Blog

Balayage

Dreamed of getting that A-List hair?

There are many different hair dye techniques available, and we do most of them here at Hair Affair, but the one that everyone is talking about right now is a technique used by many celebrity hairdressers called ‘Balayage’.

So, what makes the Balayage so different to other hair dye techniques?

The foils aren’t normally used, but the colour distribution throughout the hair is even and shiny, and looks far more natural than many of the former dye and highlighting processes.

As trends go, Balayage is right up there with game changing processes within the industry, and its popularity is soaring thanks to the ‘influence’ of celebrities via their Instagram accounts and social media coverage.

Let’s dig a little deeper and find out where this technique originated and what it involves.

As you might have already guessed, Balayage is a French word and it quite simply means ‘to sweep’ or ‘to paint’. The idea is that the end product is a natural looking colour and distribution of shades.

The Balayage sections are meant to be close to the root where they are soft in colour, increasing as you move up the hair towards the tips where the highlight should be thicker. By ensuring that the Balayage is not saturated throughout a section, and just applied to the surface, you will no longer have that ‘streaked’ effect, which doesn’t look natural, and is now considered a bit old fashioned.

Is there a difference between highlights and Balayage?

Yes. One of the main things you will notice with Balayage is that regrowth is far less noticeable than with the traditional type of highlights. Gone are the streaky looks you can often get with highlights and in are more natural, sun-kissed tones that you would expect to see when the sun naturally lightens your hair.

The other great thing about Balayage is the speed of application and the process. It doesn’t require foil, and it is therefore much faster to achieve the desired look.

Like highlights, Balayage can work with all hair textures, although it is easier to apply to curly hair because you can literally pick out each curl to apply colour to.

Balayage can also be applied to all lengths of hair, not just longer styles.

Want to know more? Just get in touch as we will explain everything you need to know.