Your experience of balayage

[SaveOurSausages]

I've booked in for this in May and am bloody excited but also shitting myself! Obv have gone for reputable salon etc.
They are testing two strips of my hair to see what colour they can get etc and I had a hair consultation.

I've coloured my hair lots over the years with the awful highlighting cap and foils but thought balayage looked modern and natural. I have a blonde base.

Any advice? Or experience? I have been going to a cheap/old fashioned hair dresser for years so this is out of my comfort zone.

For context- I am 35 and feeling horrendously mumsy nowadays and am on a kick to boost my confidence!

I had a full head (not balayage, sorry) of that ashy colour. A kind word of warning; it's often very hard to replicate the colour in that picture and it can be a lengthy process rather than a one-off colour change in one appointment. It will also take a lot of maintenance and toning, plus styling to achieve the style in that pic.

I don't want to sound negative at all but it can be really hard to get it right and keep it right, if you see what I mean.

Yes the hairdresser did prepare me for it taking more than one session.
I'm ok with it being a high maintenance colour, I expected that! Is it a "purple shampoo" kind of colour?

I have balayage but it's a work in progress. It's not always possible to obtain it straight away, I'm not quite there yet and have had two trips to the salon. My advice would be make sure you find the right hairdresser. There is a world of difference between a really good colourist who understands how to achieve the look and one who will basically do a dip dye job.

Make sure you go to someone who knows what they are doing. My normal (ex) hairdresser was very confident about doing it but literally died my hair dark brown and put one colour very blonde thick foil hightlights through from root to tip and afterwards was adamant it was balayaged.

I went somewhere else who did a better job but as the colours faded and use out it very quickly ended up looking like ombre rather than balayage.

See, I always thought that balyage was basically just a more professional type of 'dip dye'. But I follow Not Another Salon and Lisa Loves Balyage amongst others on Instagram, and basically it just seems like balyage is just a more modern way of doing highlights, in a more freehand way so that it looks more natural than a cap or foils.

I don't get my hair coloured at the hairdressers as I much prefer to research online and do it myself using salon products, as I feel like I have more control. However, I wouldn't be able to achieve what's in that picture. It looks lovely and yes, it's very much something that would need a lot of toner/purple shampoo, and depending on your natural colour might take more than one go to get those very light bits. But hopefully you will get it, it looks fab!

Yes it is very much a case of obtaining and maintaining the colour with purple / silver shampoo / toner. And then using the most effective conditioner you can possibly afford to prevent breakage.

I took that exact pic into a highly recommended salon recently - my hair was a similar style and I had similar coloured highlights but with a 3 inch natural root - should’ve been easy - I walked out with dyed dark brown hair and I HATE it!

How on earth did they interpret that photo as brown hair?! I made it very clear I wanted an ash blonde but knew there would be limitations.

They are a beauty salon that are well known in the area. Their Facebook photos look beautiful and the stylist was assigned to me because she does a lot of balayage. She said once it gets to the right colour it is easier because you don't notice the root growth. As my hair grows at an absolute snails pace, i will have it a while.

Like everything I guess, I won't know until I go and get it done. They have brilliant reviews though and have won some awards recently.

Any recommendations of purple shampoo? Looked online and felt a bit overwhelmed. I could see what they recommend I guess.

There have been several threads on here where ops have been disappointed with ‘balayage.’ Not sure how achievable it is but I think it depends on your hair and the expertise of the hairdresser. I also don’t know anyone with it in real life!

I did discuss it with my hairdresser the last time I went as an alternative to my usual highlights. She said it would look very different and I might not like it so I chickened out.

Fudge or Bleach London. (I have tried A LOT of purple shampoos )

Fanola no yellow is a really good purple shampoo, you can usually get a litre bottle for around £10 from amazon

I've had balayage in the past and was happy with it, but for me it was 'pure' balayage (i.e. freehand highlights) rather than the sort of dip-dye that some people seem to think it is. I'm naturally blonde so just had balayage to look sun-kissed.

I think people tend to be less happy with their results when they want to change their base hair colour first and then have balayage on top of that. It's more complex so will show up a less experienced colorist's 'abilities'.

If anyone lives near Portsmouth, I can recommend an amazing colourist there (she did my balayage in London but then she fell in love and moved to Portsmouth - I'm very happy for her but I miss her!)

Yes I have it. Have done for the last few years. Generally love it.
I like that it looks more natural / beachy. Down side is that it costs more than standard highlights and can look bad if you leave it too long between appointments and the highlighted bits merge into a colour blob!

I find I have to have the lengths done every 8 weeks at least. The roots are my natural colour so luckily I don't have to keep having root tint too.

Also, have been using Olaplex and that's helped prevent breakage and condition of the hair. My hairdresser mixes it in with the bleach I think.

I've spent allllll evening looking at pictures of bad ones online...I may be way out here but most of them are people who are natural brunettes with blonde balayage? Perhaps it's because the colour change is more noticeable? I'm feeling a bit safer because I am blonde going to lighter blonde...

Starting to get cold feet now... still getting it done though. Have done so much to my hair over the years I am braver than I used to be!

I had it done last year and love it! Hardly
Any upkeep unlike highlights, and I'd say buy some olaplex treatment too x

That looks gorgeous!!

Had it regularly and loved it. Regular stylist went on maternity leave, salon owner stepped in.

Hated it. I mean hated it. So much I wouldn’t;t yo back to let her fix it, I was so terrified what it might end up at. Went elsewhere to get it rectified, which basically involved a tonne of Olaplex and going darker.

Nearly a year later and I’ve just had my bra strap length hair chopped to shoulder length to get rid of the damaged pieces. This is despite regular Olaplex treatments, at home Olaplex use plus regular hot oil and hydration masks.

So, caution.

Oh god...I've got three weeks to wait. Might phone the salon and ask for reassurance that they do know what they are doing...would that seem rude? I mean pics on Facebook and reviews is all I have really. Not sure what other research I could do myself as I don't know anyone who goes there for balayage specifically

Ask questions. You'll soon know if they know what they're talking about. For example what colour is your natural hair? I'd be very suspicious of a hairdresser that suggested warm golden highlights for my hair as I have red undertones and know it would go brassy. Pop in to the salon beforehand and ask to speak to the person doing it - a good hairdresser would be happy to consult with you beforehand. A good colourist will give you an honest opinion as to whether what you want is achievable so that your expectations are realistic.

That's the thing, I've already had a hair consultation! I've got blonde hair naturally but have had all sorts done to it over the years. She wanted to know my hair colouring history and took two strips of my hair to do strand tests. She said she could see no reason why my hair wouldn't lighten to what I wanted but it might take a couple of sessions...so seemed to know what she was talking about anyway

I just got bayalage. It's not exactly what I wanted or expected, but it looks nice. One thing I did was bring photos of not only what I wanted, but also what I didn't. So I googled a load of pics of "bad ombre" and "bad bayalage", and showed them to the stylist and was very clear that they mustn't do that to my hair. It's a serious undertaking and it's not cheap, and it seemed a good way to set my boundaries before they doused me in bleach.

I’m getting this done today!!! Yay!!

Although I’m brunette and intend to stay brunette but with a richer/glossier colour and a few lighter tones (caramel/toffee/chocolate/chestnut) those are the colours I’m aiming for!

How did it go???

Rachy good idea about taking a photo of what I don't want, will def do that