Are you ready to update your look with a new hair color? You might be considering a modern technique like balayage or highlights. These techniques offer unique effects such as blended colors, graduated hues, and natural-looking sun-kissed strands. But before you compare different looks that are best for your hair type and desired color palette let’s understand the difference between balayage and highlights!
What is Balayage?
Balayage is a modern hair coloring technique that has been gaining in popularity over the last few years. Balayage is French for “sweeping” which pretty much sums up the process of getting Balayage. Balayage aims to create a natural-looking style by hand-painting semi-permanent color on the surface layers of your hair; creating sun-kissed highlights that are designed to grow out gracefully, without obvious start or endpoints. Balayage is an incredibly popular technique due to its ease of maintenance and natural-looking results – it keeps hair looking healthy, with little damage and no harsh roots!
What are Highlights?
Highlights are a great way to make a style statement, from golden, platinum, and sunkissed to bright blocks of bold color. Highlights can upgrade any hairstyle for an especially sophisticated and trendy look. Highlights add dimension to the hair by adding light and color, bringing out one’s best features by emphasizing them for an effortless yet elegant look. Highlights create texture variation which adds movement and body to the overall appearance of hair, creating more fun styles to choose from. Highlights also help revive dull and unmanageable hair by breaking up the flatness, adding luster, and making locks appear thicker and more full of life.
Difference between Balayage and Highlights
Balayage and highlights are both techniques used to add depth, dimension, and a pop of color to your hair. Balayage is a more natural, sweeping dye process that creates a subtle transition between colors without dramatic start points or defined lines. Highlights, on the other hand, create distinct sections of lighter colors which give hair natural brightness and an overall lightened look. Balayage allows for more customized coloring according to the individual’s face shape and features whereas highlights offer more uniformity in style. No matter which you choose, both Balayage and Highlights can help transform any look!
Conclusion
There are many differences between balayage and highlights, from the products used to the techniques employed. Balayage is a freehand hair-painting technique that can be used to create soft, natural-looking gradients of color. Highlights involve using foils to lighten specific sections of the hair. The main difference between these two popular hair colors is in the application process. Balayage is applied freehand, while highlights are placed in foils before being applied to the hair. This allows for more precision when placing highlights, which can result in a cleaner finish. Ultimately, both balayage and highlights can produce beautiful results; it just depends on your personal preference!
