If you’ve just gotten your dream balayage but are wondering how to make it last, you’ve come to the right place! We sat down with Nicole Santos or “Your Hair Mama”, a celebrity stylist and a licensed cosmetologist from California, who shared her expert tips on how you should care for your balayage. Read on to find out!
What is a Balayage?
Nicole explains balayage as a hair coloring technique that involves hand-painting hair strands. In doing so, it gives colored hair a more natural, sun-kissed, and low-maintenance look. Sometimes, balayage is mixed with the foilyage technique where the hair is hand-painted and wrapped in foil afterwards to achieve more controlled and precise colored highlights.
Now that you’ve had that stunning hair makeover, what comes next?
Let Your Hair Rest Right After A Balayage
When asked what to do right after a balayage makeover, Nicole advises that it’s best to avoid washing your hair right away. If hair washing is a must however, make sure that you only use cold water. The hair cuticles need a few days to restore themselves after being exposed to hair dye chemicals, so give your strands that much-needed rest.
Less Is More: Don’t Wash The Color Away
When it comes to hair washing and how often it should be done on a balayage, Nicole recommends to do it at least every other day with cold water. Doing so can make your color last longer since there are less chances of the pigments being washed away.
Specialized Hair Routine For A Balayage
Your hair care shouldn’t stop in the salon! Retain your balayage’s brilliance by incorporating the right hair routine to make sure your hair stays gorgeous and healthy.
The specific routine ultimately varies on what shade your balayage is, but Nicole mentions a few simple steps that she personally recommends with the help of some of HairMNL products:
Hair Care While Showering
Shampoo & Conditioner
Start off your balayage aftercare with shampoo and conditioner that moisturizes your hair. Since chemicals used during the salon service can make your strands dry, it’s important to make sure that your hair is replenished with the nourishment it needs. Nicole personally recommends and uses the moisture-rich products from Davines OI.
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Image Source: Samantha Cusick London |
Davines OI Shampoo: Absolute Beautifying Shampoo With Roucou Oil ₱ 1,400 Formulated with its milky-smooth texture, this sulfate-free shampoo deeply nourishes your hair to give extraordinary shine, softness, and volume. The infusion of Roucou Oil allows the shampoo to provide your strands extra protection from environmental damage that can threaten your hair. |
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Image Source: Samantha Cusick London |
Davines OI Conditioner: Absolute Beautifying Conditioner With Roucou Oil ₱ 1,600 Boosting the deep moisture and nourishment of your hair, Davines’ OI Conditioner will give you extremely soft and luminous strands. Its rich and buttery texture also adds an extra layer of protection especially from heat damage and UV radiation. |
Toning Shampoo & Mask
While it’s important to moisturize your hair after a balayage, you should also use toning products to prevent brassiness from occurring. Nicole recommends using these pigmented products to keep your hair looking classy, not brassy.
Make sure to consult with your stylist on which toning product matches your balayage as certain products work best on certain shades. You can also message HairMNL’s hair experts for a free consultation.
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Davines Heart of Glass Silkening Shampoo: Enhancing Blue Shampoo for Blonde Hair 250ml ₱ 1,400 Perfect for blonde balayage makeovers, Davines’ Heart of Glass Blue Shampoo gently cleanses and illuminates those golden tones while ensuring that your locks remain soft and silky. |
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Davines Heart of Glass Rich Conditioner: Enhancing Blue Conditioner for Blonde Hair 250ml ₱ 1,600 To supplement the work of the Blue Shampoo, Davines’ Heart of Glass Blue Conditioner boosts hair nourishment to fortify your strands, further balance blonde tones, and improve its manageability. |
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Image Source: Color 10 Beauty |
AVEDA Color Renewal™ Color & Shine Treatment ₱ 2,300 Fueled by natural and organic elements, AVEDA’s Color Renewal™ Color & Shine Treatment provides a quick and powerful nourishing treatment to enhance your balayage’s color, vibrancy, and shine with a single dose. Additional tip from Nicole: If your balayage has neutral highlights, consider getting a gold toning mask such as the following:
If your balayage color has an ashier shade, consider getting a toning mask that specializes in cooler tones such as the following: |
Hair Care After Showering
Take your balayage aftercare up a notch and add some bond builders to further nourish your hair from all the coloring work it’s gone through. Nicole personally recommends products from Olaplex, which are well known to restore all types of hair damage and rejuvenate mended locks.
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Image Source: Olaplex |
Olaplex No.9: Bond Protector Nourishing Hair Serum
Ideally applied first in the balayage post-shower routine, Olaplex’s Nourishing Hair Serum acts as an anti-damage hair shield that protects your hair from pollution or heat damage. Its silicone-free and leave-in formula also leaves your hair feeling weightless, soft, and shiny. |
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Image Source: Sephora |
₱ 2,350 After applying a bond building serum, Olaplex’s Bond Smoothing Cream adds extra strength and moisture to your hair. Its high concentration formula also reduces any hair frizz or flyaways, and eases the hair drying process to reduce unnecessary heat exposure from blow drying. |
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Image Source: Hermosa Beauty |
₱ 2,350 Ideally to be applied a day after showering, Olaplex’s Bonding Oil seals in the balayage bond building routine by increasing hair shine, softness, and color vibrancy. It also enhances the power of heat protection and frizz reduction to ensure that your hair is well-nourished for longer periods of time. |
Make Some Time For Balayage Touch-Ups
If you’d still like to wear your balayage highlights for longer, you’re more than welcome to come back to the salon for that hair touch-up! When asked how often these touch-ups should be done, Nicole mentions that it depends on the stylist and how your balayage was done. Based on her experiences, some people opt to have their touch-ups every 5-6 months, while others who may have more sensitive hair conditions choose to have their touch-ups more frequently every 4-6 weeks or 6-8 weeks.
While there’s no clear timeline on these follow-up makeovers, Nicole reveals a rule of thumb: if you start seeing a harsh line on your balayage that hinders your hair from achieving that natural, sun-kissed look, it’s probably a sign to have that touch-up.
Let Your Balayage Shine With HairMNL Studio
Excited to hop on to your balayage? Schedule an appointment with us at HairMNL Studio Serendra or HairMNL Studio Kapitolyo and we’re more than happy to make this hand-painting technique one of the highlights of your hair journey! Don’t forget to check out our list of aftercare products and build the right balayage aftercare kit for your dream hair look.
You can also follow Nicole Santos on Instagram to see more of her work.
