There’s no one kind of balayage to suit all so we’re loving how this new collection Balayage by Russell Eaton embraces the power of four techniques!
Light thinking by Russell Eaton
Enjoy this sublime collection, art directed by Robert Eaton (colourist extraordinaire and British Hairdresser of the Year 2019), then scroll down to see how each look was devised:
Illuminated Balayage
Robert explains: “What we did here is create a very soft, blended colour result – the kind of blonde every client wants to achieve, which consists of a mix of cool and warm tones. It’s a colour that is really wearable, whatever your clients age, but we find often it’s our younger client base who request this kind of sun-kissed blonde hair.
“We used a mix of Magma and Illumina colour by Wella Professionals to create our Illuminated Balayage look. Magma is an amazing lifting product that both lifts and tones at the same time to create a beautiful blonde, and Illumina was used for tonal work to achieve delicate tones and shimmery blonds”
Bronde Contour
“We wanted to show how balayage and rose gold colours can look on a dark base. Whenever working on darker bases, you always have to think about how light to go with balayage – and there’s lots to consider. For instance, is it better to keep the hairs integrity and condition by going more golden or bronze, rather than lighter? This look is very much about creating that iconic bronde colour, we used a contoured effect around the face and really worked on some of the lighter areas that we needed to enhance the hair texture and waves within the hair. We used a high-lift tint and Blondor from Wella Professionals, then used a creative colour glossing technique to add a golden-pink tone afterwards. We used pink as it neutralises some of the unwanted warmth, resulting in a rose gold inspired tone, which looks really beautiful on brunettes.”
Instagram Ready Balayage
“Here we worked with a very large re-growth, whilst trying to connect that with the ends which were very bleached and overprocessed. The end goal was a very high-impact look – the kind of balayage look you see on Instagram. The combination of foils and a freehand technique were used together to both lighten the roots and blend to connect the hair throughout. Wela Professionals Blodnor was used to create the clearest of fresh looking blonde. We then used a shadowing technique where we put a slightly darker route back into the highlight, blended into a really beautiful minky-beige blond tone on the end to achieve a seamless blend of high-impact colour.”
Balayage Bob
Balayage on a bob is arguably one of the hardest hair lengths to work on. Balayage is very much about a seamless transition and blend of colour, so when working on a shorter hair length you have to make sure that is absolutely perfect. Contouring and thinking about where you lay the colour within the hair cut is also important.
Rob explains; “In this instance we added brightness around the face and really enhanced the curve of the bob and the texture within it. The base colour we were working from was very dark, so Wella Blondor was used in very fine sections that were layered up to create a lighter golden blond tone applied by freehand throughout, to enhance the ends of the hair. We then worked with a golden toner from the Wella Colour touch family which really perfected the colour, and made it really shiny, so you have that blend of dark and a golden sun-kissed look on stage 1.
“We took it to the next level with stage 2 – babylight foils were applied along with more freehand colour on top of the existing lighter shades we had just applied. This took it to the next level of lightness, allowing us to add face framing pieces of brightness and really make the ends pop.”
CREDIT DUE
Hair: Russell Eaton art Team – Daniel Couch, Stephanie Fielding, Jade Norman and Robert Eaton • Art Direction: Robert Eaton • Products: Wella Professionals • Make up: Anna Wild • Photography: Ben Ottewell & Danny Mendoza
Looking for some more colour inspiration? Here you go: