Do you know your balayage from your babylights? There are so many hair colouring techniques around these days it can be hard to keep up. Maybe you’ve seen your must-have colour on an Instagram photo but you’ve no idea how it’s achieved and what it takes to maintain it. In this blog we’ll tell you everything you need to know about two of the most popular highlighting techniques, to take the guesswork out of achieving your dream colour.
Balayage
Where does the name come from?
Balayage is French for ‘to sweep or paint,’ and it gets its name because unlike traditional highlights where the hair is wrapped in foil, your stylist will take swatches of hair and paint it freehand with the colour before covering it in cellophane.
How is it done?
A bleach or lightening agent is usually used to achieve the effect. It’s applied on the surface of each section of hair but it’s not saturated through until the ends of the hair because the aim is a soft highlight at the root and a thicker highlight at the ends of the hair.
What does the end result look like?
Balayage gives the hair a natural sun-kissed look, which looks more casual because the highlights are fatter and less symmetrical than traditional highlights.
What is the best thing about balayage?
Because balayage doesn’t start at the crown of the head, and because of the more casual, less structured technique, it looks beautiful when it grows out and you won’t need loads of maintenance.
Babylights
Before babylights
Where does the name come from?
Babylights are delicate highlights that are designed to create the natural sun kissed dimensional hair colour that small children have. Think subtle but beautiful.
How is it done?
After babylights
Your stylist separates the hair into very small, fine sections, then applies hair colour to the small groups of strands for more than an hour. Babylights are different from highlights because there’s only a small separation between the highlighted strands which means they blend in with the base colour and look amazingly natural.
What does the end result look like?
Think natural, classy, glamorous, and fresh looking colour.
Babylights with curls-Gorgeous!
What is the best thing about babylights?
They’re very low maintenance. Because the highlights are so fine, the hair that grows out appears softer, and there’s no obvious line between the highlighted and the natural hair. Maintenance is similar to any other highlighting system. If you have a full head it should be touched up every eight weeks and if you have randomly placed babylights, you should have them touched up every 12
Maintenance for babylights is similar to any highlighting system. A full head should be touched up every eight weeks and sporadic pieces can be touched up every 12-14 weeks.
Another big plus with babylights is that they can be applied to any hair colour or hair type, and they can be done in any shade to match your skin tone. This means that it’s not just blondes who get to have the fun, brunettes and redheads can experience the beautiful effect of babylights too.
Things to consider
Babylights are gorgeous, but because your stylist has to painstakingly paint lots of small strands of hair, it takes longer and can cost more than normal highlights. My price starts from £150 depending on the time it takes to apply the colour. As a rough guide, a full head takes about 1 hour 15 minutes.
Want to try them for yourself?
At Salon La Reine, we can introduce you to a world of colour and techniques that will give you your most beautiful hair yet. Contact us to book an appointment and see for yourself.