Balayage vs Highlights: Explained
There are many shades of blonde hair – and therefore, many techniques to use to create said blonde hair.
In this blogpost, we are zooming in on two hair color techniques often used when blonding: balayage vs highlights
The wide range of techniques is both a blessing and (for some) a curse.
what is the difference between balayage and highlights?” and “Is highlights or balayage best for my hair?”
Even though the blonde universe might be confusing, we tried our best to simplify the two hair colouring techniques, so you can easily explain it to your client, and they will never ever will be confused again.
So, grab a cup of your best coffee (or wine even, we don’t judge) and get to know the basics about balayage, highlight, sectioning and much more.
Before we begin…
This blog is all about what the landscape looks like today.
When it comes to hairdressers: Everything has already been done and been done for a while. So none of this is new.
It’s the terminology that changes.
So here’s the 2024 overview.
The difference between balayage and traditional highlights (the basics)
Thankfully ZASA concept from Marseille wrote down everything you need to know regarding these different techniques (phew):
This guide is not only made as a quick “get-to-know-the-differences-about-these-rather-confusing-terms”-guide for your clients. It is also made for YOU (yes, you) as a hairstylist to help refresh your knowledge about the small application differences to help create the wow-effect your client is looking for.
Because that is the key to mastering the hair coloring technique: knowing the application differences.
Once you have read this blogpost, we promise you will feel more confident next time you are going to advise your clients on choosing which technique to go for according to their wishes.
… So, we are telling you that the difference is all about techniques?
Yes!
Oh, one more thing before we begin.
There’s no right and no wrong way of doing any of these techniques and choosing between them. It always depends on the client and your consultation and at the end of the day there are 100 different ways of doing hair.
To make it easy, we’ve divided the two techniques into two overall “branches”: balayage and highlights (see figure).
Get colour applicator cheat sheet for your salon.
Download our cheat sheet with application, sectioning, colour maintenance and saturation for 4 different Balayage and Highlights technique.
Balayage
[ba.le.ja3] As you can see in the figure, balayage is a free-hand painting technique.
The name – and the technique! – was born in Paris, France in 1965. Back then, it was known as Balayage á Coton (very fancy, should’ve stuck to that name), which means cotton sweeping (so on the other hand, let’s just stick to balayage, shall we?).
Jokes aside, balayage got its name due to the fact that the hand-painted hair strands were separated by the rest of the hair using cotton strips.
To sum it up: a traditional balayage is a freehand painting technique effortlessly applied on the hair strand’s surface without foils. You saturate the hair, varying with more saturation toward the ends. This creates softness in the result. Hair dye is applied in a way that creates a natural-looking gradient of color, enhancing the soft, subtle highlights.
This technique will result in a natural, sun-kissed effect on the hair. You can apply the colour by using a 1-point, 2-point (V) or 3-point (w) method. If you like to know more about these sectioning techniques, we encourage you to watch the webinar Anna Bjørnstrup on balayage and sectioning techniques.
A full head, traditional Balayage, is applied by starting from the nape and moving towards the crown.
Balayage is not always ideal for dark hair since darker hair can be less receptive to lift and the effect will be less visible. For dark hair make sure to adjust your peroxide accordingly, however it always better to use foils for dark hair, especially when you want to take it 3-4 or more shades lighter.
In the last box in the figure, you’ll see that we also mentioned ombre and dip dye as similar techniques.
Let’s do a quick run-down:
In this video, Christopher from Frisør Pii, uses a weaved sectioning and applied BALANCE Sparkling Shine + 9% as a Balayage technique.
More on sectioning below.
Dip Dye – the big sister (or brother) to the ombré hairstyle
Dip Dye is – as the name may suggest – a technique where you are lightening up the hair base colour by displaying a clear line of demarcation, with almost no transition at all – you know, as if you dipped your client’s hair in a big bucket of hair colour (but please don’t do that).
Dip Dye is not as natural and subtle looking like what your clients probably want, as it is a lightening hair color technique. So let us introduce you to the little sis (or bro) of the dip dye hairstyle: Ombré (apparently those fancy french names seem to stick around).
The ombré
Ok, so being a younger sibling to dip dye, you may already have guessed what the ombré hairstyle looks like. If you are a hairstylist, you probably already know.
The ombré technique is where you are gradually lightening up the hair base colour, with a subtle, but well-saturated transition from roots to edges. Like a gradient effect.
Still with us? Great. Now let’s move on to the other “branch”: highlights.
Highlights
In contrast to balayage, traditional foil highlights are all about sectioning, resulting in a more structured effect. Highlights are also created with foils/mesh/paper. And also importantly, when doing highlights you usually saturate the hair throughout.
With this structured foil technique, you can add highlights onto specific hair sections. Traditionally, the hair gets evenly saturated from root to tip, whereas the balayage-technique results in lighter tips.
As opposed to balayage, traditional highlights also need to be touched up more frequently to avoid that root-outgrow-look.
