Certain hair trends come and go faster than you can say ‘modern mullet‘, but there’s a few timeless cut and colour trends that have serious longevity.
Enter: balayage. As the ultimate minimal-maintenance colour technique perfect for summer, the treatment involves sweeping sections of hair lightly with blonde and golden highlights and it has dominated salon requests for years.
The reason people are such staunch fans of the look is because, unlike other colouring techniques, the highlights are blended seamlessly throughout lengths (think soft caramels harmonised with luminous blondes) to ensure that there’s never a band of colour or tell-tale roots left visible. In fact, it only gets better and more blended with time so it’s ideal for time (or money) poor people.
Want an even fresher take on the trend for summer 2021? Of course you do.
As we venture out of lockdown to our first hair colour appointment (my god, we’ve missed you), one hair expert predicts one colour technique will dominate salons – and it’s basically balayage 2.0.
“The new balayage, otherwise known as ‘The Colour Sweep’, will be the hottest hair trend of the year,” proclaims Sam Kerswell, founder of Mode Hair Lab.
It’s also been the ideal hair colour solution during the pandemic and with the potential of future lockdowns being mooted, the colour sweep could be the ideal solution for you.
As Sam explains: “We’re set to see an even bigger increase in this service post-lockdown due to the ease of the grow-out period. It still looks flattering six months down the line.”
When you get a colour sweep, your professional hair stylist virtually hand-paints colour onto your hair, which creates an effect similar to that of getting highlights in your hair, but the process is much more complex and creates much better and softer results.
“The main benefit is that it looks completely natural and grows out without any awkwardness,” promises Sam. “Unlike highlights or other hair colour techniques that look unnatural and obvious during the grow out, this is so flattering.”
Want more colour inspo? We’ve compiled all the brilliant subtle to bold hair colour trends we can’t wait to try when salons reopen on Monday…