What’s a Money Piece Highlight?

Want to look like a million bucks? Invest in your hair color game with money piece highlights, the hottest coloring technique that every celebrity is rocking right now.

A money piece highlight is basically a face-framing hair color technique that involves dyeing the front strands of your hair so that they are lighter than the rest. This trendy highlighting style not only brightens up your complexion, but also makes your facial features pop (in a good way). It’s pretty much a bronzer or makeup contour for your hair. 

A money piece is perfect for boosting your natural shade and provides a natural-looking, sun-kissed glow. And since you don’t need to dye all of your hair to achieve the look, it’s a relatively low-maintenance style to keep up in between salon visits.

The best thing about money piece hair is that it looks great on any hair type, length, texture, color, and style. It’s also totally customizable and makes any color more interesting. 

Experiment with color by going for bold pastel or neon highlights, or stay subtle by adding a highlight just a few shades darker or lighter than the rest of your hair color. You can even incorporate your favorite Luxy hair extensions with this versatile highlight style. Tons of celebrities have been seen sporting their own version of the color, including Dua Lipa, Beyoncé, and Addison Rae, and the hair color trend is continuing to sweep through salons and social media feeds alike.

While the name (and the celebrities wearing this trend) might suggest that the money piece is expensive or unattainable, don’t be fooled! This hair coloring style is completely doable and affordable for all budgets. Just be sure that after dyeing your hair you use color-safe shampoo and conditioner to keep strands looking like a million bucks. It’s also a good idea to stay away from heat styling tools. You definitely don’t want your money piece color to fade out quickly. With this advice in mind, let’s take a look at some of the best money piece highlights. Maybe you’ll get inspired to go for your next color change!

What is a money piece highlight?

Like a sister to the balayage highlighting technique, money piece highlights involve painting face-framing highlights from the root to the end of your hair. This creates a lived-in, natural look while brightening hair and defining facial features. While balayage entails painting lots of highlighted strands throughout all of your hair, money pieces focus on highlighting just the front sections.

How to get a money piece

If you want to spice up your hair color with a money piece highlight, the best option is to visit the salon. A trained colorist will be able to apply face-framing highlights in the perfect spots and know how to blend them well with the rest of your hair. While the sky’s the limit when it comes to money piece highlight styles, you should consider how bold you would like them to be. The closer the highlight matches the rest of your hair, the more subtle it will be. 

You can also decide on the thickness of the highlights. Thinner strands often appear more natural while thicker pieces at the root create a more dramatic look. Have some photo inspiration on hand to show your stylist before heading into the salon and make sure your colorist knows where you usually part your hair.

Styling your money piece hair

The beauty of money piece highlights is that you can style them any way you’d like! Just keep in mind that the way you part your hair can make the color appear more or less dramatic. If you’re going for a side part, the side with more hair will be bolder. Color is also more noticeable on straight hair than waves or curls. 

Not sure exactly which style is right for you? Take a look at one of the following celeb styles for some solid gold inspiration. 

Dua Lipa

A pioneer of the money piece trend, Dua Lipa might have started it all with her chunky, 2000s-style blonde highlights. The star first endorsed the trend when she appeared with a dramatic two-tone style on her Instagram, showing off bleach blonde locks on top and dark brown on the bottom. This look is great for people who want to try out a blonde color without committing to dyeing their whole head. We love the way the lighter pieces create a strong contrast against Lipa’s darker hair. In the past, Lipa has also mixed things up by experimenting with a dark red money piece. 

Lizzo 

We love this fierce look on Lizzo. She surprised fans with her contrasting money piece and with the caption: it-girl activities. Her look is definitely It-girl material. Her blonde highlights frames her face and puts the spotlight on her beautiful features. 

Kylie Jenner

Kylie Jenner is no stranger to daring hairstyles, from her ultra-long braid style to dyeing her hair a variety of pastel hues. One of the latest hair trends she’s been spotted in is the money piece highlight. Here, Jenner is sporting lighter face-framing sections with her long and wavy brown hair. The soft and natural gold-toned hair effortlessly complements her features and brightens up the style, adding contrast and depth to a single shade.

Zonnique Pullins

From bobs to braids, money piece highlights pair perfectly with any hairstyle. Here, Zonnique Pullins glows from head to toe in her money piece braid style. The star showed off her cool look on Instagram, captioning the photo: “Literally a highlighter.” This is one look we definitely want to recreate at home.

