We’ve all thought about getting highlights in our hair at least once. Whether you’re going for a balayage or beachy look, highlights might be just the thing to wake up your hair once and for all.
Hair highlights cost anything up to £175 in the UK, on average. Expect to spend a couple of hours at the salon, whether you’re getting a full head of highlights, half head, or just a root touch-up. The price is often determined by the salon’s location and the skill of the technician you choose.
In the rest of this article, I’ll delve into the average costs of getting a full head of highlights in the UK and the cost of getting your roots touched up. By the end, you’ll know exactly what to expect from your colourist and the amount of money you should expect to put aside.
Covered in this Article:
How Much Do Full Head Highlights Cost in UK Salons?
Depending on where you live in the UK, you might find a slight difference in price between cities. If you live in London, you can expect to pay significantly more for the privilege of getting highlights since London is invariably the most expensive area in the UK.
In terms of high prices, London reigns supreme. On the other hand, Glasgow is typically the cheapest place to get your hair done (source: Direct Line for Business).
Full head highlights cost £175 on average in UK salons. This price might fluctuate depending on your location. But overall, expect to pay at least £100 — especially if this is your first time getting full head highlights.
Although this might seem a bit expensive, the follow-up appointments you’ll need are actually cheaper than the first-time price. These appointments could cost anything from £50 to £150, depending on how fancy your salon is (source: Nimble Fins).
These touch-up appointments will become necessary as your hair grows, so make sure you allow for these costs in your budget. The recommended time to get touch-ups sits around 10 weeks (source: L’Oréal Paris).
Additionally, you’ll need to remember that there are many types of hair technicians in the UK, ranging from basic colourists to colour masters or senior technicians. These levels of colour technician denote how much experience your colourist has, and the senior technician or colour master will invariably be more expensive than a basic colourist.
Therefore, if you want someone experienced giving you highlights, expect to pay higher prices. Similarly, if you don’t mind having someone less experienced, you’ll pay less. Of course, if you want the best quality highlights possible, you need to be willing to pay for the former.
Ultimately, prices will fluctuate between salons and locations, so make sure you check each salon’s website before settling on something (source: Treatwell).
Here’s a table showing the price of full head highlights for various salons in the UK:
| Salon | Price of Full Head Highlights |
| Headmasters (source: Headmasters) | £115 to £157 |
| Toni & Guy (source: Toni & Guy) | £100 to £120 |
| Rush (source: Rush) | From £117 |
| Live True London (source: Live True London) | £135 to £169 |
| Aveda (Source: Aveda) | £132 to £198 |
As you can see, prices vary dramatically between salons. Aveda is one of the most expensive salons to get highlights in the UK, but they have high standards and celebrity clientele, with their flagship store in High Holborn, London.
This means they will inevitably be more expensive than other, less reputable salons. However, they do have an extensive rewards program and student discount for those looking for a bargain (Source: Aveda).
How Much Is a Root Touch Up in the UK?
Root touch-ups are infinitely cheaper than a full head of highlights. If you’ve recently coloured your hair and the greys are popping through, there are many different ways to touch them up. You can choose to do them yourself at home with a spray or visit a salon to get them touched up professionally.
A root touch up in the UK costs anything from £5.99 for an at-home DIY product to about £54 at a salon. Whichever you choose depends on your hair type, whether you have highlights or a full colour, and your budgetary preferences.
If you’ve got a solid colour and you want to get your roots touched up at home, you’ll need to ensure you colour-match correctly.
How Much Is It to Touch Up My Roots at Home?
Although this is inevitably the cheapest option, there’s room for mistakes here — so either remember the colour you dyed your hair or ask your hairdresser if you can’t remember. You can purchase an at-home root touch-up kit at a reasonable price like these ones on Amazon.
If you decide to go this route, make sure you do your research beforehand. There’s nothing worse than ruining your hair through ill-matching colours and patchy touch-ups. There’s plenty of great advice online from hair experts and the like. We also have an article on the best home highlighting kits, if that’s what you’re looking for, with some pro tips.
In the meantime, here’s a YouTube video of how to touch up your roots at home:
On the other hand, it’s probably best to visit a salon if you’ve got highlights and need to touch up your roots. This will cost much less than getting a full head (or even a half head) of highlights, especially if you’re touching up the crown of your head and around your face.
Root colour will probably last about 8 weeks, depending on how quickly your hair grows (source: KH Hair).
Additionally, attempting to your highlights at home on your roots is a lot more complex than touching up one solid colour. It may take learning specific techniques and practice to get it right, and if you get it wrong, you’ll end up going to the salon to fix it anyway.
If you think you’ve got what it takes to touch up highlighted roots yourself, go for it! Have a look at this YouTube video to see one of the techniques you could use:
And there you have it — average prices for hair highlights in the UK. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find an option that suits you since there are hundreds of salons in the UK — all with different options for every budget.
If you’re short on cash – you can try it at home, but if it were me, I’d leave it to the professionals if you’ve never done it before!