What Is A Balayage?

Balayage hair coloring is one of the biggest trends in the beauty industry right now. It’s a timeless style that is having a resurgence thanks to social media, with over 25 million posts on the #balayage on Instagram alone. Balayage has a cult following amongst celebrities like Chrissy Teigen, Gigi Hadid and Rose Byrne. The balayage look even has the royal seal of approval from the Duchess of Cambridge who has sported the look for several seasons now. We’ve rounded up everything you need to know about balayage hair coloring, so that the next time you visit your hair salon you can give this trend a try.

What is a Balayage?

Although many people believe it is an end result or a trend, it is actually a technique that allows the colorist to create a wide range of looks. A French word meaning ‘to sweep’ or ‘to paint’, balayage is a technique that gives you a sun-kissed, natural-looking hair color with less obvious regrowth lines. The freehand, painterly technique allows your colourist to bespoke your look. It’s not just painting on lightener – there’s a real science behind it. Whereas aluminum foil is a good conductor of heat, balayage is formulated, applied, and processed very differently. Many believe that Balayage is just free-style highlighting, underestimating its complexity. This is a very technical art-form that must be effectively taught to help one understand all of its many nuances, from what products to use to application, saturation, and processing. Balayage hair 101

How to get a Balayage done?

As it’s a freehand technique, no foils or meche are used to create the highlights. Balayage pieces should be very close and soft at the root leading to a thicker highlight at the ends of the hair. To avoid bold and fear-inducing stripes of colour, it’s applied on the surface of hair rather than saturated through it until the very tips. The process varies depending on the length of the hair and the desired result. You can expect to have individual strands coloured with a brush and a backing board. Some colourists like to separate their sections with cotton wool or foil, others tease the hair in sections first then freehand colour the ends. Full balayage vs partial balayage.

I find that all my balayage clients are going for different looks and need to maintain it at different rates. You will need to have a minimum of three appointments to really build up the colour initially. These appointments are spaced six weeks apart. From there you could go up to four months without having more balayage. You would just need to come in for a toner and a treatment to freshen up the colour in between appointments.

Will a Balayage look good on me?

Balayage is a carefree technique that in my opinion works for everyone, especially those with freer textured hair as its adds personalisation to the style. As for your natural hair colour, the subtle, sun-kissed look works just as well on dark hair as it does on lighter hues, we pay particular attention to skin tone and face shape for a natural yet glamorous glossy finish that feels bespoke to you.

While highlights require regular upkeep, the balayage technique is more low maintenance which means your hair will undergo less color related damage. To maintain your balayage at home, you should invest in hydrating hair masks to keep the shine in your hair and incorporate a purple-toned shampoo to your routine to prevent the color from becoming brassy. Lush Hair Folk can recommend the best combination of products to work with your hair type.

The balayage hair coloring treatment is a timeless style with lots of room for us to get creative, as the hand painting technique allows us to customize the look to match your taste. When you’re heading out to our hair salon, bring along reference photos to show us exactly what look you want to emulate. The balayage technique is one way to make your hair look sun-kissed all year round.

What Is A Balayage?