Debby Ryan 

Money piece highlights are bang’s best friends, as proven by Debby Ryan. The actress pairs her wispy bangs with light pink, face-framing highlights for a sweet and whimsical style. When highlighting your bangs, you can choose between thin or thick highlighted pieces, or highlight all of your bangs along with face-framing strands.

Addison Rae

TikTok star Addison Rae looks stunning with thin, face-framing blonde highlights. The light blonde pieces give her hair a soft, sun-kissed look. By sweeping her hair back and leaving out just the front pieces, the highlights really pop.

Bella Hadid

The money piece highlight trend is heating up with Bella Hadid’s fiery red style. The model dyed orange-red highlights into her hair, leaving the rest of her brunette locks untouched to create contrast. Lighter pieces are in front, gradually darkening into red and then her natural brown.

Beyoncé

Queen Bey reigns supreme with her take on the money piece style. Her expertly placed highlights command attention and make her look like a golden goddess. To replicate Beyoncé’s exact color, ask your stylist for honey or baby blond pieces.

Millie Bobby Brown

The definition of short and sweet, Millie Bobby Brown’s hairstyle is amazing. The actress sports thin, face-framing pieces, proving that chunky highlights are not the only option. Her subtle balayage style blends well and brightens her facial features, while creating a lived-in look.

J Lo

J Lo must have directions to the fountain of youth (or maybe she’s a vampire?), because she literally never ages. The singer and actress looks amazing in her take on money piece hair, subtly lightening the front pieces of her light brown locks. 

Khloe Kardashian

Khloe Kardashian’s glossy waves are a dream made even sweeter by her subtle money piece highlights. The reality star pairs subtly lighter, copper-colored pieces on her front hairline with brunette locks to really open up her face. The look shows that you don’t always need to go a super light shade of blonde for the front pieces to achieve the same effect.

Hailey Bieber

Take it from Hailey Baldwin: elevating your look is as simple as adding some strategically-placed color to your hair. Her ultra-fine highlights feature just a hint of gold coloring, creating a minimal and low-key hairstyle. We love how timeless this style is! To get the look for yourself, ask your stylist for a weaved-in seamless money piece using a face-framing technique.

FKA Twigs

One of the boldest examples of the money piece trend comes from FKA Twigs, who rocks bright red, face-framing highlights. Her luscious mane looks amazing with the addition of edgy color framing her hairline.

How to maintain money piece hair

Now that you’re feeling ready and inspired to switch up your hair color, here are some tips to help keep your money piece highlights in mint condition.

Use color-safe shampoo and conditioner

To prevent your highlights from damage and fading, ensure you are using a color-safe formula every time you wash your hair. Some great picks for color-treated hair include SheaMoisture Strength + Color Care for blonde colored hair, Goldwell KeraSilk Color for textured hair, and OGX Fade-Defying Orchid Oil shampoo and conditioner for brunette colored hair. These will all help hair stay looking vibrant and fresh.

Stop brassiness in its tracks

Weeks after highlighting your hair, you might notice your salon shade turning an unwanted yellow, orange, or red tone. These brassy tones appear as the result of the bleaching process, which sometimes does not remove all of the underlying pigment in your hair. This allows warm tones to make an entrance. For lightened blonde hair, brassy tones will look yellow, while brown to black lightened hair will typically have orange or red brassiness. Money piece highlights often involve lightening hair, which increases your risk of brassy tones. Luckily there are ways to combat brassy hair. Select a hair color with ashy, cool tones, use a hair toner, avoid excessive sun and pool time, and neutralize warm tones with purple shampoo.

Avoid heat styling

Unfortunately, heat styling can be your hair’s worst enemy. Using a curling iron,

straightener, or blow dryer regularly causes moisture to evaporate and dries hair

out, leading to split ends, breakage, and faded color. While hair can typically withstand temperatures up to 450 degrees when applied occasionally, anything over this heat level will cause damage. Give your money piece hair a break and try out a heatless hairstyle instead. We recommend using a cute accessory for effortless styling, like our French Claw Clip.

With these tips in mind, you should be well-equipped with everything you need to know to get the money piece look for yourself. Don’t be surprised if you feel like a million bucks (or more) after this color upgrade.

Looking for more great hair advice and styling tips? Subscribe to our newsletter to step up your hair game.