From France With Love: The History of Balayage

"balayage au coton"

 n.— «The shop has imported a young man named Yvan from the Carita salon in Paris to do what he calls a “balayage au cotton.” Starting at the nape, Yvan lifted out fine strands and applied a lightening paste with a thin brush. Instead of the usual foil wrapping, he tucked pieces of cotton wadding to support the strands in process and keep them from the rest of the hair. When he was three-quarters through, he had used 1,000 feet of cotton stripping and Miss Weston looked as though she were wearing an enormous white wig. The idea of the balayage (the word means sweeping) is to lighten fine strands of hair, rather than add color.»
“Color Your Hair Simply, or Turn It Blue—Salons Can Do It All” by Angela Taylor New York Times Apr. 1, 1974.

Balayage is the most exciting highlighting color technique to appear in a long time.  Colorists and clients alike fall in love with the fabulous results. Color placement looks natural and organic, similar to the effortlessly random color you'd receive after a summer at the beach.

 THE HISTORY OF BALAYAGE

Balayage (ba-lie-azhe), sometimes spelled ‘balliage’ or ‘baliage,’ is the art of hair painting. The term is based on the French word for ‘sweep away,’ or ‘balayer.’   Balayage, a.k.a “sweep away” originated at the exclusive gorgeous “Carita” Salon in Paris in the early 70’s making a huge name for itself with it’s beautiful and effortless sun kissed look.  There’s a link to the 1974 New York Times article above.  

Balayage is offered in many salons today—but not all results are consistent (it’s not as easy as it looks!). The colorist must be well-trained and have a keen sense of the hair’s texture and movement.  It’s just the colorist and the balayage brush. The most natural-looking results are usually those that look the most random, which calls for a very specific placement strategy.

In the 70’s, this technique was originally called “Balayage a Coton” for it’s use of cotton strips to separate the colored hair from the untouched portion. It was introduced during the time when our industry norm was frosting caps and solid colors, making the Balayage technique truly revolutionary for its time!  In the 80’s the industry introduced many varieties of foil highlighting techniques and it wasn’t actually until the early 90’s that Balayage first entered the US by storm grabbing the attention of top celebrities and became one of the hottest color trends to date!

It seems most clients that highlight their hair on a regular are almost afraid of stepping in to the world of balayage as it is something “new” to them and may seem like a big change.

There are many great reasons why Balayage is the top choice for highlights over the Foil technique!   When the hair is sectioned and “weaved or sliced” in to a foil, the whole section is saturated in color giving it a dense, uniform effect which gives it an unnatural appearance. Within weeks you start to see the regrowth or a “line of demarcation” and you are due for a retouch.

The Balayage technique is softly hand painted on the surface of the hair, leaving you with natural-looking swipes of color going from thick to thin and play off of the hairs natural movement.  Unlike traditional foil highlights, balayage lightens more slowly, which means there's less of a chance for breakage.   By choosing Balayage, you can go months without retouching and it gives that free flowing, untouched look.  It can be done with any variety of colors making it flexible for your wants and needs and makes it more manageable for your wallets!  A little something to think about before booking your next color service.  
      
NOT JUST FOR BLONDES
It’s important to note that balayage is definitely not just for blondes. Brunettes, redheads, even those with black hair can all take advantage of hair painting.  The results will be subtle, but they’ll add the dimension that everyone craves, giving a dark brunette swirls of cinnamon or caramel, for example.

FOILS VS. BALAYAGE
Foils often end up looking contrived - a neat row of uniform highlights.  When a section of hair is colored using a foil, the entire section is saturated with color resulting in dense, unnatural stripes of color.
 
Balayage color is painted in soft brush strokes across the surface of the hair, leaving you with natural-looking swipes of color that flow from thick to thin and play off the hair's natural movement.  Even better, balayage won't leave you with any signs of demarcation, creating a softer and more manageable grow-out.

FOILYAGE - the newest trend
This process marries the technique of Balayage with the vibrant color payoff of foil highlights. The traditional balayage technique involves painting onto the surface of the hair, completely freehand, but the process can be messy and may not lighten the hair enough.   Foilyage is a technique colorists use when they want to get more lift and can't achieve that with balayage so they go in and balayage inside the foil.  Foilyage uses this same hand-painting technique, but adds foil for added lightening.  In the end, you get nice natural-looking highlights.


Article Sources:
A Way with Words
Beauty, Head First
Maxine Salon - Chicago
Char Le Blanc - Salon & Spa
InStyle
GoodHousekeeping