The very talented Russell Eaton Art Team presents its outstanding Balayage Collection, which includes these four inspirational looks.
Illuminated Balayage “What we did for this look from our Balayage Collection was to create a very soft, blended colour. The result was the kind of blonde every client wants to achieve; consisting of a mix of cool and warm tones. It’s a colour that is really wearable, whatever your clients age. We find often it’s our younger client base who request this kind of sun-kissed blonde hair. We used a mix of Magma and Illumina colour by Wella Professionals to create our Illuminated Balayage look. Magma is an amazing lifting product that both lifts and tones at the same time; it creates a beautiful blonde, and Illumina is great for tonal work to achieve delicate tones and shimmery blonds.”
Balayage Bob “We wanted to show just how difficult it is to create balayage on a bob. Tt’s one of the hardest hair lengths to work on when it comes to balayage; simply because you don’t have the same amount of hair to work on. Balayage is very much about a seamless transition and blend of colour; so when working on a shorter hair length you have to make sure that is absolutely perfect. Contouring and thinking about where you place colour within the hair cut is also important; in this instance we added brightness around the face, enhancing the curve of the bob and the texture within it.
“The base colour we were working from was very dark; Wella Blondor was used in very fine sections that were layered up to create a lighter golden blond tone. We used a freehand technique throughout to enhance the ends of the hair. Then we worked with a golden toner from the Wella Colour touch family. This really perfected the colour, and made it really shiny, so you have that blend of dark and a golden sun-kissed look on stage 1.
“We took it to the next level with stage 2; with babylight foils along with more freehand colour on top of the existing lighter shades. This took it to the next level of lightness. It allowed us to add face framing pieces of brightness and really make the ends pop. We hope this technique illustrates to the client that this is a two-stage or two visit process. Balayage is all about building on the lightness and the base that you are working on to create the perfect colour blend.”
Bronde Contour “We wanted to show how balayage and rose gold colours can look on a dark base. Whenever working on darker bases, you always have to think about how light to go with balayage – and there’s lots to consider. For instance, is it better to keep the hairs integrity and condition by going more golden or bronze, rather than lighter? This look is very much about creating that iconic bronde colour. We used a contoured effect around the face and really worked on some of the lighter areas that we needed to enhance the hair texture and waves within the hair. Then we used a high-lift tint and Blondor from Wella Professionals, then used a creative colour glossing technique to add a golden-pink tone afterwards. We used pink as it neutralises some of the unwanted warmth, resulting in a rose gold inspired tone, which looks really beautiful on brunettes.”
High-Impact Instagram Ready Balayage “Here, we worked with a very large re-growth. We tried to connect that with the ends which were very bleached and over-processed. The end goal was a very high-impact look – the kind of balayage look you see on Instagram. The combination of foils and a freehand technique together to both lightened the roots and blended to connect the hair throughout. Wella Professionals Blodnor created the clearest of fresh looking blonde. We then used a shadowing technique where we put a slightly darker route back into the highlight, blended into a really beautiful beige/blonde tone on the end to achieve a seamless blend of high-impact colour.”
Hair: Russell Eaton Art Team – Daniel Couch, Stephanie Fielding, Jade Norman & Robert Eaton, Art Direction – Robert Eaton, Products: Wella Professionals, Make-up: Anna Wild, Photography: Ben Ottewell & Danny Mendoza.