Want to show off a fresh, grown-out look months after your appointment? Balayage grants your wish thanks to seamless regrowth blending and long-lasting results.
From the red carpet to Instagram feeds everywhere, balayage has become one of today's most requested hair color techniques. At Blonde Faith Salon, balayage is one of our specialties. Our stylists constantly field questions from clients who are curious if the subtle, multi-dimensional coloring is right for them.
Get ready to go "behind the chair" as we break down the most frequently asked questions about balayage so you can determine if it's your next perfect hair look.
What is Balayage?
Balayage hair coloring entails hand-painting hair lightener or dye directly onto selective strands to create delicate highlights that look lit from within. The French word "balayage" fittingly translates to "to sweep," reflecting the stylist's freehand feathering motion applying lightener or toner.
Unlike traditional highlights with uniform strips of color, balayage produces soft, diffused results melting from roots to ends for a chic, lived-in style. Properly done balayage should grow out seamlessly by blending new growth without noticeable root regrowth. The effect epitomizes the essence of sunkissed hair as if naturally graced by the flattering rays of the hot summer sun.
What's the Difference Between Balayage and Traditional Highlights?
Traditional to-the-root highlighting involves sectioning the hair strategically before applying a lightener or coloring products wrapped in foil. This precision placement creates defined strips of color contrasted against the natural base.
While still popular, traditional highlights require frequent touch-ups as regrowth at the roots becomes visible. The uniform foiled strips can also look overly striated and artificial over time. Curated balayage strands diffuse more naturally for modern elegance. There's an artistry to hand-painted balayage absent from the formulaic foiling process. Balayage better lends itself to seamlessly blending new growth at the roots between appointments.
Is Balayage Suitable for All Hair Types?
From pin-straight manes to the curliest coils, balayage can be customized to complement all hair textures. For taut, straight hair, evenly distributed fine slices of balayage all over create cohesive lightness and movement. Stylists may incorporate deeper babylights around the face to retain dimension.
For naturally wavy or curly hair, balayage helps highlight texture while keeping volume. Strategically lightening the underlayers generates enhanced definition without losing mass. Well-formulated balayage should always uphold the integrity of any hair type. And with the proper home care, balayaged hair can remain strong and hydrated.
Does Balayage Require High Maintenance?
One major advantage balayage has over traditional highlights is lower maintenance demands. Since skilled stylists artfully feather and melt balayage color from roots to ends in a diffused look, you avoid pronounced bands of regrowth. The seamless grow-out means you can typically go 12-16 weeks between appointments versus 8-week touch-ups with foils.
To prolong the time between bookings, request darker lowlights or a shadow root at your next session to further disguise new growth. Also, incorporate bonding and moisture-rich conditioning treatments to keep balayage strands looking healthy between visits. Using purple shampoo helps neutralize brassiness as your balayage fades over time.
Can Balayage Lighten Dark Hair?
The effects achievable through balayage make it possible to lighten even the darkest manes dramatically over successive sessions. For brunettes seeking blonde, your Blonde Faith stylist creates a strategic plan to deconstruct pigment while countering damage safely. The key is patience - for drastic lightening; stylists recommend spacing consecutive balayage appointments 6-8 weeks apart.
We'll customize leave-in conditioning and bond repair treatments between bookings to combat dryness and maintain integrity as you transition lighter. Cool-toned ash shades between lightenings avoid appearing too brassy. Appropriately done, gradual yet dazzling balayage blonde transformations can illuminate even the deepest brunette hues.
Does Balayage Damage Hair?
Correctly done balayage should inflict minor damage, especially when spaced appropriately and paired with conditioning treatments. But there are risks requiring caution. The lightening process still removes structural protein and strips color molecules. Repeated lightening can dry out hair over time. Incorporate bonding treatments and hydrating masks into your balayage aftercare routine to counter this.
Does Balayage Fade Faster Than Highlights?
Thanks to a soft, blended application with no foils, balayage appears to fade more naturally than distinct foil highlights as it grows out. The seamless look means roots aren't as noticeable. Rather than everything obviously "growing out", balayage has a graduated effect. Ask your colorist about the duration expected from your desired color goals for an accurate and personalized answer.
How Do I Prepare My Hair For Balayage?
Proper prep optimizes balayage results and minimizes stress to strands. Schedule a trim to remove split ends beforehand so the lightener doesn't heighten existing damage. Shampoo hair the day before without styling products so the lightener adheres cleanly to strands. Don't arrive with dirty hair, but also avoid washing immediately before your appointment - hair should be dry when you arrive.
What About At-Home Balayage Products?
