What is 'balayage'?

What is 'balayage'?

Nancy Braun (Master Colorist) gives expert video advice on: What are highlights?; What is 'balayage'?; How often should I highlight my hair? and more...

Balayage is a French technique, it comes from a root word "to balay" which means to sweep and it's a sweeping motion. To balayage is a highlighting technique where you take highlighting product or some type of hair coloring and you actually free-form hair paints. You pick up a section of hair and free-form applying that product to the hair in order to give you either a lighter shade or a darker shade. Balayage is different from traditional highlighting, in that most people highlight with foil. Balayage is designed to give your hair a little bit more on natural look. More like children's hair. When you a child's hair and you see the streaks and the pieces coming, they're not always the same. Sometimes they start a little closer to the root area sometimes they startled a bit further away but they're in different sizes and different shapes. And that's the type of highlighting you can achieve with the balayage.