Highlights vs Balayage: What's the difference? Pros and Cons?

Highlights and balayage are two of the most popular hair coloring techniques on the market today, but they each have their own set of pros and cons. What's the difference between highlights vs balayage? Which technique is the right fit? How do you maintain color-treated hair? Find out everything you need to know about these two popular hair coloring techniques here! Special edition: Pro tips from our stylist at Canvas Hair & Nail Salon – the best salon in Vancouver.

Highlights vs Balayage

Highlights are created by lightening your hair to a level that is lighter than the base color. For example, if you had blonde highlights, you would have several small highlights evenly spaced all over your hair. This technique will add layers, leaving a sun-kissed look.

Balayage is a specific type of highlights, actually. Your hairstylist creates a "bone structure" of colours in the hair and applies them to your hair strand by strand, alternating in order to give your hair a softer, more gradual transition. You can get regular highlights, but balayage is a type of highlight that is most popular with creative glamorous colourists who do highlights that vary in depth and colour intensity.

Pros and Cons of Highlights

Highlights pros: 

• Provide your hair with a dramatic boost in dimension, even on the darkest of hair colors.
• Can be warm or cool to match your specific style preference.
• Add color/s to your hair without having to dye the full head. 
• Perfect for when you want a change, but don't want to commit.

Highlights cons:

• Do highlights damage your hair? – Yes. All breaching processes can leave your hair dry and damaged, but, with dedicated hair products during coloring and after care, you’re able to get smooth, shining, and healthy-look highlights. 
• Are’t as natural looking, compared to balayage.  
• Require more frequent touch ups.

Pros and Cons of Balayage

Balayage pros: 

• One of the most popular methods of hair coloring.
• Hair color can be played up or down as desired. However, balayage typically starts on the hair away from the roots and works up towards the mid-shafts and ends of hair. 
• Easiest to maintain since roots are less noticeable when hair grows out, you'll never have to worry about touch-ups anytime soon (some coloristas visit a salon every 3-6 months for retouching!).

Balayage cons:

• Extremely hard to recreate.

So, be sure to spend some time researching for the best salon in Vancouver which provides you with the best consultation and balayage highlights service from an experienced hairstylist plus high quality products.

How to maintain color-treated hair

Highlights and balayage are both popular hair color techniques on the market today, but they both have their own set of pros and cons. Understanding which type of hair color requires the highest level of maintenance can help you choose the right technique for your hair type. As with most other hair coloring treatments, balayage and highlights require long-term care in order to maintain healthy, beautiful, color-treated hair.

Which one should you choose – Highlight or Balayage?

With different hair types, texture, and needs, what type of hair color treatment is right for your hair type depends entirely on your hair's natural color and the underlying health of your hair. In fact, it totally all comes down to what you want your hair to do, and how you want to style it. 

Remember that both highlights and balayage require color treated hair, but there are some key differences between the two. While highlights show the color at its most vibrant, balayage emphasizes the natural texture of the hair. Highlights can sometimes look harsh against balayage’s more natural looks. At Canvas Hair & Nail Salon, we put your transformation needs first and foremost. We love to enhance confidence and add memorable moments to any event of your life. So, no matter if you wish to have highlights or balayage, we are here to make your dream look come true. From choosing coloring techniques, colour selection, and styling – your will love your new you.

As for the maintenance, you should use a color-safe shampoo and conditioner, and protect your hair from the sun and protective styling products. Quyen, our director and professional stylist who has been in the industry for 20 years, loves suggesting a self-care tip at home with a simple concept: Spend minimal time regularly each day to see a great result. And ANGEL.WASH (volumising shampoo) and ANGEL.RINSE (volumizing conditioning) from Kevin Murphy to treat fine, fragile and broken hair, which coloring like highlights and balayage might cause it, to soothe, volumise, and protect your hair. Each of us, of course, to have different hair problems and focused treatment, if you’re unsure which product is the right fit for your current hair, we highly recommended you to visit our salon to get a dedicated advice for an ultimate hair color in Vancouver and take home the best hair care products from top brands in the world, right in the store – no more waiting forever from the online purchase.

Your turn:

Now you know what's the difference between highlight and balayage. Which hair coloring technique do you wish to have for this season? Your hair is your precious baby, so make sure to take care of it by using shampoo, conditioner, and a treatment in the salon to reduce hair breakage and prevent colour fade.