Babylage: What It Is And How This Hybrid Blonding Technique Works
Everything You Need To Know About The Babylage Technique
We love discovering new techniques during one of our daily Instagram scrolls and we recently discovered one that just may become your go-to blonding technique this summer: Babylage. Created by Itely Hairfashion North American Artistic Director Nick Trombetta (@nicktrombettausa), it combines two popular haircoloring techniques (we’re sure you can guess which ones 😉) to create the ultimate sun-kissed dimension clients love. So of course we reached out to Nick to learn more about it! Keep scrolling to learn what exactly babylage is and how it’s done.
Products Used
First Things First, What Is Babylage?
As you can probably tell from the name, babylage is a hybrid of babylights and balayage. Rather than heavily painting lightener onto the hair, babylage focuses on achieving a much more soft and distinguished finish with fine babylights toward the top and a solid balayage on the ends.
Watch The Video How-To Below
Nick’s Go-To Formula
When babylaging, Nick’s fave formula is Itely Hairfashion ICONIC BLONDE mixed with anywhere from 20- to 40-volume developer depending on the amount of lift he wants. BUT if you prefer to freehand paint and want up to six levels of lift, Nick recommends using Itely Hairfashion’s CLAY BLONDE or DELY BLONDE instead.
Now Let’s Talk About The Process Itself
1. Starting in the back (Nick says to always start in the back), begin by taking a sliced section and finely weaving it for the babylight.
Note: Nick says the sections are up to the stylist. You can part four sections, three sections, even a diamond pattern. The important thing is to work one section at a time.
2. Drop down the bottom half of the weaved section and paint the top half about ¾ of the way down with your lightening formula.
3. Then, pick up the section you dropped earlier and bring the two weaved sections back together.
4. Balayage from the midlengths to the ends with your lightening formula in a sweeping motion so you have a disperson of babylights on top and balayage on the bottom.
Check out the before and after below!