AirTouch Highlights Appointments

AirTouch highlights — in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

Highlights give you brightness and dimension: lighter pieces woven through the hair with foils, lifting specific sections for a result that catches the light. Their one real weakness is the grow-out — because foils lift from close to the root, standard highlights can leave a more defined regrowth line as your natural colour comes through. AirTouch is the technique that softens exactly that. If you love the brightness of highlights but not the maintenance of a sharp regrowth line, AirTouch highlights are worth understanding.

Call or WhatsApp us on 01235 534705 if you’d like to talk through whether they’re right for you.

What is an AirTouch highlight?

AirTouch is a technique rather than a colour — it can be applied to highlights or to balayage, and the method itself is the same. With traditional highlighting, your stylist uses foils, colour or bleach, a brush and a comb, placing tension on the hair and backcombing to blend the sections. AirTouch replaces the backcombing with heat and pressurised air from a hairdryer, which gently separates the finer strands from the thicker ones before the foil goes in. Only the finer strands are lifted, which is what creates the softer, more gradual result — both in the finish and, crucially, in how it grows out.

What AirTouch gives highlights specifically.

This is where AirTouch earns its place on highlights rather than balayage. Balayage is hand-painted and staggered down the hair, so it grows out softly by design — it doesn’t have a hard regrowth line to fix. Highlights are different: they lift from nearer the root, which gives you that bright, woven, all-over dimension, but also means a more visible line as your roots come through. AirTouch softens that line. By lifting only the finer strands, it blurs the boundary between the lightened pieces and your natural base, so regrowth arrives gradually rather than as a defined band. You keep the brightness and definition that make highlights worth having, but with a grow-out closer to balayage’s — which for a lot of clients is the best of both.

AirTouch highlights or AirTouch balayage — which do you want?

Because AirTouch can be applied to either, the real question is which underlying look you’re after — and that comes down to highlights versus balayage, not the technique. Choose AirTouch highlights if you want brighter, more uniform, woven-through colour with real all-over dimension, softened at the grow-out. Choose AirTouch balayage if you want a softer, more sun-kissed, hand-painted look that’s lightest towards the ends. AirTouch improves the blend on both; it doesn’t change which look suits you. If you’re not sure which you’re describing, that’s genuinely what the consultation is for — bring a picture and we’ll tell you which one gets you there. There’s a full explanation of the balayage version on our AirTouch balayage page.

What does AirTouch add to your appointment?

Time, mostly — which is where the cost difference comes from. The AirTouch process is more meticulous than standard foiling, so it adds roughly thirty minutes to an hour to a typical highlights appointment. A standard full head of highlights with us is a three-to-four-hour appointment; AirTouch highlights sit above that. On price, standard full-head highlights average around £150 with us; AirTouch highlights carry a premium for the additional time and skill involved. Your consultation gives you a firm figure before you book — for comparison, the same AirTouch work in central Oxford often runs considerably higher. The full price list is on a separate page.

Every appointment starts with a consultation.

Free, no-obligation, and it includes the skin test we’re required to carry out before any colour service. We use JOICO for our colour and treatment work. AirTouch isn’t right for everyone or every brief — sometimes standard highlights, a balayage, or a different technique altogether is the better call, and we’ll tell you so in person rather than upsell you the more expensive option. We use the consultation to look at your hair, understand its history, and work out whether AirTouch highlights genuinely get you what you want. If you’re expecting or nursing, our guidance on hair colour while pregnant or breastfeeding is worth a read first.

Booking your appointment.

If you’re new to us, book a consultation first — it’s free, includes the required skin test, and lets us both check AirTouch highlights are the right choice before you commit the time and cost. Bring photos of what you’re after; they help us understand whether you’re really describing highlights, balayage, or something in between. You can also read more about standard highlights if you want to compare the two.

Online booking is at wisteriaavenue.co.uk/bookings, or call us Tuesday to Saturday on 01235 534705. WhatsApp the same number if it’s easier.