All Kinds of Hair Color; Balayage, Foilayage... we love it all!
Color! We all love it right?
We spend hours scrolling through Pinterest and Instagram looking for our next favorite look. There are so many options when looking at a salon service menu, sometimes it can be hard to decipher which is which, and what you need to achieve the look you love. So lets take a minute to unpack all of the terminology that gets thrown around and see what it really means.
Accent Highlights
What this really consists of is a few strategically placed highlights around your face to brighten it up a little. This is a great pick me up between larger color services. This also can be achieved with an accent balayage as a way to extend the life of your full balayage. Sometimes all we need is a few perfectly placed pieces to refresh your whole look.
Partial Highlights
A partial is a heavier foil, that would cover the top and sides of your hair. This gives more color coverage while leaving the underneath. This is a good way to have a more natural look, no matter if you are blonde, brunette, auburn, or gray. Highlights don’t always mean just blonde, it can be lowlights too for dimension. Partial foils are a great service in between full foils as well to keep your color fresh without coloring the underneath every time.
Full Highlights
A full foil is just what it sounds like, it is color going throughout your entire head. This is from your face framing all the way to the nape of your neck. This will definitely give you the most impactful color change since so much of your hair is being colored.
Baby Lights
This is a newer term for a lot of people, and it is used to describe micro-fine weave highlights. These are used to create a natural effect, while still being able to achieve brightness in the hair. The result is an extremely blended effect, think sun kissed not stripes when it comes to these foils.
Single Process
A single process, or root retouch color is one that is covering your new growth. Whether you are looking for gray coverage, or just like to change your natural color this is a great option. A retouch is considered 1/4” to 1/2”, or the amount your hair would grow out in 6-8 weeks.
Full Color
When you are looking to either completely change your color, or just refresh a faded out tone, this would be a full color service. From root to tip, nothing is left out during this service.
Balayage
This may be one of the terms that is often misused in terms of hair services. Many times this term is used for the end result that someone is going for, even when this is not the technique that would be used to achieve it for them. Actual balayage is a French technique that consists of hand painting color onto your hair. Due to the open air nature of this service, the highlights will life your hair 1 to 3 levels lighter than where you ares tarting from. Balayage is a great option for someone who is not naturally very dark, or wants an extremely natural result. Think more “sun kissed, I just spent the summer on the beach” for the final result.
Foilayage
This technique is most often used when when people want to create a soft blended look of a balayage, but need to lift the hair much more and create much more of a contrast. This biggest difference that you would see in this service is that it does require foils, this is what assists in the color lifting your hair to the brightness wanted. Foilayage will still create a natural looking grow out for your color, but will deliver a much more high impact result than traditional balayage.
Although the following aren’t exactly foiling or lightening techniques, they often go hand in hand with the aforementioned services so why not tackle them while we are at it?
Toner/Glaze
Toners can be used to refresh the ends on any color, and clear can be used to add shine to natural hair as well. The terms toner and glaze are interchangeable but are a must after lightening services. They can be used to enhance, or counteract unwanted tones in the hair and add condition and shine back into it, giving it a finished, lustrous look.
Root Melt
This would be a service that you would potentially want if you are looking to achieve a more rooted, “lived in” look after services like foilayage. Root melts will erase any lines of demarcation from the foil work so that there is a seamless transition between the base color and the highlighted ends.
Shadow Root
When would you need this service? Generally after traditional foils that go all the way to the root. The reason why you would want to have a shadow root is to blur out or “shadow” the area at the root where the highlights meet the natural color without covering up the highlights.
Still confused?
This may seem like a lot of information and terms being thrown around, but knowing what you are asking for, or what your stylist means when they are describing something is always helpful. If you have any questions or want to book a complimentary consultation with one of our stylists you can contact the salon at
954-303-6499.