Balayage vs. Highlights: Unveiling the Differences and Choosing What’s Right for You

If you’re considering brightening up your hair, you've probably come across the words balayage and highlights. They both add dimension and depth to your hair, but the technique you choose will change the overall effect and your maintenance schedule. Understanding the differences between these two popular hair coloring techniques is essential to achieving your desired look.

What is Balayage?

Balayage (pronounced bah-lay-ahge) is a French technique that means “to sweep.” It involves hand-painting lightener onto the hair in soft, sweeping motions for a more natural, sun-kissed effect. The term describes the method used by stylists to sweep lightener or dye through the hair by hand. As Min Kim, celebrity colorist and L’Oréal Professionnel global ambassador, says, “Balayage is a freehand hair coloring technique in which the product is applied directly to the surface of the hair without using foils or caps. It creates a natural, sun-kissed look that’s less uniform than traditional highlights.”

Balayage is designed to create a blended, lived-in look, with lighter ends and a soft transition from roots to tips. Since the color doesn’t start right at the root, it grows out beautifully and requires less frequent touch-ups. One of the reasons balayage is so popular is that it offers plenty of customization options. Hand painting the colored sections of hair instead of using foils allows stylists to create a range of effects using colors that flatter your skin tone. Typically, balayage incorporates colors that blend with your natural hair color to create a look that’s sun-kissed instead of dramatic.

Benefits of Balayage:

• Natural Look: Balayage creates a seamless blend of colors, giving you a natural and effortless appearance. Balayage makes the overall look enhanced without affecting the base color of the hair. It’s beneficial for brunettes who want hair dimension while maintaining the natural richness.
• Low Maintenance: Since balayage starts further down the hair shaft, the regrowth is less noticeable. Balayage is usually easier to maintain than highlights because the stylist applies the color from mid-shaft. They also apply more color to the ends of the hair to create lighter tips, allowing you to go as long as you like between touch-ups.
• Versatility: Balayage works well with various hair colors and textures, making it suitable for a wide range of people.

Considerations for Balayage:

• Skill-Dependent: Achieving the desired look with balayage highly depends on the stylist’s expertise.
• Potential for Damage: Bleached hair, common with balayage, is prone to dry, split ends.
• Cost: While balayage is easy to maintain, a complete balayage service might be more costly upfront due to the level of artistry and time involved.

Who is Balayage Perfect For?

Balayage is perfect for:

• Those who love a low-maintenance look
• Clients who want soft dimension or that effortless “beachy” vibe
• Brunettes looking to add caramel or honey tones without a harsh contrast
• People with previously uncolored hair who want a subtle color shift
• People looking for an easy-going approach to highlights that doesn’t demand stringent salon schedules.

What are Highlights?

Highlights are created using foils to lighten specific sections of the hair, often starting close to the root. Stylists use a pick to section out the strands and apply a lightener from root to tip, wrapping the treated sections in foil while the color develops. Chase Kusero, co-founder of IGK Hair Care, says, “Highlights are a hair coloring technique where sections of hair are lightened to create contrast with the base color. This is typically done using foils or caps to isolate small strands of hair, which are then treated with a lightening agent.”

Read also: Maintaining Caramel Balayage

This results in a more structured, uniform brightness and is great for clients who want consistent lightness throughout the head. Highlights create a structured lightening effect and a more dramatic contrast between the colored sections and your natural hair color. Therefore, regrowth looks more pronounced, and you’ll need regular touch-ups to keep your color looking fresh and cover dark roots.

Babylights are an alternative to traditional highlights that recreate the natural dimensions of children’s hair. They produce a more subtle, sun-kissed effect than regular highlights and are ideal for framing the face. You could also consider adding lowlights to highlighted hair to create greater color depth. This technique involves adding precise slices of color that are similar to or darker than your natural hair.

Benefits of Highlights:

• Brighter, Lighter Overall Color: Highlights provide a strong contrast. Platinum or blonde highlights against a dark base help create a striking and bold appearance.
• More Control: What sets typical highlighting techniques apart is the level of control and customization it offers. By adjusting the thickness of the sections and the degree of lightening, your stylist can add as much or as little contrast as you like.
• Versatility: This style offers more versatility than balayage. This is because you are able to choose different shades of color for different sections of your hair, which results in striking effects such as ombre or tiger stripes without worrying about it looking too unnatural or obvious from far away.

Considerations for Highlights:

• Higher Maintenance: Highlights require more maintenance due to regrowth. It’s because they are more noticeable. Applying color to the entire hair shaft creates a greater regrowth contrast than the seamless effect of balayage.
• Regular Salon Visits: Root regrowth will be visible and necessitate regular salon visits for touch-ups. Highlights tend to require more maintenance, with touch-ups needed every few weeks to address the regrowth.
• Less Subtle: Highlights tend to be less subtle than balayage since they create larger sections of lighter colored strands throughout the length of your hair, as opposed to balayage, which just subtly brightens up the overall color of your hair.

