How To Balayage Fine Hair

This Blog is a useful tutorial on how to balayage fine hair taken for free salon educations YouTube channel. 

This video was a live session with Brian Haire. We do these sessions so our watchers can get involved with the education. Maybe you have questions on how to balayage fine hair types, and joining in on our lives gives you the direct access to get your questions answered. Check out the video link below to see the video. 

Fine hair guests and balayage 

Your guests should be getting the most out of their appointment time, just because they have fine hair, does not mean their balayage should be rushed. Give your guests the gift of your time, sometimes balayage on fine hair needs really delicate balayage paint work, and even though you're working on a lower density and skinny strands, it does not mean less time is needed. 

Do we have to balayage fine hair differently? 

So, one common trait we see in fine hair balayage is bleeding lighteners, mistakes and whoopsies – leaving your guest patchy. Advise these guests to come to the salon ready for balayage with clean dry hair. Possibly you can wash pre–balayage. We want the fine hair to be clean so it doesn't clump together with dirt or oil, effecting our balayage painting. 

Think about the hair cut before the balayage 

If the hair is long and fine, and you're going for a restyle, you could end up cutting away a lot your hard work creating a beautiful balayage. 

Have an in-depth consultation with your guest, find out what the end result is. The hair cut will define where we are placing our lightener. Understanding the fall of hair is taught in Matt Becks FSE Digital Haircutting System this system has 8 haircuts that can be technically translated into many salon reality looks, giving you a better understanding of the 'how's’ and 'whys’ 

Lightner for fine hair balayage 

Having the right product is super important to get your fine balayage to lift in the right places. 

Regular foil bleach used to balayage fine hair is going to get messy. Brian likes to use a clay based balayage lightener. The clay in the lightener gives a texture making it easy to work on fine textured hair. 

Mixing up to balayage fine hair types 

Brian likes to use less developer for thick consistency in his balayage. This gives Brian control over the freehand paint. 

Usually, Brian uses 40vol to lift his balayage. This is because balayage's will not lift as light as an in-foil highlight, so sometimes it needs more energy. However, balayage for fine hair can be approached differently. It will need to be case by case that you asses what to choose as your developer strength. If the hair is a fine level 6/7 and above you may not need 40v to lift. 

Working on dark fine hair for balayage 

Really this needs to be approached with the desired look in mind. If you want extreme lightness, maybe a foilyage is the best method. 

If you want a little soft dimension in the balayage, free hand painting just to bump up a little lightness on dark fine hair. Using foil and foilyage will incubate the lightener, keeping it warm and moist, and this will help the product lift lighter. Also, you can combine foil and free hand giving you multi-lights affect in the hair. 

Use the correct tools to balayage fine hair 

Brian recommends using a soft bristle brush to balayage fine hair types - here's why. 

Strong bristles on delicate fine hairs pull the hair. We don’t want to be messing up our intricate painting with a brush that's too strong. A soft bristled brush will skim product over the hair without catching and pulling apart your work. 

Sectioning for fine hair balayage 

First of all, checkout your cut. The balayage needs to make sense on correlation to the cut. So, we're coloring with purpose. 

Brian likes to separate the front from the back, meaning the hair line area is separated. The hair around the face tends to be finer, focusing on them last because they will lift quicker, and can be compromised if we are not careful.  

Fine hair balayage on bob  

This look is a one length looking bob. Any layering is long, and if we pull up the underneath the hair is quite short in the neck. 

So, we are never going to see the under section in the back, also highlighting these short areas can look patchy. So, Brian decides to balayage above the occipital in the back. We section on a diagonal back, under the crown and start our paint. Brian likes to work on a corner, because it gives a softness to the end look, the sections are taken larger and over-directed back to paint. This diffuses any lines, and were working with the hair falling in a closed graduation. 

Dry balayage on fine hair types 

Balayaging fine hair types sometimes requires a technique Brian calls a dry balayage. Using a paddle and brush, Brian only wants a little product on the brush.  

He doesn't want it overloaded and likes it quite dry. When Brian gets his section to balayage, he starts his paint in the middle. Using the classic balayage technique sweeping the color onto the hair downwards, Brian shows you can run out of product quick, and he says that is good. You do not need a heavy saturation, especially when it comes to balayging the fine hair near the root. You will get extra lift from the heat of the head. 

Hair line details for fine hair balayage 

Around the hair line, as mentioned before, the hair is less dense and you have to be conscious. 

The sectioning Brian takes is across, and he describes the way you can paint different balayage effects in this section. You can work on the front are around the face, or take a panel across this section, covering a wider area. Brian over-directs this section back and paints the area around the front. He leaves 1” root for painting fine highlight details at the root. 

Money piece for fine hair balayage 

Brian uses a balayage wrap so you can work onto it and stop transfer of product onto other areas of the hair. 

Brian directs the hair back and wipes off the product onto the area he is highlighting. He is still using the technique of leaving 1” at the root so he can paint delicate highlights. On this section Brain likes to see a lighter dimension so he applies more lightener, and he also separates this section through the ends to give a heavier paint and a pop of lightener. 

End result fine hair balayage 

Brian grabs the mannequin and talks you through his tips for a fine hair balayage. 

If you look at the mannequin you can see how the dry balayage has given a different effect to the money piece. The root is diffused and you have a natural finish. Fine hair also lifts quicker, so you need to keep your eye on the process. Dry balayage can take a little longer to lift, so again, keep an eye on your guest. Sometimes touching up the hair can give more dimension. 

Don't forget to check us out on black Friday, Matt is doing a live, and has some crazy sales!