Now here comes the magic!  

I am using Blue Putty (which I wrote a blog post about not too long ago),
which is a gummy substance used to stick posters up on the wall. It actually has many uses, but hanging posters is what it's mostly intended for.   You can find it at Walmart or Office max for about 1-2 dollars.

I have been using that blue putty to lift the highlights for a long time now, because it does an excellent job of pulling them up, with little to no effort at all on my part.

Look at the hair highlights and compare them with the last picture.
Can you see where it has been applied?   I rub it gently in places where the highlight is very soft.   I have to extremely careful or I can actually remove ALL shading from the face with a couple of incorrect rubs.  
With the hair, I also use a children's cap eraser, like these (also very affordable):

to draw the lighter hairs...just wisping away freely, to make them look natural. 

I have also darkened many of the darks with a 3B pencil as you may have noticed. 

I still have a lot of work to do on this drawing,  but it shouldn't be too much longer before it is finished. 




step 4

step 3

step 2

step 1

All "drawing girl" Tutorial steps