DIY Balayage - question for you hair stylists

[Laurenji]

Hi everyone!

In my continuing quest to figure out what, exactly, I would like to do with my hair, I came across the balayage technique for hair highlighting. I thought that it would be perfect for me, because I would like to dye my hair with some vibrant deposit-only dyes like Special FX, but I don't want to bleach my whole head, and I also want to preserve the feeling of the natural highlights and lowlights that happen in undyed hair. I think it would make it so that the deposit dye would be more subtle over the darker, brunette parts of my hair, and then pop unexpectedly in fun ways where my hair is dyed.

Here's the rub: I want to do it myself. I have never bleached or even dyed my hair before, so I am starting with 0 experience. I have watched many, many YouTube tutorials on how to do it, and the basic idea doesn't look too hard to grasp - just section out the hair and paint the edges of it gently, adding more towards the bottom. I would probably do my head in several stages, so that I'm not trying to do my whole head at once and over-develop the first bits. I am also aware that I will definitely not get those infinitely layered, almost natural looking results that really good hair artists can, because I am trying to do it on myself and because I have never done it.

So I guess what I'm asking is, should I even consider attempting this? Any tips, advice, suggestions, encouragement, discouragement? Much appreciated.

[missrandie]

I think it could turn out pretty cool, if you ask me. I used to try do do the same thing with honey or lemon juice when I was younger :)

Like you said, work in sections and go bit by bit. I suppose the standard advice of "coconut oil like crazy" applies here, as well as using lower volume bleach and all that jazz.

Why the heck not consider it? It sounds like fun to me :)

[meteor]

I'm really curious about this, too. :)

I think balayage is actually really difficult to do on self, but hey, if you are skilled, why not? :) I would definitely invest in special brushes for balayage (http://www.colortrak.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Blog_Right_brush_balayage9.jpg) of appropriate sizes to be able to hand-paint seamless-looking highlights...
Other than that, definitely work on heavily oiled hair (soaked in coconut oil): it protects from damage a bit (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=10495), but also bleach goes on a lot easier on oiled hair - very important for hand-painting technique.
Also, I saw some balayage recommendations that I think make sense: http://www.behindthechair.com/displayarticle.aspx?ID=2149 and here: http://www.hairdyeforum.com/index.php?topic=9616.0

[Rhoward]

I'm really curious about this, too. :)

I think balayage is actually really difficult to do on self, but hey, if you are skilled, why not? :) I would definitely invest in special brushes for balayage (http://www.colortrak.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Blog_Right_brush_balayage9.jpg) of appropriate sizes to be able to hand-paint seamless-looking highlights...
Other than that, definitely work on heavily oiled hair (soaked in coconut oil): it protects from damage a bit (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=10495), but also bleach goes on a lot easier on oiled hair - very important for hand-painting technique.
Also, I saw some balayage recommendations that I think make sense: http://www.behindthechair.com/displayarticle.aspx?ID=2149 and here: http://www.hairdyeforum.com/index.php?topic=9616.0

This is really good advice, if you follow the above techniques and pre-oil your hair there is no reason why you can't do it yourself. Use professional products if you can get hold of them, loreal make great bleaches, you can usually get them at online hairdressing supplies stores. Also, I know its expensive, but if you can get some olaplaex it would really help keep the condition of your hair.
http://us.lorealprofessionnel.com/products/haircolor/lighteners/freehand-techniques-powder
have fun ;)

[Gamma Vector]

I bayalage'd my own hair. I originally went to a salon to get it done, but it didn't come out the way I wanted, so I ended up fixing it (and pretty much redoing the whole thing) myself. It wasn't too difficult. The main thing I have to say is either plan to do it in sections unless you know you can work VERY QUICKLY. I did mine in five goes. I didn't work in sections such as left, right, rear, etc. I just put on a few foils each time, all around the head. Then I washed it out, let it dry, gave it a couple of days, and went back in and kept working. That way, I made sure that I didn't overprocess any of it, and I was also able to get exactly the number of highlights I wanted without worrying about having overdone it.

[henné]

Oooh, balayage is pretty ... I wish I could do it on myself. No advice, but go for it! And please share pictures :)

[Lullilt]

Ohh, of all the styles to try yourself, balayage is definitely a good one.

It doesn't require as many touch-ups as your hair grows out, so isn't much up keep, and the whole point of balayage is to freehand!
I personally did my own hair with the help of copious YouTube videos, deciding which end results I liked better and modifying some of the styles. I bought the purple kaleidoscope powder lightener (bleach) for mine. Also, the ladies at my Sally's Beauty store are hair enthusiasts, and I made sure to ask them all the questions I had left after watching so many videos. They were able to point me in the direction of which developer would do the trick with the least damage (argan brand vol20), and gave me some advice of their own.

In my opinion, even if you aren't sure, go for it! I told myself, that if I didn't like my results, I could always recolor similiar to my natural color, but hey, that's me. :)

[Laurenji]

Yay, thanks for the advice everyone! I just spent all my hair enhancement budget on a sale on the swap board, so this probably won't be happening for another month or so, but that's just more time to watch some videos and figure out what I want to do!

I'll try and remember to take pics while I'm doing it so that I have some process photos to show you guys afterwards. My ultimate goal is something like this (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/b6/91/f0/b691f0d7dde1d1ceeceb1989a6cafe4d.jpg) or this (http://s3-media1.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/qHTPHDJBs58HJCt6K6epNQ/o.jpg), but we'll see how it all turns out.