Advanced Balayage Class...

I was so happy to be able to take an advanced balayage class at Salon Metro this past fall (11/3/14) with Seattle's resident balayage expert Sasha LaBeau - yes that is a shout-out, you can book with her at Salon Metro in Wallingford.

It was an intensive hands on class and went thru the history and theory of the technique (for instance, did you know that "balayage" literally means "to sweep?") as well as reprogrammed our eyes for looking at color in the hair in a completely different way.

My photos werent that great because I was really focused on learning and doing but I managed to snap a few.. here's my first model in her processing phase:

Balayage is different than foiling in many ways but the most obvious is that instead of foil we use cotton and cellophane wrap, which lets us watch the hair as it processes. Generally, balayage is supposed to look very natural and subtle. But many clients really want a more dramatic effect. I find balayage is great to use on a natural blonde to enhance what nature already does.. especially when that blonde hangs out at the beach ;)

It was really fun to be reinvigorated and re-inspired for color! So grateful to Sasha and the team at Salon Metro for letting me in on this great opportunity to learn from a pioneer in this technique. 

Here are the finished model photos.. Mandie is a highly foiled blonde who had 4-6 inches of grow-out. I was able to blend her previous highlights with the technique and still give her the blonde 'pop' she was looking for. Genevieve (bottom) was a virgin dark blonde and we did a conservative lightening with chunky sections to give her a subtle 'sun-kissed' look. It turned out beautifully but we revisited it later to give her more punch to the blonde. It was a little more subtle than she had hoped for. Still, it was a great day and both ladies were lovely models and good sports for letting me learn on them.