Summer Hair: Balayage

Now I’m in my early (just) thirties I’ve tried the spectrum of hair shades, ranging from peroxide blonde in my uni days, to raven black, not forgetting the sun-in orange of my late teens! It's taken me some pretty bad hair decisions to come to the realisation that being my natural shade suits me best, funny that... This light bulb moment (which thankfully occurred a good few years ago now) is now being tested again with the cruel appearance of silver strands appearing in my mane, so I'm hitting the bottle again...

I’ve struggled finding the right shade of at home hair dye, always ending up with far too much warmth, giving red tones, so I’ve decided to leave it to the professionals. 

I’ve discovered new salon in my home town of Weybridge - Collections Hair Club and as well as taking them with getting me back to my natural colour, I’ve also decided to give balayage a go. Yes, I am very late to the party, but my lightening mistakes of the past made me wary.

I was really interested in how balayage would actually be done - which is the process of making your ends lighter, as if last summer’s sun-lightened hair has been growing out, posh roots if you will! I was in the salon a while, with a dark colour bushed through my roots to take away my silver stands and then foils of lightener weaved into my ends and brushed up to the midsections, a bit like reverse highlights.

Although I was in the salon a while, I had a lovely time, catching up on emails, reading a magazine and enjoying complementary coffees galore. The salon also has a girl who does manicures, so you can book in to have your nails done whilst your colour is taking too.

Balayage is best done slowly, salon owner Ross tells me, with the first time only lightening the ends by a few shades. The pictures of me wearing the blue top are after the 1st appointment. So when I needed my roots done again, I had another session of lightening too.

And the result? I LOVE it! The colour looks really natural, making my locks look much more summery. One of my colleagues told me my hair looked ‘really expensive’ not a comment I was expecting, but I totally agree that moving from the block colour of home-colouring and looking natural, it just looks 'improved', the secret of good hair I suppose. 

Balayage does look best with waves, or movement in your hair so you can see the different shades, so I have being trying to take the extra time in the mornings to add waves, which I also love - and it was perfect for the Midsummer Party we went to last weekend too!