I've been wanting to balayage my hair for so long now. Hold the phone, is balayage something you do to your hair or something you have or get? Answers on a postcard. Anyway, my phone is full of screenshots of beautiful hair with balayage highlights and I find myself scrolling through them when I'm having an 'I hate my hair' moment - which is happening more often than not recently.
I decided to bite the bullet and get on the balayage train with the helping hands of my mom. My mom has dyed my hair for as long as I can remember - just drugstore box dyes - and since moving out I've not been as forthcoming about doing my own dye job. So, this time round I roped her in to come to the house and work her magic. I decided to use Bleach London's Beach Lights. Bleach London Bleach Lights claims to be a balayage kit as opposed to ombre but, as I'll talk about more in a bit, it really doesn't matter what bleaching kit you use in all honesty.
Within Bleach London's Beach Lights you get two packs of bleach powder, a developing lotion, a board and brush for application and their incredible Restoration Mask - seriously, this stuff rocks and everyone should go out and buy it right now. Not kidding. We decided to sack off the green board (although I've kept it in case I do ever want it) in favour of going freehand - badass, I know. Application is hard to explain without images but I didn't take any snaps as I wasn't sure how this would turn out so I'll do my best to explain. We sectioned off my hair, starting with the bottom layer, then took sections within the layer. On each section, my mom used the brush in the kit to paint on strips of the dye - one on the left side of the section and another on the right. Does that make sense? Essentially we took some tips from this video.
The dye wasn't applied to high up, we stopped around chin level just to be on the safe side - I haven't used bleach in my hair for a few years so I was a little cautious. It was left on for around 15 minutes after the whole head had been done and I surprised at just how quick the ends started to take. Once washed off, and Restoration Mask used, I blow dried my locks to get a better idea. The result? Well, it worked! Ok, I think the dye could have been left a little longer so it was a tad brighter and I think we could have been a bit braver with how high up we went on my hair, but overall I am so pleased! You can see the difference in the pictures above which you may have already spotted on my Instagram.
My boyfriend was home with us at the time and said he couldn't actually see a difference but he's totally useless when it comes to changes with my hair... It's fairly subtle but for a first go I'm happy! I think we're going to do it again in a month and go a little brighter. It gives my hair a break from the bleach and means the already bleached parts will naturally go lighter and give that faded, sunkissed look. I don't think I'll be getting the Bleach London Beach Lights kit again, purely because unless you use the contents the way they suggest, you may as well get any bleaching lightening kit which works out much cheaper. Bleach London's application suggestions seemed a little more ombre than what I wanted but if that's what you're going for, and are a newbie at home-dyeing, then I'd totally recommend it for it's ease of use.
So keep your eyes peeled for Part 2 of my balayage journey!
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