Safe highlights?

I have a question regarding highlights. A little background on me first- I have not had a relaxer since July of 2006. In November of 2006 I had my hair braided in individuals with loose ends (love the micro look, but don't want to damage my hair with braids that tiny). My overall goal is to grow my hair back to armpit length before I went to the salon to get "long layers". The woman basically chopped up my APL hair that I had never once cut (I was 19 at the time) all the way up to shoulder length. I would love to reach mid back length, but my first goal is to get my hair back to the original length it was, and not be so uneven and choppy looking. I get my braids redone every 3 months, and will stop braiding my hair in November of this year and go back to my regular once a week washes and conditioning with Mane N Tail like I used to.

Anyway, I had my hair highlighted a year after myy hair was cut, and I noticed right before my hair was braided that the highlights were fading and growing out. I would really love to get more reddish tone highlights in my hair once I take the braids out. Anyone know of safe highlights to use on hair that is transitioning from relaxed to nonrelaxed hair? I want to grow out my relaxed hair without doing the big chop, and know that will take a lot of time. I've always hated the bone straight look relaxers give. I might go natural once the relaxed hair has grown out, but am still deciding. I believe my hair type is 3b or borderline 3c. Will the highlights put too much damage on my hair?