How to level up your balayage

Sophie Smith, master of balayage at Tuckwell & Co, shares her advice on keeping the balayage boom alive for all hair colours and tones

“Blonde balayage is arguably one of the most popular and trendy types of balayage. However, the highlighting technique of balayage also works beautifully on brunettes, and can work wonders on red or black hair.

Balayage is a fantastic solution for someone who’s aiming to go blonder but doesn’t want to worry too much about a certain amount of regrowth. One of the best bits about the technique is the adaptability of the style, allowing it to be applied to so many varieties of hair types and colours. The regrowth is generally softer and more subtle. This ensures a more subtle change in colour as hair grows out, guaranteeing clients can still maintain a natural look.

For clients with brunette hair, you can add levels of dimension to their locks by adding tones a couple of shades brighter than their natural hair. It blends in so flawlessly, creating a natural sun-kissed look but makes enough of a difference to add a whole new level of depth and dimension.

Really dark brown or black hair can tend to appear quite one dimensional. To combat this, balayage is a fantastic, subtle technique for bringing more depth of tones to these shades, without making a drastic difference.

You can also achieve caramel balayage effect by blending lighter, golden-brown tones with slightly deeper more chocolatey one. It creates a rich, warm balayage and blends together beautifully to create a fantastic final look.

Foilayage is another way to adapt the technique if client’s are requesting a more natural appearance. It’s perfect for adding bespoke, lighter pieces to achieve a sun-kissed look.

Balayage can work in one way or another for almost all hair types. Whether your client’s hair is dark or light, textured and curly or flatter and one dimensional, it can be adapted to suit what will work specifically with their hair. It’s all down to the consultation and working together to assess what will be best suited to their lifestyle!”