Balayage is one of the most popular and commonly asked for services today. Most colorists are performing the service successfully but some are experiencing challenges. MODERN decided to check in with the Queen Of Balayage - Eva Scrivo - to find out what she sees as common balayage mistakes.
Here she shares her top three, and promises to cover these and more at her next "Monday Immersion" class where just a handful of students join the Eva Scrivo team for a full day of education that includes the art of balayage, formulation, color correction, cutting and styling. The classes are held one Monday each month, and the next will take place February 11 (this upcoming Monday!) at the Eva Scrivo Academy in the Flat Iron District on 5th Avenue in New York City:
- PRODUCT CHOICE: Most colorist use the wrong type of bleach and/or apply it incorrectly. Look for dense powders or paste lighteners, such as SilkLift by Goldwell. Many like to use clay-based lighteners, which are easy to apply but typically do not contain enough ammonia to lift hair to a bright, clear blonde, unless you’re starting with a level 7 or lighter natural base color.
- SATURATION: When it comes to application, there’s a specific technique to achieving 9 or 10 level blondes. Make sure to use enough product to thoroughly saturate each section. Otherwise, you’ll get “stuck in gold.”
- HEAT: Heat often makes a real mess of things. Think of what happens inside of a foil when you add heat and how the lightener expands and reacts. In the case of balayage, there’s no foil to contain the bleach, which ends up going all over the place and “spotting” the surrounding hair, thereby exacerbating the appearance of gold.
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