tell you how to fix blotchy highlights)
- She hadn’t listened to me, and the results were a disaster. In order to do the highlights with the aluminum foil technique, you need advanced knowledge in coloring.
That knowledge will not only reduce your work time, but also help you get the highlights where you really want them. It will also help you create different sizes of highlights according to what you are looking for.
- That’s why the foil technique takes longer. You have to study in detail where the highlights will be made and carefully select the thickness of the locks you will have to bleach.
In addition, it’s more difficult. Once you select the strands where you will perform the bleaching, you must constantly monitor how the bleaching mixture acts on each strand, so as not to over-process it.
- On the other hand, you have to be skillful about the amounts of the bleach mixture you use.
As time goes by, the mixture loses its strength. Therefore it will not act in the same way in all the highlights.
That’s why the cap technique is the least complicated and the fastest way to achieve highlights without unpleasant surprises.
- All you have to do is slide the strands where you want to get the highlights done, through the perforated cap. Then, apply the bleach mixture to each strand.
They’ll all be processed at the same time, so you’ll speed up the process. In addition, the size of the highlights is much easier to control, due to the diameter of the holes in the cap, which is always the same.
- Finally, usually the highlights cap comes with a hook, something like a crochet needle, which will make it easier for you to insert each of your locks into the little holes.
Now that you know that if you want to do some quick highlights, you must choose the cap method, I will give you some extra tips.
3 tricks to speed up highlights with the cap technique
Time is money, and this is even more important when you’re applying a bleaching mixture to your hair.
Do you want to cut your work time in half when you’re doing your highlights? Then, make a note of it.
- You should have clean, dry hair to speed up the process.
This is vital, because you’ll get your hair to slide perfectly through the hole in the cap, preventing it from getting tangled. Always comb your hair back before putting the cap on.
- Cover the bleach mixture with a swim cap to speed up the process.
When you put the bleach mixture on your strands, cover them with a bathing cap or film. This way, the bleach will take on more temperature and its action will be much faster.
Now, don’t relax and watch how your hair reacts to the bleach mixture.
- Do an intensive hydration treatment a few days before having your highlights done.
This way, you will make your hair much more docile, and it will be easier and faster to untangle it and pass it through the little holes in the cap.
Conclusions
The cap technique is one of the fastest methods of performing highlights.
It doesn’t require much experience or prior knowledge of bleaching. Also, by using the holes in the cap, you manage to speed up the process. It would take twice as long with the foil technique.
