Balayage is a French free-handed painting technique that has been a fashion forward look since the 1970s. I first tried balayage 30 years ago (as a mere newbie) after seeing a demo at the International Beauty Show (IBS) at the Jacobs Javits Center in NYC. I tried it on a girlfriend with little success. In fact, it was a blotchy mess!

As an ABCH Educator and Master Haircolorist, I've had the opportunity to teach ombre techniques to colorists across the country. The recent 2015 ABCH Energizing Summit was one of the best ever. This year the stylists who attended had some experience in doing ombré, but wanted to fine tune their skills on this hot hair color trend. 

For years I've included balayage techniques in conjunction with ombre in my own practice. Why? Simply, because they work so well together. I’ve found that by merging the two techniques I’m able to achieve even better results than using just ombré alone.