While balayage may be a common trend at the moment, it is actually a style that has been around for decades. In fact, it is thought that the technique was invented in the 1970s. The word “balayage” comes from the French language, and it actually means “to sweep.”
The Balayage Technique
Basically, the technique involves “sweeping” a lightener through the hair, in small triangle sections, by hand with a paddle board and a brush. Adding the lightening in this manner gives the hair a much more natural looking highlight. The ends of the hair will be lighter, and the natural hair color will be much softer on top. It is the perfect “sun-kissed” look that women adore.
The entire process can take anywhere from ten minutes all the way up to three hours. It really depends on what the stylist is trying to achieve. When just adding a few face-framing strands the process is relatively quick. However, if the entire head is being done, and the colors are very complicated, then you are looking at several hours.
For those that are doing the entire head and want a really personalized color, it may actually take several treatments to blend all of the desired shades. We may have you come in for three or four different sessions over a six-week period, but the end results will be a gorgeous multi-faceted and dimensional color.
Pros and Cons
There are many benefits to choosing balayage as your hair lightening style. The first is that it gives you a unique look because the dye colors are custom blended for you. Plus, the application is done by hand allowing us to perfectly frame your face and give you the contour that best suits your look.
Another pro for balayage is that it is a relatively low-maintenance style. Unlike other types of highlights that start showing roots right away, you can get away a lot longer with a balayage hair color. In fact, many of our clients only touch their hair up a couple of times per year.
Balayage is great because it is one of the most universal hair techniques meaning it literally looks good on everyone…well, it may be difficult to achieve the look on a pixie. However, all other hairstyles, colors, and textures look amazing with a balayage technique. Plus, it can be worn at all ages.
Finally, there is less damage involved when doing balayage because it doesn’t cover the entire hair, and it doesn’t use any heat to set.
With all those pros, it is hard to see how there could be any cons, and there aren’t really that many. The biggest con is that the process doesn’t do a whole lot in the way of covering gray hair. Since the coverage is limited, it can really only be used to blend the gray as opposed to covering it.
Balayage For All
Since this style looks so great on everyone, there really is no con to trying it out at least once. To end up with the best results, it is a good idea to have your color done by an experienced stylist. And we just happen to know of one!
