How Long Does Balayage Take?
Nowadays, when you come to the barbershop you can learn a lot of new words. The hairstylists master new techniques and every time they offer you to try something new. We bet you have heard already about balayage. It is a popular technique that reminds us of highlighting.
It is characterized by darkening the roots, smooth transition of shades and gradual stretching of color. It looks stylish and makes your hair look natural and dynamic. This type of coloring is recommended for thin hair and dull strands that need extra volume. Before getting balayage, learn more about its advantages.
What Is Balayage Hairstyle?
Among the modern hair stylists, balayage hair technique becomes more and more popular day after day. Ladies seek gentle but stylish hair coloring and hair dyed in balayage style is the best option.
This is the sort of hair-friendly dyeing that creates naturally-looking highlights when applying the lightener to the strands. As a result, the locks acquire a natural gradation of lightened shades towards the ends.
This technique gives the chevelure a refreshed and soft-dimensioned look that reminds sunburnt strands.
What kind of hair is balayage highlights good for? The good news is that, first of all, balayage can be used on any hair color, and second, it fits thin hair best of all since the locks become visually more volumized.
Balayage Meaning History
What does balayage mean and where did this styling method come from?
Originally, “balayage” (pronounced bah-lee-ahge) is a French word that literally means “to color” or “to sweep”. Respectively, the method takes its origin in France, as well.
Indeed, the lightener is applied on the surface of the locks instead of being saturated through the hair like when dyeing.
Balayage highlights are the most harmless for our chevelures since this type of coloring doesn’t touch the hair follicles and it doesn’t affect the skin of the scalp.
About Balayage
Balayage is a fashionable dyeing method. It is a gradient way of coloring the strands, which uses several shades similar to each other. With this technique, you can create a feminine delicate hairstyle that looks like sunburnt hair. There is also an option of extravagant coloring. You need to choose a bright color (yellow, blue, red) to achieve a bold new look.
This dyeing can successfully transform your appearance. It can brighten the face and give a visual volume to your hairstyle. Is balayage bleach a harmful method for hair? A big advantage of this coloring is that it is gentle. The dye is applied only along the length of the hair, without affecting the hair follicles. Balayage is suitable for almost any type of haircut and hair color, which makes it very popular.
The discrepancy between the balayage and ombre is that it is a horizontal method of coloring. Only the upper layer of curls is dyed. Besides, the balayage process requires the dye to be applied with sweeping motions for the best effect of the color transition.
What is the Sign of Badly Made Balayage Hair?
Each lady would like to know how to know whether her hairstyle is done properly or not.
To define improperly colored balayage, examine the result attentively. The significant feature of the correctly made balayage lightening is that the color must look soft and get lighter from the roots to the hair tips. There must be an obvious color gradation.
If what you see looks patchy, the fixing needs to be used.
What Are the Signs Of Correct Balayage Highlights?
To define that your balayage was done professionally, no special skills are needed. The coloring must be soft and close at the roots growing thicker to the tips.
The lightener must be applied from the external part of the locks instead of saturating them and the overall appearance of the hair shall be soft and look gently touched by the color.
What is the balayage hair color used for the procedure? It must be a bit lighter or a bit darker than the original shade of the client’s chevelure to create a natural look.
Making Balayage on the Haircut
This type of styling is so widespread because it can be easily used on both long and short hair, in fact, balayage is OK to make on any haircut!
How long does a balayage coloring for haircut take?
It hangs upon the length and the amount of lightener but the average timing is between 45 min for the simple highlights and three hours for the deeply layered procedure.
Balayage or Ombre?
Balayage is the partial lightening of individual strands. The coloring does not affect roots in most cases. That is why this method is suitable for those who are not ready to change dramatically. Your hair color will prevail and only light natural accents will appear.
