Booking App

All Services     |     Hair     |     Beauty     |     Men

What is balayage & is balayage better than Hair highlights?

When it comes to hair-lightening techniques, there is a slight contrast between balayage and highlights, which is primarily determined by the method used. If you’re unfamiliar with balayage, don’t worry, as we’ll explore the dissimilarities between these two techniques. This will help you determine which coloring approach to opt for in order to achieve your desired look.

What is Balayage?

The term “balayage” originates from French and means “to sweep.” This hair coloring technique involves manually painting or “sweeping” highlights onto random sections of hair. Typically, dye or lightener is applied, starting from midshaft and gradually becoming denser towards the ends. Because the color is applied onto the surface of the hair, it results in a natural-looking sun-kissed effect that is less structured than traditional highlights.

It’s important to note that balayage is not a specific hairstyle, but rather a coloring technique that doesn’t involve the use of foils like traditional highlighting methods. It’s often compared to the natural-looking ombre style.

Balayage can be applied throughout the entire head of hair for an all-over lighter look, which eliminates the need to frequently touch up roots as with other lightening methods. Alternatively, it can be applied partially or in a mini balayage, such as around the face or upper part of the hair.

What are highlights?

Hair highlights are a unique way of adding a certain flair and glamour to your hair. It is an ideal procedure to undergo for women who are not yet ready or just not willing to go for an entirely new shade for their hair, but rather want a bespoke touch that accentuates their personality.

Hair highlights have been around for over a century and have allowed women to add pleasing contrasts to their locks. One of the most popular options that many women go for is the blonde highlights added to an otherwise darker shade of hair. The results are often stunning. Women having black hair with highlights or dark brown hair with highlights often stand out from the crowd wherever they go.

Balayage vs. Highlights

How Highlights Work

Highlights, as the name suggests, is a technique where certain sections of the hair are bleached to create a lighter shade or highlights. Foiling is perhaps the most common among the many methods hair stylists utilize to create highlights. During foiling, the hair artist applies bleach or other forms of hair lightener to the parts of hair where the highlights are required. The artist will then wrap the treated section of hair in a foil and apply heat to catalyse the chemical reaction. Apart from heat transfer, the foil also bars the chemicals from getting in contact with other parts of the hair and forces the highlights to appear exactly at places they were intended to.

However, this method often creates a rather unnatural appearance of hair, especially once the hair starts to grow. This unevenness of form requires regular maintenance and touchups to keep the hair looking nice, often frustrating the user. But a new procedure, hair balayage, offers all the benefits of traditional highlights without any of the disadvantages.                                                                      

How Balayage Work

Developed by French hair stylists, hair balayage is a technique that offers a desirable solution to issues resulting from traditional hair highlighting using bleach. Balayage is a technique where there is no need to apply foils or other isolation methods to create the highlights. Instead, the hair artist will paint or colour selected sections of hair to achieve a seamless look. Instead of focusing on isolation, the artist focuses on ends and middle parts of the hair to create an effect that is as natural looking as possible, making the hair appear lightened by natural elements.

Balayage has become extremely popular in recent years as it not only offers an extremely natural feel and look for your hair, but it also frees you of the periodic maintenance and touch-ups required as a result of conventional highlights. Nowadays, women looking to spruce up their hair’s style often opt for a caramel balayage or a brown balayage. But the options are only really limited by your imagination.

Expert Advice

It is indeed true that even the best balayage hair colouring products would not produce desired results if handled by stylists who do not have the expertise to carry out the procedure. As with most chemical-based processes, balayage requires a high degree of skill and understanding that the team at Hakim Elhocine Salon has exhibited over and over again. With thousands of satisfied customers that include A-list celebrities and fashion icons, Hakim’s team is a trusted source with several years of producing top-notch results and exceeding clients’ expectations.

With Hakim Elhocine, you can be certain of being in the care of hair and beauty experts who value your well-being, beauty, and glamour as much as you do. So drop by Baker Street in London and look for Hakim Elhocine anytime you feel the need for being spoiled with pampering.

Hair balayage vs highlights
Hair Highlights

Booking Your Experience

With our booking service your data is completely safe

With our booking service your data is completely safe

Book an Appointment

Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Contact Us for...