Balayage, ombre, babylights, teasylights, foilayage, root melt, root shadow, base color, toner. Aaaaaaaahhhh it's all so confusing! Do the tongue-tying words cause panic when communicating with your stylist? It can be frustrating. The terminology is always changing and sounds baffling, so knowing the correct terms and meanings will ensure you communicate properly with your stylist and get the color you dream of.
There are so many new and improved options for color. The days of simply getting a base color and highlights have long passed. The color services we perform today are nothing short of pure artistry. Highlights and hand painted money pieces add accents around the face. Techniques can mimic the look as if you were laying ocean side all summer. Proper color placement adds dimension to hair, giving the illusion of volume and fullness. So let's break it down and simplify the verbiage.
HIGHLIGHTS/LOWLIGHTS:
Highlights are simply the lightening of hair strands using color or lightener. Lowlights are adding darker tones back in. Sounds simple right? Yeah........ if only. There are so many techniques for highlighting, it can make your head spin. Here's the 411 on some common techniques and what looks they produce.
FOIL HIGHLIGHTS: This is the most common technique for highlighting. Sounds lame, no amazingly trendy name, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Foils give us total control over the hair. We rhythmically weave or slice the hair and apply the lightener to regrowth to create the desired look. Chunky, fine, or somewhere in between, the hair is wrapped in the foil keeping the product off the remaining hair. The foil acts like a heat conductor, giving the enclosed lightener a boost. This technique requires some upkeep. You may need to rebook for 8- 10 week intervals to keep the hair color fresh and even. Wait too long (too much regrowth!) and the color is harder to lift resulting in uneven tones and unwanted brass. Traditional foils have paved the way for so many of the newer, more artistic techniques.
BABYLIGHTS: When you think of the word baby, your mind wanders to all things pure and innocent. Babylights were created to give the finest highlights, mimicking the beautiful natural highlights that we swoon over on the heads of little babes. Traditionally these are placed around the hairline, but a full head of babylights can give you a power punch of blonde! Perfect for gray blending, or adding lowlights to a heavy blonde for a more natural look. Babylights maintenance depends on the overall look and placement. A few babylights require less maintenance than an all over full head.
TEASYLIGHTS: Ok, this is where we start to have some fun. With teasylights we tease the hair first and highlight the hair that is left out. We can take the lightener as high as we want, but the teasing prevents us from going all the way to the root. This gives a more lived in look, similar to a balayage but a lot more subtle. There are a lot of instances where this is used in conjunction with a balayage to help lift the ends lighter. Teasylights are perfect for the client who wants subtle dimension with low maintenance.
BALAYAGE/HAND PAINTED/FREELIGHTS: These techniques are the adult equivalent to finger painting! So much fun and creativity! The lightener is painted on the ends with a brush and smudged up to give the look of a darker base and brighter ends. Many times this is used along with a base color at the root that is 'melted' down . Balayage techniques give a seamless blend of dark to light usually a few brighter pieces that extend up closer to the root. The result from traditional balayage is a softer variation of color, usually with underlying warmth.
FOILAYAGE: If you like the look of a balayage but don't want the warm golden tones, foilayage is for you! This technique incorporates the same blended look as balayage but the hair is placed inside a foil allowing a lighter brighter result.
OMBRE: Well this look has seen its fair share of mishaps. But let's cut ombre some slack, it was hot out of the gates and few stylists had the experience to execute it beautifully. Luckily, we've come a looooong way. The color should be gradual lightening from root to ends. Unlike a balayage, this look has little to no highlights from the midshaft to root. Ombres often utilize a color melt after the lightening process to tone and blend.
COLOR:
Ok stay with me now! Color used to be a one size fits all product. Well this isn't your Momma's color anymore. Times have changed, and today's color can be used in an artistic array of applications to create a custom tailored look.
BASE COLOR: This is color101. Base color is the color applied directly to your root. It covers gray and can change your natural.
ROOT SHADOW: A root shadow is used to deepen the natural hair, sometimes after a heavy highlight. It gives a soft dimension at the root.
ROOT MELT: This differs from the root shadow. A root melt application will apply the color at the root, then pull it down a little further.
COLOR MELT: Who doesn't love the look of a color melt! Oh, you don't know what that means.... Well a color melt seamlessly blends several shades between root and midshaft, and sometimes the ends. Color melts are today's softer version of ombres.
TONERS: Toners.....yeah they drop the mic, they are a blonde's best friend, the whipped cream and cherry of the color world. Their job is to refine the tone of the hair, and boy do they deliver. Whether you need to cut brassiness or add more warmth, toners can take your color from boring to blazing hot! But beware, they are not a permanent color and will fade off of the hair. So the proper product recommendation is key to color longevity.
So now that you are well versed in color knowledge, what look are you going to ask for? We can't wait to see you in our chair!