Classic Highlights, Babylights or Balayage? What's the Difference?
Have you ever wondered what the difference is between highlight, babylights and balayage. There are so many buzz words that fly around when the trends change, it’s hard to keep up with what they mean if you’re not working in a hair salon like we are!
When you’re ready for your next appointment, it’s good to have an idea of what you’re trying to achieve, this way you’ll be much faster in getting the results you truly want.
Let’s have a look at the difference between classic highlights, babylights and balayage…
CLASSIC HIGHLIGHTS
This technique has been around for a long time! Here your hair gets sectioned and weaved, placed on top of a foil, and then the hair colour gets painted onto the hair from the root and folded into the foil. Depending on the desired outcome depends on the colour mixture used. Sometimes more than 1 colour can be foiled in to create a multi-dimensional look, with different tones. Highlights follow a more structured pattern with where the foils are placed.
BABYLIGHTS
This is the exact same technique as ‘classic highlights’ except the sections and hair weaves are much finer. This option is best suited to those wanting a more subtle finish. This creates more of a multi-dimensional look, as well as an all over colour lift if you’re looking to go blonder. If you want a bigger change, with more tone and dimension to the hair, Babylights are what you need! This takes longer to do than the classic highlights and more colour is being applied to your hair.
BALAYAGE
Balayage is a French word meaning ‘To sweep’. The goal of balayage is to add a much more subtle and natural look to the hair, whilst still enjoying tone dimension and pops of colour. Your stylist will use a graduated ‘freehand’ painting technique using a brush that has been dipped in colour or lightener on selected / random sections of the hair. The colour choice is dependant on the desired outcome, and the technique changes dependant on the desired outcome too. Balayage often results in a more natural finish, with a more blended look, with pops of colour tones. Because the balayage doesn’t go all the way to the root, it doesn’t grow out to leave stark, obvious roots and so you can go longer without maintenance – it’s best to wait 12-14 weeks between appointments.
OVERVIEW –
It’s important to remember that with any of the options above they are simply ‘techniques’ used by your stylist. They are not specific looks – and depending on the outcome that you wish to achieve, depends on which technique will give you the desired outcome!
Wanting a finer more natural toned look? Go with Babylights.
Wanting a classic, more clear view of the toner? Go with Classic Highlights.
Wanting a more subtle finish, or a more ‘lived in’ look? Go with Balayage.
The maintenance with Classic Highlights / Babylights will be higher due to the colour going all the way to the root to give a more overall effect with the colour used to combat the ‘roots’. With either the Highlights and the Babylights, you’ll have more of an all over contrast between the colour applied and the base colour due to it being weaved through.
Maintenance for highlights / babylights will need to be around 6-8 weeks to keep things looking fresh, depending on the speed of your natural hair growth to prevent the grown out ‘roots’ (again this is dependant on how much of a contract the colour used is compared to your natural hair. It’s also more due to the colour being positioned close to the root and therefore more obvious when it grows out.
The maintenance for balayage can be much longer, due to the less obvious transition between the colours. Balayage is a much more natural finish, or a bolder finish, whilst keeping the colours running through the hair.
Regardless of the technique you opt for, any type of hair colouring can add stress to the hair if it’s not properly cared for between appointments. It’s so important to ensure you’re using high quality products at home, recommended to you by your stylist to keep your hair looking and feeling healthy – we can help you with this, no problem at all!