Page 8 - level 3 training document

2. WHAT IS BALAYAGE?

Around the time that Ombre clients were saying how disappointing it
is that as we go into winter and lose the last four inches of sun
lightened hair. The technicians began to offer to bleach the ends in
order to keep that holiday hair colour alive.

The colourists would first placed bleach on the last four inches. The
hair being longer, gave the appearance of a dip dye effect to the ends
of the hair without any blend. Initially Balayage was just a long
Ombre without any blend whatsoever therefore there was much
confusion over what was Ombre and what was Balayage.

What the technicians had not recognised from the summer look that
they were trying to recreate was; the sun had merely lifted the surface
area of the hair, leaving the underneath hair the natural colour,
automatically creating a blend where it mixed with the surface colour.

With the introduction of painting a design directly onto the surface of

the hair, Balayage has evolved to more of a perfect blend and
Ombre was almost forgotten. Balayage is now all about the blend and
it is clear now that when a client asks for Balayage she is asking for a
blending process that is individual to her particular hair colour.

Balayage can be complementary colours or bold opposing colours
depending on the client’s requirements and hair type.