i have semi-dark (somewhere inbetween natural dirty blonde and dyed brown) hair, and i want some highlights to lighten it up a bit and get rid of the block color helmet hair thing.

i want the highlights to look fairly natural. or, well, "natural". of course it will look like highlights, but i do NOT want to look "stripey". no chunks. no obvious streaks.

the obvious answer is to get it done professionally at a salon. i can't afford that. i'll be doing it myself.

are there any do-s and don't-s to keep it from looking cheap and disgusting? my hair is your typical growing-out mess. between chin and shoulder length on the sides, a bit longer in the back. i usually wear it in a ponytail to avoid the mullet look. do i just put the highlights randomly throughout my hair? should i do just the top layer, or the whole head? i usually have a side part. do i avoid that area so the streaks don't show in my part? what about around my face? and i have bangs that i'm trying to grow out. they are down to the tip of my nose and usually sideswept or pinned back.

i guess what i want to know is- where do i put the highlights? and where do i NOT put them? i'm a bit scared to just randomly attack my hair.

oh and- what do i use to put them in? those highlight kits tend to come with different sorts of brushes and applicators and god knows what. i've tried using the ones that look like mascara brushes on other people before, and they were HELL to work with.

and how wide/big should the highlights be? too big looks chunky. too small is just invisible. i never seem to figure out an ideal size.

excuse the overanalyzing. i have issues about bad highlights.

doing it yourself will be really hard. maybe try a tipping cap so you can keep it to very small streaks. i'd do them all over your head

personally, i'd save up & get it done professionally.

foils are the best for not looking too stripey
and yes you have to get it professionally done