Balayage vs. Highlights: Fully Embrace Your Lighter Side
Colour trends fade in and out fast. Two popular techniques that have staying power are balayage and highlights. Each offers a unique way to add dimension and brightness to your hair. And who doesn’t need a bit of expertly placed lustre? But which technique should you turn to: highlights or balayage? Let’s get into it…
What are Highlights?
Highlights involve adding lighter strands to your hair, creating a contrast between the light and darker sections.
What is Balayage?
Balayage is a freehand lightening technique where the colourist paints lighter sections onto the hair creating a fade from natural root colour to lighter coloured ends or vice versa.
The Difference Between Balayage & Highlights
How do you decide which one is right for you? Consider the following factors:
- Lifestyle: If you have a busy schedule and prefer low-maintenance hair, balayage might be your best bet. Highlights may require more frequent salon visits.
- Desired Look: Think about the contrast you want. If you’re aiming for a bolder, brighter blonde look, highlights could be the way to go. Balayage offers a subtler more lived-in effect.
- Hair Growth: If you’re concerned about noticeable regrowth, balayage can be more forgiving due to its gradual transition.
“Both highlights and balayage have their merits and can transform your hair beautifully. The choice ultimately depends on your lifestyle, desired look, and maintenance preferences. To make the right decision, we will always have an in-depth consultation to help you make the right choice for you and your lifestyle.”
Declan: Colour Director & Colourist at Blue Tit Dalston
Want to know more? Here are the techniques and benefits of each…
Highlights
Highlights are known for their precision and uniformity. Two techniques can be used, foils or the air touch technique.
Foils are used to isolate specific strands, resulting in a consistent pattern of lightness. Depending on the thickness of your highlights, this creates a different contrast between your natural hair colour and the blonde highlights.
The air touch technique doesn’t use foils but airflow from a hairdryer to selectively lighten strands giving a softer more delicate highlighted look. If you desire a natural blonde hair colour that starts from the roots, this technique is a great choice.
How to maintain highlights?
To maintain the look, highlights typically require touch-ups every 6-8 weeks, as new growth becomes apparent.
A colour protecting shampoo and conditioner will help to keep the desired shade of blonde and will keep your hair nourished and shiny.
We recommend using Oway color protection hair bath in combination with Oway colour protection hair mask for the best maintenance of your coloured hair.
For more tips, check our our guide to maintaining beautiful blonde hair.
What’s the difference between half head highlights and full head?
Half head highlights are strategically placed blonde strands on the top and side of your head. Or they can highlights to face frame by lightening the hair around the face.
The benefits of half head highlights are they are good at enhancing or revitalising your existing colour. They can be as subtle as you wish and easy to build upon if you want to test a new brighter colour.
Full head highlights cover the whole head, lightening through all sections of your hair.
The benefits of highlights
The benefits of full head highlights are they are a bolder transformation and offer an even distribution of vibrant colour.
What shade of blonde can I get with highlights?
All our highlights include a free toner which allows us to change the tone of your hair to your desired shade of blonde. This can vary from a cool ash blonde to a warm rose gold.
So why Balayage?
Balayage often creates a more natural and sun-kissed effect, although as the picture above shows, this technique can also be used with a creative fashion colour too.
The transitions between the natural hair colour and the lighter sections are soft and seamless, giving a more effortless look.
Does Balayage work on curly hair?
Balayage can be done on all hair types and works really well on curly hair.
The benefits of Balayage
One benefit of balayage is it’s a lower maintenance option to highlights. Since it doesn’t start at the roots, there’s less noticeable regrowth, making touch-ups less frequent and growing out easy.
We also love Balayage for its versatility. Colour options go from caramel, honey blonde, ash blonde, rose gold, copper, chocolate brown, bronde, cool-toned brunettes to vivid creative colours. You can choose the placement and intensity of the lightened sections to suit your style.
How long does your hair have to be for a balayage effect?
Balayage is best on hair with a minimum length of 12cm.
What’s the difference between full head colour vs balayage?
Full head colour dyes the hair one colour from root to tip. This technique can be permanent or semi-permanent. Permanent hair colour can change the colour up to 3 levels lighter or darker. Semi-permanent hair dye can be used to change the tone or depth of your hair colour. Whereas, Balayage typically doesn’t cover the full head in one colour as the colour is faded from natural darker roots to lighter tips or vice versa.
Inspired? Find your nearest salon and get in touch for a chat.
