My New Balayage Hairstyle & How To Style It

I thought I would share my new hairstyle with you! I recently got it balayaged and cut, so the maintenance and styling is a littler bit different to what I’m used to. I hadn’t had any bleach in my hair for over a year as I was letting my natural colour grow out as much as I could. It had gotten pretty dark as my natural shade is a dark blonde, and while I do like it darker, my natural hair is that tone that’s really dull and flat in terms of colour. It has no dimension or vibrancy to it, so I needed a little boost!

The process involved a balayage teasy light style from a new hairdresser that I found here in Bath. She didn’t take the colour all the way up to the root as she backcombed some of the hair at the top, to stop it going all the way up, creating more of a worn in, natural blonde that’s easier to maintain, as no roots show. I then went for a neutral ashy toner, to cool things down a bit.

Regarding the cut, I just had my layers trimmed, as I’m keeping the length, and then I decided to get a small wispy fringe to frame my face a little more. I’m still not certain on how I feel about the fringe as it’s harder to style, and I think I prefer the hair off of my face, but we will see how it goes!

One thing I have learned with my hair over the years is that I definitely don’t like it ‘too blonde’ and I love it to look as natural as possible, with lots of volume. Since my hair is really thick and coarse, it can get bushy really quickly, and flat on top if it’s too heavy.

Having layers now has really made an impact on creating volume at the roots, but so have things like a texture spray with moisture protection as it gives some dimension and body to my hair overall. I absolutely hate it when my hair is flat to my head and straight. I much prefer to have some texture, body, and bounce! It’s naturally wavy, which I love, but if I let that air dry, it tends to look really bushy, so that’s not ideal, hence the need to style it.

Since I do style my hair with a heated dryer brush, it can get static and frizzy, so things like Moroccanoil products can really smooth it down. I love oils as they help my hair feel healthy and shiny, without weighing it down too much if you use it sparingly, to tame it. It is hard to get blonde hair to shine, but you really can with Morrocanoil.

As you can see above, the dimension to my hair now is so beautiful. You can click here to see a before picture of my hair, which shows my natural blonde and old bleach at the ends. Comparing it to my hair now is like night and day. I love how even it is, with dimensional colour and how it looks natural too, like it’s sun-kissed as we kept the underneath areas darker.

To create these waves, my hairdresser dried it smooth with a brush originally, after applying some oil and heat protectant, and then she used a curling wand to create some curls, and brushed them through. I really do love wearing my hair curly and this is the perfect way to achieve that. My hair doesn’t tend to hold curls very well though, which is why you would need a holding spray afterwards, if your hair is like mine. I do love curls as they show off the colour a lot nicer than straight hair does, as you can see movement.

To create volume in my hair though, it starts with good products from the beginning. I shampoo with a claryfying shampoo first, then my second shampoo is with a volumising shampoo. I then use a moisturising conditioner, which I let sit for about a minute, before washing off and wrapping my hair in a towel. I let my hair sit in the towel for as long as I can (usually half an hour) as it’s thick and holds water. It’s important for me to get as much of the water out as possible before I attempt to style. Next, I will brush my hair through with a de-tangling brush so that nothing is pulling at my scalp, and apply a texturising or protectant spray before I start the styling process.

When it comes to styling my hair at home now, I’m using my hairdryer brush with a round brush attachment, to really create some volume at the roots and smooth out the ends. This looks gorgeous with layers. I find curls harder to do on myself, so I recently got an airwrap to test out, which curls my hair nicely, I just can’t seem to get them to stay put for longer than an hour. I have a lot more experimenting to do with that tool! Anyway, I’d love to know what you think of my new hair!