adamlea87
Well-Known Member
How's everyone enjoying balayage? Personally I try to do as much as possible and I love it because I feel like I am learning every time I balayage. I wonder how long until it is incorporated into the NVQ? I am glad to see that Toni&Guy have included a technique in there latest educational collection.
Anyway so here are some things that I find help me when visually painting hair:
1) Negative Space: Don't just focus on the hair that you are painting, USE the darker hair or lowlights to enhance the highlight. When I started to balayage I would paint too much hair and lose all the contrast and dimension.
2) Contrast and Balance: Think about how light/contrasting the highlight will be before deciding how thick/heavy to paint each piece. If the colours are soft you can paint VERY large sections of hair, if you are going a lot lighter make them smaller.. It sounds obvious but I found when moving over from foils it took getting used to having to really think about how the sections will effect the final result.
3) Lifting and Toning: I tend to do a lot of my balayage on brunette clients and no-one likes brassy hair. I have had to get used to using different ash toners on darker depths and developing until it cuts though all that warmth - you can achieve cool results on any depth (unless they want warmth). Also don't be scared to use higher developers with balayage.
4) Always get the haircut first: I will steal Mr. Tangs line "You've got to build the house, before you can paint it".
So what do you find helps you balayage? I look forward to learning your balayage tips
Anyway so here are some things that I find help me when visually painting hair:
1) Negative Space: Don't just focus on the hair that you are painting, USE the darker hair or lowlights to enhance the highlight. When I started to balayage I would paint too much hair and lose all the contrast and dimension.
2) Contrast and Balance: Think about how light/contrasting the highlight will be before deciding how thick/heavy to paint each piece. If the colours are soft you can paint VERY large sections of hair, if you are going a lot lighter make them smaller.. It sounds obvious but I found when moving over from foils it took getting used to having to really think about how the sections will effect the final result.
3) Lifting and Toning: I tend to do a lot of my balayage on brunette clients and no-one likes brassy hair. I have had to get used to using different ash toners on darker depths and developing until it cuts though all that warmth - you can achieve cool results on any depth (unless they want warmth). Also don't be scared to use higher developers with balayage.
4) Always get the haircut first: I will steal Mr. Tangs line "You've got to build the house, before you can paint it".
So what do you find helps you balayage? I look forward to learning your balayage tips
