How long does it take to highlight thick, medium length hair?

I'm getting my hair highlighted later this week, and would like to know how long it takes for this to be done.

I did have it highlighted around six years ago, but I don't remember roughly how long it took.

I know the foil is used when I saw it done at the salon I go to, to another customer (where I got the idea) but I was not able to stay and see how long the entire process took (I only saw just the reference picture the customer had brought in and they were foiling her hair as I paid and left).

My hair now essentially looks just how it does in my avatar here on Yahoo! - That length and thickness, although it is a mahogany color.

How long does it take to highlight thick, medium length hair?

Well, short hair would be less time-consuming to highlight than long hair if you are using the same number of highlights in the hair, simply because the shorter hair means there are fewer inches of hair to which the highlighting agent must be applied. There is also the factor of what technique is being used to highlight the hair. If the hair is being highlighted through a cap as opposed to being highlighted with foils, the cap method is usually faster.

The processing time also comes into consideration, given that people閳ユ獨 hair will process at different rates of speed depending on the strength of the highlighting mixture, and the porosity and color of the hair being highlighted. Hair with low porosity is considered resistant and will require more processing time to achieve the level of lightness desired (which is also a factor to consider).

In the most general of terms, given median averages for all factors considered, a highlighting service can take anywhere from 1-3 hours, including styling time. Naturally, shorter hair will likely be at the lower end of the scale, but not always.

More info:

The length of time you should wait before getting them touched up depends largely on the condition of your hair. Any chemical process can have an adverse affect on your hair, and applying a color process on top of hair that has already been subjected to a chemical process runs a higher risk of damaging the hair. This is doubly true of processes that lighten the hair閳ユ獨 color.

You may want to consider having a toning glaze applied to your hair to make a subtle shift in the color(s) 閳?depending of course on what you dislike about the color results you have. A glazing process would be much gentler on the hair and would help you prevent doing any extra damage.

Even if the idea of a color glaze is not for you, you should consider giving yourself at least one deep conditioning treatment before you attempt to have your hair re-colored. This will help to restore any moisture lost to previous chemical processes, and protect the hair from future ones.

Finally, given your dissatisfaction with the color results of your last highlight/lowlight procedure, you will want to speak at length to the stylist who performs the new color processes for you to make sure you are getting what you want this time in the way of color results. Discuss things like size of the highlighting and lowlighting; the spacing of the strands of differing color; and the colors being used themselves. I would hate to see you undergo a second dimensional color process and still not be happy with the color results.