5 Tips For Brighter And Better Balayage

5 Balayage Tips For Easier Application & Brighter Results
You have a quick 30-minute break while your next client processes, how do you spend it?! How about learning five easy ways to improve your hair paint skills? Whether it’s trying a new tool or different approaches to balayage application, we LOVE sharing tips for better blends and brighter results. Keep reading for a high-impact color placement technique, plus tips on tension, saturation and transitional color melts from balayage specialist Kristen Ewing (@kristen.lumiere). Then, slay the blend every time!

Products Used

Hair Color

Clay Decolorizer

L'ANZA Healing Haircare

1. Color Placement: Five-Layered Cake Balayage
This color placement technique creates the perfect teardrop effect, seamlessly connecting balayage in the back of the head to the front. Here’s what you need to know:

• Take diagonal-forward sections at the parietal ridge and layer L’ANZA Healing Haircare Clay Decolorizer lightly—like icing with its creamy consistency.
• Use long, light and consistent strokes to blend from the midshaft up. “Blending and finesse with the brush is key,” dishes Kristen.
• After you achieve a seamless blend of lightener, layer more Clay Decolorizer on thicker as you work toward the ends.
  

Watch The Video How To Below

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by The Austin Balayage Gypsy🌿 (@kristen.lumiere) on Feb 15, 2019 at 6:13pm PST

2. Tension Tip for Even Blends
Always pinch balayage sections between your thumb and the side of your pointer finger. “This ensures that no matter how much you manipulate the lightener, you will have even tension throughout the application,” shares Kristen. Here’s an example: “If I tried to pinch your finger with my thumb and pointer finger, it would hurt a ton,” says Kristen. “But if I tried with my pointer finger and middle finger you would hardly feel any pressure—it’s the same with tension in your sections.”

3. Saturation: If It’s White, It’s Bright
“While blending is so important to me, I make sure I don’t over-blend my sections and miss out on creating those beautiful ribbons of lightness in the hair,” dishes Kristen. “Long and consistent brush strokes are also a must in all of my applications—this way the lightener is smooth like cake icing.” Clay Decolorizer is moisture-rich so it both spreads and stays put easily.

4. Color Melting Before Balayage
If the client is overly highlighted, has outgrowth or needs gray coverage, Kristen uses the first session to color melt before doing any lightening so she can correct older color and add dimension. “When I balayage a canvas I need about 75 percent of the hair to be darker tones to contrast with my balayage,” shares Kristen.

Here’s what the first session looks like: Melt with a singular color from the base to 3 to 4 inches down the hair shaft. Then, transition into a lowlight and bring through the mids to ends alternating sections—this creates a balayage effect if there are enough preexisting highlights.

5. Control The Lifting Process
Secure every painted section with Saran Wrap so the client’s natural body heat promotes lift. This will also keep the lightener sealed air-tight, keeping it wet and creating more lift with better control. “If I need to, I will unwrap the sections as they finish processing,” shares Kristen. “This will allow them to dry out while other sections catch up.”

Look At That High Impact Brightness 👏

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by behindthechair.com (@behindthechair_com) on Mar 20, 2019 at 7:49am PDT