To create highlights, you apply the colour on specific hair strands only (you know, specific sectioning), in order to reflect light and create the impression of more volume. Insist on the hair edges and on the hair strands outlining the face.
There are different methods in creating said highlights. For example lowlights and babylights. Let’s break ‘em down, shall we?
Babylights
Babylights are mini highlights, superfine and delicate (they are basically babies of the traditional highlight).
Therefore, babylights don’t create that much of a dramatic dimension, but give the hair a sparkly outcome (sounds intriguing, right?).
The same technique is therefore used as the traditional highlight but with much less hair taken into each foil.
The look might remind you of that cute sun-kissed hair that children have in the summer; SO. CUTE.
But also time-consuming, as it’s a lot more hair to paint since it’s smaller sections at a time than if you were to do traditional highlights. Therefore, if your client decides to go for the baby lights, make sure you have an extra cup of coffee at hand (or five).
Oh, and charge accordingly!
Keep in mind though: If you create very close highlights, it will demand more frequent touch ups since you will get a more visible regrowth.
Lowlights
Lowlights are – actually – pretty much the same as highlights. But, as the name may suggest, a darker colour is painted through to create a more dimensional result.
It is important to note that lowlights are NOT a darker highlight. Lowlights are never produced in a lightening process. A lowlight goes darker than the base, and therefore is not created by a lift.
So… we have been introducing you to some different techniques in creating blonde hair: balayage and highlights (and their similar-techniques, you are very welcome).
But um…
Is there really a difference between highlight and balayage?
This question quite often pops up when talking balayage vs highlights.
And truthfully: No. One does not cancel out the other and here’s why:
Balayage has evolved into becoming an application technique for hair color, whereas highlights is a sectioning technique.
So you can easily do an all over highlight sectioning and apply your colour on the sections using a balayage technique.
Sectioning for Highlights: Technique Overview
There’s a hundred different techniques when it comes to sectioning for highlight and every hairdresser has their favourite to-go.
But, to maybe challenge you a bit to look towards new technique, we listed 4 of the most popular sectioning technique that we have seen right here below:
Weaving (Traditional highlight and babylights)
Weaving is actually one of the more complicated hairdressing techniques there is. It creastes a fine highlight pattern, and a very natural look.
We are always blown away how easy our hairdressers make weaving look knowing how difficult it is to master this technique.
Quick tip: when airtouching, dont pinch to hard with you fingers, but use the flat of your fingers for a more even result.
Airtouch
Airtouch simply means you use your dryer to blow away some hair to create your sections (on cold that is).
Depending on how fine you usually wave your hair, the differnece in result from traditional weaving is very subtle.
Comb weaving
This is of the technique that divides our hairdressers. Some absolutely love using a weaving comb, while others sees it as cheating. Which fo the two is up to you.
Resultwise it gives a teasy lights natural sun-kissed effect: without having to comb out all the teased hair while aslo gettign closer to the roots.
Quick tip: when combing back the hair, flip your comb vertically and it will comb out much easier (pst. if you want to comb out wet hair, you can use xxx as a detangler to make this process much more easy!)
Back-combing (Teasy Lights)
Back-combing is a very popular technique when doing balayage. Back-combing is super fast and create a so-called teasy ligh look (beacuse teasing is another word for back-combing…)
Mixing it up: The Sombré Balayage
In Denmark – at the moment – this is the hottest technique, and what all the blondes are asking for.
With the sombré balayage you mix the worlds of highlight and babylight with the balayage application technique. This technique enhances natural hair color by adding subtle dimensions and a soft blend.
Another way of achieving a more subtle balayage is back-combing and doing a so-called backcomb balayage.
Balayage vs Highlights: How do you know which technique to use?
It all comes down to which look your client is looking for.
Is it a subtle, natural look that gives the “I just came home from a vacation at the beach”-vibe? Then you should advise them to go for the balayage.
If they’d like a bit more of a transition, go for ombré. For clients with deeper natural hair colors, balayage can be a great option, but they should be cautious to avoid overly blended results and be aware that sun exposure might create red undertones.
But if they would rather like a more structured, lightened hair, then the traditional highlights is the way to go. Go for babylights, if their wishes are a bit more natural.
Or put it together and make “balayage highlights”: Mixing foil highlights sectioning with balayage application techniques.
And there you have it! Your new go-to guide, if your client ever asks you about balayage vs highlights, and which technique to choose.
We hope you enjoyed this blog post on Balayage vs. Highlights and maybe took away just a few new things from it 🎉
A big thanks to images from Emilie at Frisør Pii, Oline at Frisør Pii and Mathilde at Frisør Pii for provided visuals to showcase the different techniques and styles.
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With NATULIQUE BALANCE Sparkling Shine you can create soft highlights, a natural balayage effect, instant illumination or an authentic sun-kissed effect.
NATULIQUE BALANCE Sparkling Shine is still part of the NATULIQUE Natural Colours family, so you can expect the same quality and integrity as you are used to with all of our other colours.