Ombre is gradient coloring. It is achieved by a smooth transition from dark roots to light tips. This technique is full-fledged hair coloring because no individual strands are selected. The dye is applied to all ends or along the entire length. And this is done most often with the help of several shades: dark is used on the roots, one or two lighter tones for the middle part, and the tips are colored with the lightest shades.
Advantages of Balayage Technique
Most modern women think that traditional coloring is out of fashion. Besides, many are tired of hair which looks like a wig. So coloring and lightening with the use of several shades remain at the peak of fashion trends. Balayage has the following advantages:
- It is great for those who are not ready to radically change the image.
- The transition between natural hair color and colored curls is very smooth, no constant correction is required.
- Suitable for those who want to make natural hair color more interesting, slightly update the image.
- It can be used on dyed or natural hair.
- Skunk highlights are good for masking the first signs of gray hair.
- No frequent color correction is required, except when you do balayage on a short haircut.
- It allows to correct a person’s defects, such as hiding a heavy chin or too wide cheeks, excessively rounded face.
The disadvantages of technology include only the complexity and, as a consequence, the high cost of such coloring. Though, it would be extremely difficult or almost impossible to carry out the procedure at home.
Balayage Process for Hair of Different Length
The popular balayage technique can be of three types: for short, medium length hair, and long curls. Of course, this multilevel dyeing will look the best on hairstyles such as caret, cascade and long haircuts.
There are several ways of balayage bleach:
- Closed. Each individual strand should be wrapped in film or foil. This will help to speed up the process of pigment appearance, however, you will not be able to see the dynamics of coloring. Besides, this method of balayage is the most harmful;
- Open. Without the use of foil or film. This is a classical approach that is performed by real professionals and is made only in the salon. Such a procedure would be more expensive;
- Strand-by-strand method. This dyeing is done on short hair. Such a process is similar to a standard balayage, except for the fact that the hairdresser does not stretch the hair, but leaves it in its natural form.
There are no difficulties in the balayage process. To achieve the desired and excellent result, you should remain extremely careful. It must be remembered that experts have many years of experience working with their clients. For this reason, if a woman is not confident in her skills, it is better to contact a professional. Balayage can drastically change your look for the better, but only if the color transition is performed correctly.
How Long Do Balayage Highlights Last?
This type of coloring does not require constant maintenance. It is only necessary to tint from time to time. You should not repeat the whole procedure. You can do balayage 2 times a year and every 3 months. Everything depends on your wishes. But with such intervals, it is absolutely safe for hair.
If we talk about the effect on the blonde hair, then the shade is washed out quickly enough, especially if it is a cold tone. In this case, you need to tint your hair after 3-4 weeks. But if you dye only the ends of the hair, a warm shade appears after washing the tone. It looks natural as if the hair was burnt out in the sun.
Hair Care after Balayage
It should be systematic and you must adhere to the following recommendations:
- You need to wash your hair with the right shampoo, conditioner, be sure to use a balm or oil to facilitate combing.
- Use special repair masks, serum for the hair tips.
- Eliminate daily use of a hairdryer, curling iron, ironing, as well as means with strong fixation (varnishes, gels).
- Protect your hair from temperature effects, frost and the scorching sun will not add health to your hair.
- You can use salon methods of recovery, this includes mesotherapy and other procedures.
Do not be afraid to experiment with your images, take care of your hair, but let it change! Let the modern trendy balayage technique add naturalness and beauty to your look.
How Much Does Balayage Cost?
Of course, everyone’s probably wondering: what is a balayage price?
Well, if a lady goes to do balayage in one of the salons, she needs to expect to pay something like 70-150 dollars for partial coverage on the short mane or 150-200 dollars for the long locks done in several tones.
The longer the locks are the higher the price, consider that, too.
What is balayage price when making it yourself?
If you made a decision to lighten the chevelure yourself, search for a balayage kit but consider that they may cost even more expensive than the professional procedure at the salon. The average price for the professional kit is nearly 500-600 dollars!
Read Next: What Color To Dye Over Green Hair When it’s Time For Changes?
