Best Hair Color Salons NYC! Traditional Foil Highlights vs. Balayage Highlights. Which to choose?
The big debate: balayage highlights vs foils highlights? If you’re a ride-or-die full highlight girl, your stylist has most likely tried to transition your highlights to balayage. But, if you’re still in the dark about the painting technique, and iffy about whether or not it’s for you, we’ve got your answers. We are the Best Hair Color Salons NYC & Best Balayage Highlights Salons NYC!

SO, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THESE TECHNIQUES?
Foil lightens the hair from the root to the ends while balayage allows the hair to be softer or natural at the root, and then gets progressively lighter as it travels through to the end. The grow out is less obvious with balayage, you can go months without touching it up. We feel sometimes traditional foils can look a little patterny and we like a more free style.
Although balayage is known to process without foils, we still like to use foils when we balayage “foliage” because the foil helps to speed up the process and can lift the hair lighter than balayage.
Foliage is the perfect combination of balayage and foiled highlights. Right now, we see that clients love and want ashy, platinum, sun-kissed hair and we feel that we can achieve this look by combining these two methods into foliage. At Fine Artistik Salon, we hand paint pieces of hair where we want it in a foil. We feel that using a foil can more consistently pull the clients’ hair past the brassy stage. We are the best hair color salons NYC! Our product line & color line is the best in the beauty industry today. We are a proud L’Oreal Professionnel salon in NYC.
WHY WOULD YOU CHOOSE ONE METHOD OVER THE OTHER? WHAT IS THE END RESULT OF EACH?
The end result of a foil highlight is a more consistent and pattern-based look, while a balayage hand will result in a look that is more free-hand and organic.
If you’re looking to have more of an all-over blonde look, we have more control when we paint in the foil, and can also control exactly how light or dark I want the blonde to be. The end result for traditional highlights is an overall lighter look. The end result for balayage is a slightly darker root melted into lighter ends, which we love!
If you’re more into an over all blonder look or all over highlights, we would go for the foils, because balayage a lot of the time won’t go as blonde as foils unless you are willing to spend a few extra hours in the salon so the colorist may re-balayage your hair to go lighter.
NOW THAT YOU HAVE A GOOD CONCEPT OF THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO TECHNIQUES, HOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH METHOD IS THE BEST OPTION FOR YOU?
If you’re an effortless beauty or slightly edgy girl, we would recommend balayage, having your ends pop brighter. If you are a classic traditional girl, we would recommend getting foils, giving you an all over light look.
The method depends more on the client’s hair. If the hair is virgin, then balayage is a great option. For us, the foliage technique is better for achieving the ‘it-look.’ Blonder without brass.

WE ALL KNOW BLEACHING YOUR HAIR CAN CAUSE DAMAGE. IS THERE A METHOD THAT IS MORE OR LESS DAMAGING THAN THE OTHER?
Each process, foiled highlights and balayage, need not result in damaged hair as long as the colorist stays aware of the processing time required to maintain the healthy condition of the hair and the desired end result. If you’ve previously boxed dyed your hair or it’s been professionally colored with darker tones, to minimize the damage we offer the OLAPLEX Treatment & SMARTBOND Treatment by L’Oreal Professionnel.
When you do traditional highlights you are generally only lightening the new growth, but when you balayage you continue to lighten the already-lightened hair so it is more likely to become damaged. Our salon has been mentioned in numerous magazines as the best hair color salons NYC!
Either technique can lift the hair with minimal damage; That’s why it is critically important to see a professional colorist, someone that can guide you safely to beautiful hair color that doesn’t leave your hair damaged.
DEPENDING IF YOU ARE ON TOP OF YOUR SALON GAME GOING TO SEE YOUR STYLIST EVERY 4-6 WEEKS, OR YOU ARE A TWICE A YEAR GAL, WHAT DOES THE UPKEEP AND MAINTENANCE LOOK LIKE FOR EITHER OF THESE TECHNIQUES?
For traditional highlights, clients tend to come back between 6-8 weeks, but when balayage is done a client can go anywhere between 3-4 months. With balayage, you can go anywhere from 2-6 months without touching up. The longer you wait the more of the ombré look you will be creating, but if done correctly the grow out should seamless.
We suggests getting yourself on a routine schedule for any coloring service. Whenever you get your hair colored, it makes good sense to put yourself on a 3-month maintenance schedule. The length of the schedule can vary, of course, depending on how much of a “natural look” you want. If the look that interests you is more “un-natural” than natural, your hair will require significantly more maintenance.
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