While buttery balayage Opens in a new tab has been the highlight trend of the year, a less noticeable but equally beautiful option is baby lights. These micro-fine highlights are three to four shades lighter than your base color and add a subtle shimmer to dark hair colors.
Like balayage, these sweeping highlights are blended seamlessly into the base color for a natural look that needs touch-ups only every six to eight weeks. Click the Macrolights Hair to learn more.
If you scroll through any social media hair feeds lately, you’ll likely see many bespoke color services with cute names like baby lights, teasy lights, foliage, and the ever-popular balayage. These highlighting techniques are all variations on the same theme, creating a sunkissed natural-looking look with less harsh re-growth between appointments.
Balayage (pronounced bah-LEE-age) is a free-hand coloring technique that allows stylists to create a natural gradation of lightness through the hair. Think of it as the natural-looking sunkissed highlights we get from our parents as children, but with a more subtle and sophisticated approach. It also allows for a softer grow-out with no obvious lines of demarcation between your highlights and your roots, making it low maintenance.
Stylists use a paintbrush and palette to create this look by sweeping the hair lightener on small triangle sections of your hair, rather than painting it on. This gives it that soft, sunkissed effect we all love and makes your hair look thicker and more vibrant.
This is an ideal technique for any blonde as it creates a soft and subtle highlight, allowing you to keep the integrity of your hair’s length. It can also add texture and volume to finer, thinner strands.
Gigi Hadid and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley are both fans of this look as it can add some edge to their signature blonde looks. It’s also great for enhancing darker root shades or adding some depth to finer highlights.
Babylights are ultra-fine strands of highlight that simulate the delicate wisps of lightness seen in newborn babies. They are placed very close to the scalp to give a light, airy, and naturally sunny look.
Highlights
AKA hair painting, this bespoke service takes traditional highlights to the next level. By utilizing both foils and free-hand technique, we follow the contour of your head, blending natural highlights and strategically placing new ones to create a flawless, low-dimension blonde look. This softer approach to highlighting allows for easier grow-out and doesn’t leave a harsh line of demarcation. This service typically takes 3-4 hours.
When it comes to highlighting there is a wide range of options from a full head of highlights to baby lights, face framing pieces and even ombre highlights. The best way to choose what type of highlights is right for you is to consult with your stylist. They can help you find the look that is the most flattering and suits your lifestyle.
Highlights can be placed anywhere from the roots to the ends of your hair. They can also be woven in or painted on. Some people want a more solid look while others like the idea of a sun kissed, natural looking highlighted look. Some people prefer the “Kelly Clarkson” streaks while others like a more blended look such as balayage or babylights.
To get the best results out of your highlights, we recommend that you use sulfate-free shampoo and conditioners for color-treated hair, as well as regular trims to prevent damage. You can also help prolong the life of your highlights by coming in for a toner every 4-6 weeks. A toner will neutralize any orange brassy tones in your hair and keep your highlights vibrant and fresh. This is especially important if you have a more drastic change in your base color. We recommend using the Madison Reed highlighting kit, which is mess-proof and easy to use.
Color Correction
If you’ve taken a big color risk, or had a box dye job from the drugstore and it turned out brassy or darker than you envisioned, it might be time to see us for some color correction! Whether you need to lighten up from a super dark shade or just get rid of a brassy blonde, our color correction services are fairly priced and can usually be done in one appointment. This service is personalized and includes whatever corrective color processes are necessary, bond builders/repair treatments (Olaplex, b3, K18 etc) throughout the process, and blow dry styling. Consultation required before booking.