Who are Highlights perfect for?

Highlights are perfect for:

• Clients who want a brighter, lighter overall color
• Those who don’t mind regular salon visits for upkeep (or want to stretch them with a shadow root!)
• People going lighter for the first time and want more control
• Those who wish to add a noticeable change to their hair, achieve patterned effects, or cover greys effectively
• Individuals looking to address grey hair evenly throughout their mane, foil highlights provide excellent coverage.
• Someone with previous all over (dark) color as the foils will help to break through some of the built-up color better in some cases than with balayage (depends on the overall desired result).

Balayage vs. Highlights: Side-by-Side Comparison

When deciding between balayage and highlights, consider the following differences:

Feature	Balayage	Highlights
Technique	Hand-painted for a free-flowing and blended effect	Foils used for better precision and brightness
Look	Natural and soft, sun-kissed	Structured and bold
Maintenance	Low maintenance with a soft regrowth pattern	Frequent touch-ups required
Customization	Involves subtlety, colors blend with natural hair color	Strong contrast, more noticeable difference between colored and uncolored sections
Application	Application starts from the mid-lengths to the ends instead of beginning from the roots.	Mostly beginning close to the scalp

What About Foilayage?

Foilayage is the best of both worlds - it’s a balayage technique wrapped in foils for extra lift and brightness. It gives you that soft, diffused look but with more lightness than a traditional hand-painted balayage. Foilayage is also a great candidate for a root shadow, especially for those who want maximum lightness but still prefer a soft grow-out. It’s perfect for brunettes and darker blondes looking for that beachy brightness with dimension and softness.

Read also: Balayage Technique

Maintenance and Glossing

Regardless of the technique, a professional glossing service keeps your color vibrant, silky, and perfectly toned between lightening sessions.

• Balayage: Low-maintenance with touch-ups every 12-16 weeks. A gloss or toner refresh every 6-8 weeks helps maintain tone and shine.
• Highlights: Higher-maintenance with root touch-ups every 6-8 weeks - or longer with a root shadow. Glossing between visits keeps your tone fresh and brass-free.
• Foilayage: Medium-maintenance depending on how bright you go. Add a root shadow to stretch your touch-up window to 10-12 weeks. Gloss or toner recommended every 6-8 weeks for best results.

Choosing the Right Option for You

When choosing between balayage and highlights, you must consider your lifestyle, hair goals, and required maintenance. Consider the look you want to achieve and how much you’re prepared to maintain your hair color when you’re weighing up balayage vs. highlights.

• Choose balayage for a low-maintenance and natural look.
• Go for highlights if you prefer a polished and high-contrast style.
• Ask the stylists to combine these two techniques to get the best of both methods.

Lorena M. Valdes, a colorist at Chicago’s Maxine Salon, suggests considering your hair goals as well as your hair’s texture and density. “If your density gets thinner towards the ends it may be a candidate for balayage or a combination, since highlights can result in a brighter overall look quicker but may need a few sessions to get the ends fully saturated,” she explains.

Key Considerations:

• Desired Look: If you prefer a subtle and sun-kissed effect with a seamless blend, balayage is the way to go. If you’re looking for a dramatic color change and like a more structured look, highlights could be the way to go.
• Maintenance: If you have a busy lifestyle and want to minimize salon visits, balayage requires less maintenance due to its soft regrowth. Highlights can be a good option if you’re prepared (and can afford) to have your color touched up every couple of months at least. However, balayage may be the best choice if you prefer a low-maintenance look that allows you to skip a trip to the hair salon if you need to.
• Hair Type: Balayage works well for almost all hair types, but it’s especially great for those with medium to long hair, as the technique really shines when there’s length to work with. Highlights are fantastic for anyone looking to add dimension and brightness to their hair. This technique works well on all hair types, but it’s especially beneficial for those with shorter hair or those who prefer a more structured, uniform lightness throughout.

Caring for Your Colored Hair

Whichever side you fall on the balayage vs. highlights debate, proper at-home haircare is essential to keep your color looking its best. Lightening your hair using balayage or highlights is great for adding more dimension to your look, but it can also change the structure of the hair shaft. These changes can lead to dryness or hair breakage if you don’t care for your hair between treatments.

One of the best ways to care for your new hair color is to use moisturizing products designed with colored hair in mind. Leave-in Conditioners can give your hair an extra moisture boost and prevent snapped strands and dry, lackluster locks. It’s also worth treating your hair with a regular hair mask to restore lost moisture and repair any damage to the hair strands.

Read also: Clip-In Balayage Styles

Essential Haircare Tips:

• Use moisturizing products designed with colored hair in mind.
• Apply Leave-in Conditioners to give your hair an extra moisture boost.
• Treat your hair with a regular hair mask to restore lost moisture and repair any damage to the hair strands.
• Use a sulfate-free shampoo and conditioner that is color-safe.

tags: #balayage #vs #highlights

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