Balayage can be an excellent lightening method for achieving that beautiful, natural, sun-kissed look that so many clients and guests want for their hair, but the fact remains that there are some limits to the technique. 

One of the greatest limitations is in how much lift balayage can impart in a client’s hair. Generally speaking, the typical balayage treatment will get you between three and five levels of lift. For clients who want a more dramatic lift or a brighter blonde, a different technique, such as foilyage, maybe a more effective solution. 

That is why we’ve developed the Beach Blonde Foilyage technique: To help stylists perform those really transformational lifts that some clients are looking for.

What is the Beach Blonde technique?

Beach Blonde is an advanced foilyage technique that we created specifically for our Salt Society Travel Ambassadors. It leverages advanced placement and sectioning in order to achieve truly bright blondes for a client, while simultaneously preserving dimension and depth. 

If you’re relatively new to foilyage or you’re simply looking for advice that will enable you to get your clients a brighter blonde, take a look at the tips we’ve gathered below!

Foilyage Tips for a Brighter Blonde

1. Understand your client’s goal—before you begin.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we’re going to say this for probably the thousandth time: Before you ever touch your client’s head, you need to talk to them about the goals that they have for their hair. If you don’t understand that goal, it’ll be impossible for you to know which technique(s) to use, what product and tools you should be leveraging, or how many appointments your client is going to need. It’ll also be difficult to educate your client on the process or to guide and manage their expectations. 

This is why we recommend that all stylists begin each service by conducting a hair consultation for their clients. During this consultation, you’ll be able to evaluate the quality and condition of your guest’s hair as it currently exists, which will enable you to create a clear path forward to their desired results. 

To understand just how important this consultation can be, consider the following scenario. Imagine that a client starting at a level 3 tells you they want a blonde balayage treatment. If you were to take her at her word and simply perform a balayage treatment, you could realistically expect to achieve a lift of between 3 and 5 levels. But what if she wanted an even brighter blonde? She’d probably be angry. 

If you had a thorough hair consultation before, on the other hand, you would understand her goals and could then educate her on why balayage really isn’t the best technique for what she wants to achieve. You could then perform a foilyage treatment instead, which will get you closer to her goals.

2. Choose the right tools and products. 

Balayage and foilyage are similar in certain key ways. They are both incredible lightening techniques that stylists can use to impart stunning, natural-looking highlights. But they are also very different, in important ways which makes each technique better suited for different goals. 

One of the key ways in which they differ is in the tools and product which are required to perform each effectively.

When it comes to brushes, you can probably get by no problem using the same brushes for foilyage as you do for balayage. But that’s about where the similarities end. While in balayage you would use balayage film, in foilyage you really need to be using foils. Because foil is a better conductor of heat compared to balayage film, it’s an essential part of achieving the maximum amount of lift that you and your client are looking for with foilyage. 

Similarly, you need to bear in mind which product you should be using for your application. A lightener and developer specifically designed for foilyage as opposed to one designed for balayage will naturally be a better choice.

3. Understand why you section the way you section.

When we section for foilyage, there’s a certain order that we tend to follow—typically starting at the base of the head and working up towards the mohawk. A part of the reason for this is that that’s the natural, logical way of applying product—it would be a lot harder to start at the top and work our way down.

That being said, there are deeper reasons to apply foils in the order that we do. Generally speaking, the hair that sits deepest is going to be darkest, because it sees the least amount of sunlight. This means that the darkest hair is going to need to process for a longer period of time in order to get maximum lift. By starting lower (and deeper) and ending on top, you’re giving the darker hair more time to process and develop. 

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