Leave balayage to the professionals! Box kit balayage products lack the precise formulation of salon lighteners to distribute pigment safely. Without a skilled stylist's technique in painting the formula while assessing saturation, at-home balayage risks being splotchy with uneven results that damage hair.
The ABCs of Balayage Terms
During your balayage consultation, you may pick up on some vocabulary used to describe specific techniques or effects.
Below, we decode some balayage lingo you'll commonly hear from our Blonde Faith colorists:
Babylights
Babylights refer to super-fine, delicate highlights applied around the front hairline to softly frame the face. Think barely-there butter-blonde pieces that offer a subtle sunkissed effect along the part and crown.
Balayage Brush
These long, tapered specialty brushes feature loose bristles on one end to aid product pickup and short, firmly packed bristles on the other end for applying color in feathery strokes. The design allows stylists to replicate an airy swept effect.
Bowl
The vessel is where stylists mix customized lightener, gloss or toner formulations tailored to clients' needs. Unlike foils preloaded with color, balayage allows custom mixing specific to hair goals. Stylists whisk their alchemy magic in these bowls before artfully applying them.
Bronde
A popular blend in the color melting pot, "bronde" fuses brunette and blonde shades through carefully woven lowlights and lighter pieces to achieve that sought-after soft, dimensional look. It's the best of both hues.
California Blonde
A bright yet convincingly natural-looking golden blonde. It maintains darker root regrowth, blending into ribbons of buttery beige-blonde through the mid-lengths and ends for a versatile, beachy everyday look—the effect - amble sunshine with ocean breeze.
Face Framing
Strategic placement of lighter balayage ribbons around the front and sides of the face to frame facial features and flatter bone structure. Also called "money pieces."
Feathering
This paintbrush-like technique is the essence of balayage artistry. Feathering involves delicately using the tip of a brush, comb or fingers to paint rapidly and freehand in fine, wispy strokes. Hence, the color starts sheer and builds saturation gradually for a soft, diffused effect. Skilled feathering mimics the natural diffusion of light.
Highlights vs Lowlights
Highlights refer to lighter pieces woven throughout the hair, while lowlights are darker shades added to create dimension. Balayage typically focuses on highlights but can incorporate strategic lowlights, too.
Money Piece
A money-piece refers to strategic face-framing highlights concentrated around the front, sides, and part to spotlight and illuminate the eyes, cheekbones and focal facial features. It serves to draw attention inward and deeply flatter bone structure. When executed precisely, money pieces are considered signature frame-worthy touches for accentuating your best assets.
Root Smudge/Shadow
Purposefully and subtly brushing darker demi-permanent color at the root area during balayage to soften regrowth contrast over time. Creates a worn-in look faster.
Root Tap
This is lightly feathering color minimally at the regrowth to gently soften and integrate it with previously lightened mid-lengths and ends. Minimizes noticeable dark regrowth.
Shadow Root
Creating a shadow root means purposefully keeping roots slightly darker than the freshly lightened mid-lengths and ends. This mimics the natural grow-out process and enables deeper natural regrowth blending later on for lower maintenance balayage between appointments.
Slices vs Pieces
Slices reference thicker distinct sections of hair painted with balayage color. Pieces indicate thinner woven accent strands dispersed throughout for a subtle effect.
Sombre
"Sombre" aptly combines "somber" with "ombre"– a subtle, gradual ombré effect with hair getting progressively lighter from the crown down in soft diffusion rather than high contrast bands of color.
Teasing/Teased Roots
Gentle backcombing at the root area while balayage highlighting boosts volume and allows the subtly highlighted pieces to melt seamlessly into darker roots without stark lines of demarcation.
Toner
Toners refer to semi- or demi-permanent color solutions explicitly used for depositing or neutralizing undertone pigments after lightening processes like balayage. Well-formulated toners counteract brassy yellow and orange hues, ensuring lightened hair maintains cooler beige or ash tones. Using a toner glaze immediately following balayage highlights boosts vibrancy and shine while personalizing the finish.
Ready for Your Sunkissed Locks?
Our Blonde Faith Salon balayage artists thrive in translating hair goals into the most flattering lived-in looks. Ready to take a walk on the balayaged side?
Become Blonde Faith Salon's next gorgeous balayage success story by contacting us to tailor this dimensional color trend just for you.
Client Photos
At Blonde Faith Salon, dimensional brilliance is our specialty, and we have the snapshots to prove it. From golden blonde lifts, chocolate and caramel dimensional contouring, bronde and lived-in trends, feast on some of our stylists' most glorious balayage transformations by checking out our Instagram!
