Rush highlights, size by size
T Section Highlights vs Half Head vs Full Head: UK Prices
What each size covers, who it suits and what six months of upkeep costs, from Rush's own service pages. We have not had our hair done there ourselves.
- T section from £85
- Half head from £112
- Full head from £129
Photos: Rush Hair & Beauty service pages
4 Rush guides
- Highlight sizesMain guide
- Balayage vs highlights
- Grey blending
- Rush hair review
Disclosure: links to Rush Hair & Beauty are affiliate links. If you book through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
T section highlights put foils only along your parting, your front hairline and the crown, the three places colour catches the eye first. At Rush Hair & Beauty they start at £85, against £112 for a half head and £129 for a full head.
The right booking depends on two things: whether you already have colour to refresh, and how you wear your hair. A T section is a maintenance appointment. If your highlights are growing out at the parting, it is the cheapest way to look freshly done. If you are starting from scratch, a half head is a better first visit, because there is nothing for a T section to blend into yet.
Where the foils go on each
All three are foil highlights. The technique is the same; what changes is how much of your head the colourist works on.
- T section: foils laid in a T shape across the top of the head, along the parting and the front hairline, plus the crown. Rush’s stylists know it as a “T-bar”.
- Half head: the top, crown and sides. The underneath and the back stay your natural shade, which keeps some depth and contrast.
- Full head: sections woven through the whole head for a uniform, all-over lift.
Salon menus do not all use the same names. Headmasters, for example, sells no item called a T section; the nearest line on its 2026-27 price list is “Top-up Lights”. If your salon’s menu has no T section, ask for parting and hairline foils and say where your regrowth sits.
Half head vs full head highlights, and where the T section fits
Book the smallest package that covers the hair people actually see. That rule sorts most situations.
| Your situation | Book | Why | Rush starting price |
|---|---|---|---|
| You had highlights about eight weeks ago and the regrowth is visible mainly at the parting | T section | The foils go exactly where the regrowth line sits, and the rest of the colour is still in place | £85 |
| Grey hairs are coming through along the parting and hairline | T section | Rush calls it a firm favourite for disguising grey along the parting and hairline, where regrowth is most prominent | £85 |
| First highlights, and you want brightness around the face with natural depth underneath | Half head | Top, crown and sides are lifted; the underneath and back keep your own colour | £112 |
| You often wear your hair up or in a ponytail | Full head | A half head keeps the underneath natural, and that is the layer a ponytail puts on show (our inference from how Rush describes the half head) | £129, plus toner |
| You want an all-over lighter result | Full head | Only a full head carries colour through every layer | £129, plus toner |
The ponytail row is the one people get wrong in the chair. A half head can look complete when your hair is down and patchy when it is tied back, so tell the colourist how you wear it before the foils go in.
If greys are your main reason for booking, there is more on how the different routes compare in our grey blending guide.
How much do highlights cost in the UK right now?
In October 2026, Rush lists T section highlights from £85, a half head from £112 and a full head from £129, with toner from £28 on top. Headmasters’ 2026-27 list charges £100 to £142 for a half head and £130 to £177 for a full head, depending on the stylist’s level.
Both chains price by stylist grade, so the “from” figure is the most junior colourist at the cheapest branch. The Headmasters price list is valid from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 and has four tiers, from Technician to L’Oréal Colour Specialist. Its half head sits at £100, £115, £130 and £142 across those tiers, its full head at £130, £147, £166 and £177, and its Top-up Lights at £68 to £107.
The toner is where first-time bills drift upwards. Rush’s full head highlights page says a toner is often required to reach the finished shade, from £28 when it is added to a colour service. So the realistic first-visit figure for a full head at Rush is about £157, not £129. Headmasters also charges £28 for toner, which puts its entry-level full head at £158.
For the smaller packages, the comparison runs like this:
- Rush T section: from £85, about 1.5 hours
- Headmasters Top-up Lights: £68 to £107
- Rush half head: from £112, about 1.5 hours, longer if a toner is needed
- Headmasters half head: £100 to £142
Independent salons can come in lower, and Honeys Hair & Beauty in Taunton lists a T section at roughly £54 to £76.
T section highlights
Foils at the parting, front hairline and crown only. Rush lists about 1.5 hours and pitches it for blending grey and softening the regrowth line. From £85.
Half head highlights
The top, crown and sides; the underneath and back stay natural. Rush lists about 1.5 hours and says the colour lasts up to eight weeks. From £112.
Full head highlights
Foils through the whole head. Rush lists about 2 hours and says a toner is often needed on top, from £28. From £129.
Six months of upkeep, priced two ways
A single appointment price says little about what highlights cost to keep. Rush’s half head page says the colour lasts up to eight weeks before you need to think about topping it up, so over 24 weeks a half head client books three times.
We priced that half year two ways, using Rush’s starting prices as published on 19 October 2026:
- Half head every eight weeks: 3 × £112 = £336
- Half head, then a T section, then a half head: £112 + £85 + £112 = £309
The second pattern saves £27 over six months, and it is the use Rush itself describes for the T section: keeping your shade fresh and stretching the gap between larger colour appointments. The figures are list prices for one chain at its lowest stylist grade. They exclude toner, blow-dry upgrades and any offer code, and a senior colourist or a London branch would move every line. Treat them as the shape of the saving, not a quote.
The swap works only while the back and sides still look right. Once the regrowth reaches further than the parting, a T section stops hiding it and the next visit has to be a half head again.
When T section highlights are the wrong booking
T section highlights refresh colour that is already there, so they are the wrong choice when there is no colour to refresh, when you want a visible change, or when the rest of your colour has faded:
- No existing highlights. Foils only along the top can look like a stripe on hair with no lightness underneath. Start with a half head.
- You want a visible change. Rush positions the full head as the big change and the T section as the top-up. A T section will not take you from dark to bright.
- The rest of your colour has faded or turned brassy. New foils at the parting next to tired lengths make the difference more obvious. A toner on its own, which Rush prices from £50 as a stand-alone service, or a half head fixes the whole picture.
If you are really choosing between foils and a hand-painted look, our balayage vs highlights comparison sets out what each costs over a year.
Before the first appointment
Rush recommends a patch test 48 hours before colour if you are new to the salon. The NHS guidance on hair dye reactions gives the same 48-hour window for testing a dye before use, and suggests a patch test kit if you think you may be allergic.
New clients can use the code NEWBIE50 for half price services at selected Rush salons until 30 November, according to the Rush offers page. On a £129 full head that would be about £64.50, if your branch and stylist are part of the offer. Check the terms on the booking screen before you rely on it.
Questions people ask next
How long do T section highlights last?
T section highlights last until the regrowth creeps past the parting, and Honeys Hair & Beauty in Taunton recommends a top-up every six to eight weeks. Rush gives its half head up to eight weeks before topping up.
Is a T section the same as balayage?
A T section is not balayage. A T section uses foils from the root for defined brightness, while balayage is painted by hand and softer at the root, so it grows out with less of a line.
Do T section highlights work on dark or brown hair?
T section highlights work on dark and brown hair. Rush suggests caramel, honey or hazelnut tones on brunette bases, and on darker hair a toner may be used to take out unwanted warmth.
Rush has salons across London, the South East and cities including Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol and York, and its full list is on the Rush salons overview, with an independent look at prices and reviews in our Rush Hair review. When you book, use the salon’s own name for the service: T section at Rush, Top-up Lights at Headmasters.
Links to Rush Hair & Beauty are affiliate links. If you book through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. These guides are based on Rush's published prices and policies and on other public sources, not on our own salon visits.
