Balayage, highlights, and babylights compared

Traditional highlights are made by taking thin sections of hair, painting lightener on them, and wrapping each section in foil. The foil holds heat and keeps the product wet, which lets it lift further and more evenly than open-air methods.

Highlights usually start right at the root. That gives maximum brightness and a uniform, all-over lightness, which is exactly why they suit anyone who wants genuinely light hair rather than a sun-kissed effect.

Upkeep: every six to eight weeks, because the regrowth line is obvious.

Best for: all-over brightness, fine hair that needs the appearance of more depth and dimension, and grey blending. Foils lift more reliably than painting, so they are also the safer choice on darker or stubborn hair.

Balayage comes from the French word for sweeping. The colourist paints lightener onto the surface of the hair freehand, usually starting partway down and getting heavier towards the ends. It is normally done in the open air rather than in foil.

Because the product is placed by eye and starts below the root, the result is soft and graduated, with no hard line where the colour begins. The lightest pieces sit at the ends.

Upkeep: every three to four months, sometimes longer. This is balayage's real selling point.

Best for: low maintenance, a natural sun-lightened look, and anyone who wants to grow out their colour without a visible line. It is less good if you want serious overall lightness, since freehand painting lifts less than foil.

Babylights are highlights taken in extremely fine sections, mimicking the delicate natural lightness children often have. They are usually done in foil and often start at or near the root.

The effect is subtle and soft rather than striped, because each piece is too fine to read as a separate stripe. Blended together they brighten the whole head by a level or so.

Upkeep: every eight to ten weeks, and the regrowth is gentler than standard highlights because there is no chunky line.

Best for: a natural look with real brightness, fine hair, and anyone who has been unhappy with obvious stripes before. The trade-off is time: taking hundreds of tiny sections takes longer and costs more than standard foils.

Ombré is a graduated effect where the roots stay dark and the ends are much lighter, with a noticeable transition somewhere in between. Sombré is the softer version, with a far more gradual blend and less contrast.

Unlike balayage, ombré is about the overall gradient rather than individual painted pieces, and the transition zone is often more defined.

Upkeep: very low, three to six months, since the roots are meant to be dark.

Best for: high contrast, long hair where the gradient has room to show, and very low maintenance.

Careful with: face shape. A hard ombré line landing at your jaw draws a horizontal line across it. If you have a square jaw or a round face, ask for the transition to sit well above or below the jawline, as covered in hair colour by face shape.

Face-framing means lightening only the sections directly beside your face. The money piece is the bolder version, where the front pieces are noticeably lighter than everything else.

This is the cheapest, fastest way to change how your colour reads, and it is the most powerful per pound spent, because it sits exactly where people look when they talk to you.

Upkeep: six to eight weeks if taken to the root, longer if started lower.

Best for: a first step into lightening, brightening your face without committing to a full head, and anyone on a budget. It is also the easiest option to reverse, since a small amount of hair is involved.

Where you place it matters more than how light it is. See the placement rules in our face shape guide before booking.

The appointment price is only part of the cost. What matters is how many appointments a year the technique needs.

Highlights at six to eight weeks means roughly seven to nine visits a year.

Babylights at eight to ten weeks means about five to six visits.

Balayage at three to four months means three to four visits.

Ombré at three to six months means two to four visits.

Face-framing only is a short, cheap appointment even when done often.

A balayage appointment usually costs more than a highlight appointment, but needing half as many of them often makes it cheaper across a year. Work out the annual figure before deciding, and be honest about whether you will actually keep up with a six-week cycle.

Technique should follow your hair, not just the photo you like.

Fine hair: babylights and foils. Fine hair benefits from the dimension that many small light pieces create, and freehand balayage can look patchy because there is less hair to blend into.

Thick hair: balayage and foils both work. Thick hair hides a regrowth line better, so balayage is very effective here.

Curly and coily hair: balayage, applied to the curl pattern rather than in straight sections. Colour placed in flat foils can disappear inside a curl or show up in the wrong place once the curl springs back. A colourist who works with curls should paint following the curl clumps.

Grey hair: foils, usually. Grey is resistant and needs the extra lift and even saturation that foil provides. See our covering grey hair guide.

Previously coloured hair: get an assessment first. Lightener behaves differently over old artificial pigment.

Answer two questions and the choice narrows to one or two options.

Question one: how often are you honestly willing to go back? If the answer is every six to eight weeks, foils and highlights are open to you. If the answer is two or three times a year, you want balayage or ombré. Choosing a technique whose cycle you will not keep is the most common way people end up unhappy with their colour.

Question two: do you want brightness or softness? Brightness across the whole head means foil. A soft, grown-in effect means painting.

High maintenance plus brightness is highlights or babylights. Low maintenance plus softness is balayage or ombré. Low budget with real impact is face-framing.

Bring three or four photos of what you want, taken in natural light, and at least one photo of a result you do not want. The second kind saves more appointments than the first.

Say how often you can realistically return, because a good colourist will change the technique based on that answer alone. Say whether you have used box dye or henna, ever, even years ago. Henna in particular can react badly with lightener, and hiding it is how hair gets damaged.

Ask what the colour will look like at week eight, not just on the day. Any technique looks good fresh. The one that still looks good when you are due back is the right one for you. Our post on how to ask your stylist for the right cut has more on getting this conversation right.

Time is part of the decision, and salons do not always mention it when you book.

Face-framing only: about an hour. Easy to fit into a lunch break.

A half head of foils: roughly two hours, covering the top and sides that show most.

A full head of foils: two and a half to three and a half hours, longer on thick or very long hair.

Balayage: two to four hours, because painting freehand takes longer than sectioning into foils, and it usually finishes with a toner.

Going lighter from dark hair: four hours or more, and often more than one appointment.

Add time for a toner or gloss at the end of almost any lightening service, plus the cut and blow-dry if you are having those too. Book a morning slot for anything involving lift, since a rushed colourist at the end of the day is more likely to over-process or under-tone. If you are short of time, face-framing gives the best visible change per hour spent.

Yes, and most good colour is a combination rather than one pure technique.

A very common mix is balayage through the lengths with a few fine foils near the crown, giving softness overall with a bit of extra brightness where the sun would naturally hit. Another is balayage plus a brighter money piece at the front, so the face is lifted while the rest stays low maintenance.

Adding a root shadow to foil highlights is also common, and it turns a six-week cycle into more like ten weeks by deliberately blurring the regrowth line.

If your budget is limited, combining a small amount of foil with a mostly painted result usually gives the best value: enough brightness to notice, without committing to a full head of foils several times a year.