Balayage Q+A
I’ve been highlighting strictly without foil for about 8 years now, and even before then I considered myself to be a balayage specialist. My time at Whittemore House Salon in NYC was really the turning point for me where I began to see how it was possible to serve an entire clientele with hair painting only. There wasn’t a foil to be seen in the entire salon. Actually, it wasn’t allowed. Everyone worked in the same mode, and everyone’s skills were fully developed in this method of highlighting that they called hair painting. They could achieve results that up until that point, I didn’t really know how to produce with my intermediate knowledge of balayage. Before then, I didn’t know how to talk about balayage vs foil with clients, and I hadn't yet the expertise to handle most clients without occasionally relying on foil highlighting.
Fast forward to the present, I have committed my color practice entirely to develop my ability with hair painting (or balayage evolved, whatever you want to call it) and have learned a thing or two over the years. There are so many terms for haircolor methodology and differing explanations on social media, no wonder balayage is still misunderstood. Clients ask me about this service all the time, so I figured I’d compile a list of questions and answers so I can help end the mystery for my clients once and for all. Thank you to my followers on Instagram and my salon clients for your contributions. Here we go!
What exactly is balayage? How is it different from traditional highlights/foils?
Balayage comes from a French word that literally translates to “sweep” as in the motion that you would make with a broom. Balayage began as a technique for applying freehand highlights to hair, and back then (this was the 1970s) the dominant highlighting method was a frosting cap. Foils weren’t even popularized until the ‘80s.
So the main difference is the application method, but of course by changing how haircolor is applied, the final result looks different as well. Chunky, piecey highlights were all the rage in the 1970s and ‘80s because that’s what frosting caps and foiling used to produce, and balayage was a different take on highlighting. It was less chunky, and the intention was to mimic what highlights nature creates.
Can balayage be done with foils?
This is the big debate. I think what happened along the way is that the term balayage went from being a technique to being a word to describe the look with which a balayage is associated. I disagree with this definition. Just like with any technique, balayage takes a certain amount of practice and proficiency to get consistent, predictable results. In my experience, balayage in particular is very difficult to master, and it’s quite easy to get poor results in the beginning. I think this led to a generalized misinformation that balayage has certain drawbacks including not being able to get light enough, or not being able to highlight to the root. So, the masses of hair colorists that opted not to further train their balayage craft decided to replicate their idea of balayage as closely as they could with foil.
There are so many techniques being taught today to mimic the look of a blended balayage. These include “teasy-lights”, “air touch”, and “baby-lights”. If they’re done well, are they pretty? For the most part yes, but they have a different quality to hand painting. They’re more precise, linear, and exact, and they don’t look anything like balayage to me. So can you balayage with foil? In my opinion, no. There are plenty of words in the English language that you could use in a consultation to describe the type of highlight your client can expect instead of “balayage.”
does balayage involve bleaching the hair, or just color?
Balayage is know mostly as a highlighting technique, so that means bleaching. You can certainly highlight hair within a foil with permanent color, but the consistency of haircolor doesn’t really allow you to apply highlights with gradation the same way you can with bleach. However, I “balayage” all the time with lowlights. Reverse-balayage is a great way to introduce depth to a highlight by pulling through pieces of darker color, and my technique for this allows for super blended lowlights that blur into the rest of the hair.
Reverse Balayage Application
Lowlights are blended into the lengths of the hair, an application unique to hand-painting.
How long does a balayage process typically take?
Including blow-dry time, the typical partial balayage takes 2.5 hours, and a full balayage takes 3 hours.
Is balayage really more low-maintenance than full highlights?
Balayage has a softer line of demarcation compared to foil highlights. Strictly in terms of maintenance, balayage can be made to be lower maintenance than highlights done in foil. Yes.
How often does balayage need to be touched up?
Depending on the brightness of the highlights compared to your natural color, maintenance appointments can be anywhere between every 3 months to as long as yearly. The closer you want your highlights to the root, the more frequent the maintenance that is required.
Can balayage be done on short hair or just longer lengths?
Balayage can definitely be done on shorter hair. It’s hard to foil short hair and not have it come out stripy, but balayage on short hair comes out looking very blended and soft.
What hair types/textures does balayage work best on?
All textures can be balayaged. Curly hair lends itself especially well to balayage because the texture is maintained better than highlighting in a foil. It is counterintuitive to make a foil highlight look natural on very curly hair because you are limited to highlighting within lines on the head, and curly hair is the opposite shape of a line.
Does Balayage cause more damage than foil highlighting?
In my experience, the lightener that I use to balayage is actually much more gentle on the hair. I use a clay-based lightener that slows down its speed over about an hour. Hair doesn’t become over-processed because the lightener is less aggressive by the time it’s ready to shampoo. Also, open air balayage is not incubated with a heat conductor like foil, and I never put my highlights under a heat source that can potentially damage hair.
Can you do balayage on previously colored hair?
Yes, and if you mean, can you balayage hair that was previously highlighted with foil? Also yes. One of the biggest concerns from clients who want to transition away from light blonde foils is a noticeable line of demarcation. Before transitioning into balayage highlights, I like to blur and darken the old foil highlights a bit where the line of demarcation is with color. This is a single process as an extra service that preps the hair for balayage, and it looks a lot like the reverse balayage photo above. It’s best to come in for a consultation before your service in this case.
Is balayage more expensive than regular highlights?
I only charge one price for whatever highlights I do, and that’s because I only really highlight one way, balayage style. If I did foil highlights, I probably would charge more for those because they’re more tedious with more steps. I really don’t understand why anyone would charge more for balayage. If you take longer to do it, you must not be as proficient in it. So you shouldn’t be charging more.
High contrast blonde balayage
Balayage may take more than one session to achieve very light blonde, but you can absolutely get there
Can you achieve a dramatic effect with balayage or just subtle?
You can get very blonde with balayage, but sometimes it takes a couple of appointments to get some overlapping highlights. I think that this is what creates a really pretty pop on the ends with varying tones of blonde. If you’re looking to see maximum impact and blonding, and you aren’t willing to take more than one appointment to get there, balayage might not be for you.
How should you care for and maintain balayage at home?
Just like you would care for any other highlights. You should use quality professional hair products to shampoo and condition your hair. Use products that are meant for strengthening your hair that deliver moisture. Use a heat protectant before styling. All the yoozh.
What tones/shades work best for balayage?
Like I said in the above post, you can push balayage to be very blonde, but typically that will reduce the amount of gradation that occurs in hand-painted highlights. What that means is that there is a darker-to-lighter effect, even if it’s subtle, down the length of the hair. It’s what makes balayage different from foil highlights, and to preserve this quality, I think it’s best to work with colors and levels that are within 2-4 shades of your natural hair color. If you want highlights that are 5 or more shades lighter than your natural hair, I honestly think you’re better off getting a foil highlight.
Are there any downsides to balayage?
If you prefer your highlights to have no warmth, balayage might not be for you. Icy, super-light highlights are best done with foil unless you’re a natural blonde to begin with.
Have any more questions that I didn’t answer above? Leave a comment here for me, and I’ll be glad to answer it as best I can. I’ll post some extras in my Instagram as well. Thanks for reading, and I hope this demystified balayage a little for you!
