How often should I touch up my balayage and roots? How much does it cost?

You should completely touch up your balayage every 3-4 months.

Why do I say “completely?”

 

Because balayage is a bleaching technique that has two parts.

 

 

So, ideally, you should touch it up completely – both the base and the bleached part – every 3-4 months.

Now, if you have a lot of white hairs, you can touch up the base color once a month. Without needing to bleach again, meaning without touching the balayage. It would be more like touching up dyed hair with a traditional technique.

 

 That said, every head of hair is different, and not all balayage are the same. 

Balayage on the blonde side are not the same as red or copper balayage.

For example, blonde balayage tend toward becoming almost white or pale yellow after many days and washes pass. So it’s necessary to neutralize those un-wanted colors with a toning shampoo.

What is a toning shampoo, and why is it a vital tool for taking care of your balayage?

 

I’ll tell you in a moment.

But first, I want to keep telling you about other factors that will make it, so you need to touch up your balayage more often or less often.

 

The faster your hair grows, the sooner you need to go back to the salon to touch up the color, especially if you have white hairs, and you don’t want to expose them.

 

To make it simple: If you give your hair a lot of love and use the right products, your balayage will last longer. While if you wash your hair with the first shampoo that you find on sale and you constantly bombard it with heat, you might need to touch up your balayage a lot more often.

 

Now you have a much better idea of how often you should touch up your balayage.

Like I said before, you can divide your balayage into two parts.

The base and the bleach.

 

You can touch up each of those parts separately, or you can touch them both up at the same time.

When should you just touch up the base?

 

I’m going to tell you that right now.

 

 

Why should you touch up the base color of a balayage?

Let’s say the base color of your balayage is your natural hair color.

If that’s the case, you should only touch up the base if you have white hairs.

If you don’t have white hairs, then you don’t need to touch up the base.

That is only when the base color of your balayage is your natural hair color.

 

Now, what if your balayage’s base color is dyed?

If that’s the case, you should touch up the base color in two cases:

 

 If your balayage’s base is dyed, you should touch it up when white hair appears or when you’re able to see your natural hair color at your roots. 

 

Why should you touch up your balayage’s bleach?

First, you have to understand that balayage is a technique that uses bleach.

There are two reasons why you might have to retouch the bleach job on your balayage.

 

It doesn’t matter what color your balayage is, it could be on the blonde, red, caramel, etc. spectrum, with time and washes, the color will fade.

Why does your hair color fade?

 

 Because of the use of products that contain sulfate, which is nothing more than a simple detergent. Also, because of the use of products that remove the pigments in the dye. 

You can use sulfate-free products to make your hair color last longer.

 

You should get a balayage starting from 2-2.5 inches from ear height, which is where the bleaching begins.

Once your hair grows, the balayage starts to lower from that point, and that is when you’ll need to touch it up.

This is optional, though, since some people like the balayage lower, or it doesn’t bother them that the balayage lowers as their hair grows out.

 

How often should I touch up my balayage depending on how I maintain it?

It’s straightforward: The better you take care of your hair, the longer your balayage will last.

What does taking care of your balayage mean?

 

First and foremost, you should be careful about choosing which products you use to clean your hair.

Forget about using the first shampoo you find on sale in the supermarket, because you’ll end up ruining your hair color.

 

Sulfate is a chemical, like a detergent, which works well to eliminate dirt on hair that hasn’t been dyed. The problem with sulfates is that they take everything along with them, like a hurricane. So, if you have dyed hair, can you guess what happens?

 

 If you have dyed hair, the sulfates will take with them a lot more color pigments than you want them to. So, in just a few washes, your color will start to degrade, until it didn’t look anything like the beautiful color that you had when you left the hair salon. 

That’s why my advice is to wash your hair with a sulfate-free shampoo. That way, you’ll be able to space out your visits salon to retouch your balayage. And believe me, you’ll save a fortune.

 

What is a toning shampoo?

 

It’s a shampoo that has color pigments in it, and it’s useful for neutralizing unwanted hair color.

There are toning shampoos of all color and prices.

 

If, for example, you have a platinum balayage, you can use a violent or grey toning shampoo.

If your balayage is on the red scale, you can use a red toning shampoo.

Those toning shampoos will help you maintain your color and neutralize color loss that we mentioned before.

 

If you don’t make those changes in your washing habits, your balayage will last less time. And you’ll have to go back to touch up once a month and spend the corresponding change.

 

How much does it cost to touch up the balayage in a salon?

We also have to consider the base and bleach separately.

If you have just to touch up the base or only the bleach, it will be cheaper than if you have to touch up both at once.

 

 If you need to touch up the entire balayage, most salons will charge you the same as if you were doing the balayage from zero.  

I mean that there’s no difference in price between touching up your balayage and the first time that you got the balayage.

Of course, if and when it’s necessary to touch up the and the bleach together.

 

If you want to know the approximate price of a balayage, I’ll tell you about it here.

 

Conclusion

Ideally, you’ll touch up both things at the same time every 3-4 months, like we said at the beginning. But now you have a better idea of all the factors that come into play.

For example, if you have white hairs and you don’t like how they look, you should go back to the salon more often.

If you have a blonde balayage and you use shampoo with sulfates, you should touch up your balayage more often.