Did you get a balayage and you’re not happy with how it turned out? Well, then I’m sure the first thing you want to do is get rid of it.
In this case, the solution is pretty easy.
- If you want to get rid of a balayage, all you have to do is use dye to darken the part of your hair that the balayage lightened.
Hmm, I think you might not be so sure anymore.
Because I think you might have looked in the mirror again and asked yourself, “Do I really want to totally get rid of the balayage or do I just want to make it look different?”
And it’s great that you’re asking yourself that because after all the time and bleach that you’ve put your hair through to achieve the balayage, you’ve exposed your hair to a very aggressive chemical process and you probably want all that work to be worth it.
So, take a few minutes and think about it.
Let me tell you about something that happened to me once upon a time.
I was reading a magazine about interior design and I saw this photo that really caught my attention: it was a salon and one of the walls was painted totally black in contrast with other three walls that were painted totally white.
I thought it looked super unique and I thought it might be a good idea to try to give a touch of something different to my salon, which has looked the same for many years.
So, I decided right away to call a painter and I asked him to get started with painting so I could have my black wall.
Then, two days later, I was totally disappointed. My salon did not look like the photo at all.
Of course, I hadn’t thought about natural lighting or any of the other design elements that went into the salon in the photo.
Did I try to sell the place because I wasn’t happy with the black wall?
Of course not!! That would have been an extreme decision to make just because I didn’t like one wall. There are intermediate solutions that are a lot easier than selling the place.
Maybe it’s the same with your balayage.
You might have thought that it would look one way and now it looks another.
But before you decide to completely get rid of it, why don’t you consider an intermediate solution?
In my case, with my wall, instead of leaving it black or selling my house, I painted a light gray over the black and that changed everything. Now I love it.
So, don’t go. Let’s brainstorm together and then you can decide if you really want to completely get rid of your balayage or not.
So, take some time to think while I tell you about:
- How to make your balayage stand out less
- How to make your balayage slowly disappear
- How to immediately get rid of your balayage
As you can see, I’m going to give you the solutions in order of the least extreme to most drastic, because when it comes to hair fixes, just like in life, there are some gray areas.
And if you don’t believe me, ask my gray wall!
Tabla de Contenidos
How to hide a balayage that you don’t like
We decided that you’re going first consider other options before you decide to completely get rid of your balayage, but you should also think about why you want to get rid of it.
Maybe you want to get rid of it because you haven’t gotten used to the light colors in the fading effect. That happens to a lot of my clients that aren’t used to seeing their hair with lighter colors.
A lot of women come to my salon, convinced that they want to get a style that will lighten their features and they choose a blonde balayage to do that.
When the process is over, they look in the mirror and the big change is a lot for them.
The thing is that for most of them, they get used to their new look after a few days of looking at themselves in the mirror.
But, of course, there are a few exceptions and sometimes they come back and tell me that they aren’t comfortable with the look or the blonde just doesn’t go with their style.
And then they come back to the salon, thinking that the other possible solution is to get rid of their balayage, right away.
But, I always offer them another, less-drastic option first.
Can you imagine what it might be?
Exactly!
If the light colors are too much for them, then we can darken the blonde shade.
Look at yourself again in the mirror because if your balayage is really blonde and you aren’t happy with it, then you could apply another darker dye in the area where the faded effect is.
For example:
- If your balayage is an 8 shade, which is known as light blonde, then you can apply a 6, which is dark blonde.
- If your balayage is a 9 shade, very light blonde, then you could use a 7, which is blonde.
- If your balayage is more of a platinum color, so an 11, then you could try to use an 8, light blonde for the bottom part.
What will that do?
Lessen the balayage effect, darkening your hair a few shades.
Then, the color change won’t feel as dramatic when you look at yourself in the mirror, but you also won’t lose the change that you did originally, which is probably what you were hoping for when you got a balayage.
Now, what happens if you’re tired of maintaining your balayage?
Keep reading because there’s also an intermediate solution for that before you decide to totally get rid of the balayage.
How to slowly get rid of a balayage over time
When you compare to highlights or other techniques, balayage is one of the techniques that requires the least amount of maintenance.
In general terms, you can touch up the ends every three months and the roots every two months.
But, I also get that for some people, that might still be too often to worry about touch ups, or the maintenance might be too expensive to keep up with.
If that’s your case, I’d recommend that you let your hair grow out and you just touch up the roots.What will that do for you?
- First, you don’t have to add chemicals to all of your hair, just the ends.
- And, then you’ll also spend a lot less at the salon while your balayage slowly disappears.
But, if you truly are completely tired of your balayage, the only solution you have is the one that I mentioned at the beginning of this article: apply dye and darken the fading effect.
How to get rid of your balayage for good
And yes, of course, when you aren’t totally happy with something, then you can’t just let that be.
I also wasn’t happy with my black wall and I looked for a solution that would let me hide all of all the black.
With a balayage that you truly don’t want, the same thing happens: you should hide it.
That’s the only option, because you’ll need to even out all of your hair’s colors.
Remember that the balayage technique consists of a fading effect in the middle and the ends, which means that it starts with a dark color at the roots and lightens as it gets to the lightest ends.
What would happen if you used a dark dye on the ends?
You might end up with a total disaster, because you ends might end up darker than your roots.
That’s why you need to use the dye on all of your hair from the roots to the ends.But, how could you choose the ideal shade for getting rid of the balayage?
To get rid of the balayage, you’ll need to choose a shade that’s one shade lighter than your base tone.
- For example, if your balayage starts with a brown 4, then you can choose chocolate 5, which would perfectly cover both your darker base and the lighter faded bottom part of the balayage.
- If your balayage starts with a chocolate 5, then you can choose dark blonde 6, so that way, you’ll lighten your hair just a little bit and you can cover the difference.
- If your balayage starts with a dark blonde 6, then you can choose a blonde 5, so that way your hair will look lighter and brighter.
Conclusions
As you can see, there are a few different ways to get rid of a balayage, from extreme methods to ones that are much easier on your hair.
- If you want to completely get rid of the balayage, then you should dye your hair one shade lighter.
- If you don’t want to dye all of your hair, you can touch up the roots and let your hair grow out, cutting the faded part as it grows.
- If you want to tone down the balayage, then you can always darken the faded part of the balayage, making it less light.
Like I told you before, just like in life, gray areas exist in hair care, too.
In the end, you should look in the mirror and ask yourself, “What do I want to do with my balayage?”
