Women love to change up their hair, whether it’s by chopping or cutting them or by changing the color. If you’re considering highlights, there are many ways to go about it. The most popular options are balayage, flamboyage, sombre, and ombre. But how would you choose between them? How are they different? Do you need to visit hair salons specializing in color or can you do it yourself? This guide is especially for explaining things about these hair dyeing techniques. So, let’s begin!

Choosing Between Balayage, Flamboyage, Ombre, And Sombre

Balayage

Balayage has been around for a long time now and women love the results. It’s a streaking technique that’s random and sporadic in the best way possible. Your hair gets painted with colors in random streaks, which yields a beautiful foliage of colors on your mane that looks iridescent and just oh-so wonderful.

Balayage may or may not require bleach and that depends on your existing hair color and what color you want to opt for in your Balayage. It’s truly an amazing hair coloring technique that proves that it’s here to stay, no matter what’s hot or trendy.

How It’s Done?

The basic application technique involves the following steps:

After washing and drying your natural hair, you will select your hair color for the Balayage. You can do this in a consultation or on the spot, whatever you seem comfortable with.

If you have lighter hair and want to go a couple of shades darker, then there won’t be any need for bleach. The hair dye can be applied directly. However, if you’re a dark-haired girl and want to go a couple of shades lighter, then you might need to get an extra application of bleach, after which the color will be applied to the cut-down hair.

The streaks can be done by hand or with foils, but it’s more fun and natural-looking when random streaks are painted in the hair. The hairstylist will use a brush for this. After painting the color in your hair, the stylist wraps it in foil to keep the hair nice and tucked.

After the waiting game, your hair is washed and prepared to be wowed because your hair will look gorgeous.

Ombre

Believe it or not, ombre is a lot older than Balayage and it’s still popular for a reason. There is just something so beautiful about an ombre and the way the hair darkens or lightens as the length increases and it just looks out of this world.

Ombre is a perfect hair coloring technique that anyone can try and you can even play around with the height where you want the ombre to start. It’s such a fun way to add edge and character to the hair and the gradient is just to die for.

How It’s Done?

Here is the rundown of how this beautiful gradient can be showcased on your hair:

First things first, you’re going to need bleach for ombre to work, especially if you have darker hair and you want the gradient shade to be lighter on the tips. This ombre is the most classic where the dark hair starts from the roots and fades out into a lighter color at the tips. Bleach does damage your hair, but it’s not as bad as a full-color change, so you will be good to go.

You can also choose the gradient to fade out in two to three shades and this is going to give the ombre a more beautiful dimension and depth with all of the different hues.

Once the bleach has cut down the natural hair color from the tips, the dye is applied and is blended in slightly, but not a lot, because the demarcation is somewhat obvious and that’s the characteristic feature of ombre.

After the color is left to develop and the time is up, the hair is washed blow-dried, and styled, if that’s what you want, and the results are amazing. Ombre is a very versatile hair coloring technique and people love it because of this very fact.

Flamboyage

Flamboyage is a rather newer type of hair highlights and it’s getting very trendy. It’s a harmonious blend of Balayage and ombre. The results are streaks of color flowing through your tresses and a gradient color change as well – which is subtle but noticeable. It is a beautiful technique that originated in Italy, but now almost all of the world is following the trend because it’s that good.

How It’s Done?

Here’s how to achieve a Flamboyage:

After the colors have been chosen for the Balayage and the gradient (they might be the same color or slightly different in hue), first the ombre part of the hair is done because that’s going to later get blended in with the streaks of Balayage. The ombre color is applied on the tips and left to develop for the allocated time and then it’s washed and dried.

The next step is the Balayage streaks and that’s done randomly through the hair. The streaks are then tucked into foil to avoid muddiness and in this way, you also get slight highlights, which is amazing.

After the dye has been developed, your hair is washed for one final time and then it’s styled to your heart’s desire. Voila! The Flamboyage is complete and now you’re rocking a mane full of texture and dimension, but it’s not overpowering by any means. Flamboyage is a beautiful blend of different techniques and its obvious why women love it.

Sombre

Sombre hair highlights is the combination of two words, soft and ombre. So, it’s basically an ombre where the gradient is almost impossible to point out and you just can’t figure out where the natural color is ending and the dye is starting, but the effect is still there and you can see something different.

This is an ombre where the gradient color is very close to the natural color of your hair. It allows the colors to melt together and look seamless because a lot of women want something that’s barely there, and in ombre that’s not possible because of the prominent line of demarcation of the two colors. So, you can call sombre as ‘more natural-looking ombre’.

How It’s Done?

Here is how a Sombre is done:

The color you choose for the Sombre is just one shade lighter or darker than your natural hair color and the darker color is on the top, mostly, and the light gradient follows through the tips. It is a very sweet and simple hair dyeing technique and it’s perfect for someone who doesn’t want a lot of change in their hair but still wants it to be noticeable in certain lights. There’s no need for bleach because the stylist will only apply color to your hair.

After the hair developing time is up, the hair is washed and the subtle gradient is barely noticeable, but that’s what makes a Sombre so elegant. The gradient will peek in at a certain angle as the light catches your hair and it will look fabulous.

Conclusion

These are just a handful of techniques from the plethora that’s present in the hair dye department. Now that you know about them, you can decide on which one to go for. These treatments are best done by hairstylists so do visit a salon. And if you can’t decide on which treatment to choose, get suggestions from a Balayage hair highlights Rockville expert.