With gray hair, if you want to dye your hair, you want something that’s going to look natural and either complement your grays or disguise them. Balayage is popular, but the results you get will depend on the color of your existing grays, your previous hair color and how much maintenance you’re prepared to do.
What Is Balayage?
Balayage is a hand-painted highlighting technique that creates soft, sunlit dimension in your hair.
Unlike foils, your hair stylist manually paints hair lightener onto specific strands, and then blends them to give you a seamless gradient from your darker roots and brighter ends. You get to decide how bold or how subtle the result is, by adjusting the placement and brightness.
You get the natural-looking brightness and customizable highlights, so your end result can end up looking beachy, creamy or high-impact without having any harsh lines.
Your grow-out stays softer, so you can visit the salon less often than you would with traditional highlights, but you need to look after your hair using color-safe shampoo, use a weekly hair mask, and keep your hair protected with heat protectant before using any hot tools.
Can Gray Hair Get Balayage?
Balayage works really well on gray hair, because it isn’t a uniform coverage kind of coloring process. It places lighter ribbons where you want them, so your regrowth looks softer and more intentional.
You can also custom how much balayage you have, and the colors. You can have cool highlights to mimic your natural silver hairs, warm caramel tones to brighten or lowlights to restore depth and prevent your hair from look flat.
It is also a low-commitment option with less maintenace, with no harsh regrowth lines, fewer full retouches and an easy grow-out. Keep your hair in the best condition possible, to keep your balayage looking its best.
Preparing Gray Hair for Balayage
In the week running up to your hair appointment, use a clarifying shampoo once to remove any mineral buildup, and then use a hydrating shampoo and conditioner to support your hair’s health without weighing it down.
Skip using heavy hair oils on the day of your appointment, as they can slow the color lifting process, and can end up blurring the balayage technique.
For your appointment, you can bring photos of hairstyles you like, and be honest about your past color, toners or box dyes you’ve used previously, so your stylist can then use the right developer and bond builder.
You can also ask whether you should be booking in for a gloss, toner or root smudge to blend brighter white hairs.
If you have wiry grays, use a lightweight hair mask 2 to 3 days before the appointment, and not the night befor.
Turn up with clean, dry hair and get a haircare routine ready for after the appointment, like using a purple shampoo, heat protection and a trim booked in, to keep your ends fresh and healthy.