WHAT IS BALAYAGE?

The French word for feathering

One of the questions I get a lot is: What is Balayage? Balayage is the french word for feathering. It’s the process of coloring hair by feathering color into the hair.

I go a step further and feather color into the hair under what’s visible to the eye so that you cannot see the seams of where the highlights begin.

My idea of color in general is to keep things looking natural and try and hide where the color starts on the head. One of the things that shows inexperience in a hair colorist is when you can see where the highlights originate.

If I want to make sure the highlights start higher than usual, I will also create shadowing in the color to insure the color looks continuous and not like it’s growing out of the roots. This always spells a no no for me! Color in my opinion should always look natural unless it’s for the runway or avant garde.

What is balayage? It’s making sure to hit areas of the head that in nature the sun might naturally highlight with enough sun exposure.

There are many different ways to perform balayage. Also, depending on the shade of hair, I try to consider the base color of someone’s hair.

Every once in a while, if someone wants the effect but really wants to be lighter than usual, I will change or break the base so that the color of the natural hair is already a little lighter. When you begin with lighter hair all around, there’s not much further to go when using the balayage effect of highlighting. If you’re putting in lighter than average balayage highlights, you can create the undesired effect of streaking or skunking. Another NO NO! Again, unless your intention is to draw more attention, you don’t want to do that.

Check out Renee. I broke Renee’s natural color since she had a pretty dark base to begin with. At that point, I threw in some balayage highlights around her face to compliment the new base and break it up for more of a natural effect.

Enjoy!

MJ Hair Designs

HAIR COLORING AND HIGHLIGHTING DARK HAIR

COLORING LONG HAIR

HAIR COLORING CROLAYAGE

HAIR COLORING CROLAYAGE

HAIR COLOR EXPERT

 

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