Peachy the Magazine August September 2014 | Page 115

BEAUTY

vs. Ombre
Tammy Dalton, Modern Salon and Spa
PHOTOGRAPHY BY Jenni Council
WRITTEN BY

F

For people who never color their hair,
this is their favorite time of year. Those
natural highlights have made their way
back out once more and their color is
at its peak for the season. I often hear,
“why can’t my hair always look like
this”? Well it can! With a technique
called balayage (pronounced bah-leeAHZGE), you can achieve that natural
summer hair look all year round.
Balayage is probably a term you have
heard before. Walk through any salon
and you will most likely hear “balayage”
and “ombre” coming out of the mouths
of most color clients. These are both two
very popular, and very similar, color
techniques. They are so similar that I
am finding most people really don’t
know the difference between the two.
Balayage is a color technique where
the coloring product is painted onto
pieces of the hair. This creates a very
customizable and natural look. With
Molly, we mainly concentrated the

pieces around her face giving her just
a few in the back since her goal was
to look as natural as possible. Usually
the color is not touching the scalp
like traditional foil highlights, creating a dark to light effect. This is why
these two terms are often so confused
because ombre, or “melting,” is also
a dark to light effect. The difference is
ombre is a more drastic effect of dark
to light where the entire head of hair
appears to be colored instead of just
pieces. These two looks are still popular
in most of the country, but ombre is
slowly making its way out as balayage
is quickly taking over! n
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