When I walked into the salon a month and a half ago, this is what my hair looked like – dry, damaged and completed faded from its colour done six months ago. My balayage had definitely grown out quite a bit and I needed to fill in that black hole (AKA my virgin hair) before it grew out any more. I’ve been doing balayage for the past two years and wanted to do the whole head this time while still keeping to the same technique. For those that don’t know, balayage is a very popular hair colouring technique where you bleach the hair in sections, leaving a combination of your virgin hair untouched to create a “natural look” as a result.
I stepped into CL Salon to achieve an ashy blonde colour. My hair had turned an unappealing brassy shade for the past year and needed a refresher. Pictured above is my hair before getting recoloured and as you can see, the balayage had grown out to right above my cheeks. Since this was the most grueling hair session I’ve had to date, I decided to document it and share my experience during my 8-hour appointment. Warning: be prepared for my many selfies up ahead!
During this visit, I requested Amanda to handle my colouring appointment – she’s also the owner of the salon along with her boyfriend, Edison. The salon is still relatively new – about over a year old – that I immediately loved the modern yet welcoming space. I knew I was in it for the long haul so it definitely helped to be in a comfortable space while sitting for long hours. When they say beauty is pain, they ain’t kidding! The number of foils I had on top of my head kept multiplying as the hours went by. Because balayage is all about sectioning hair off, the process can last all day depending on how much hair you have. In my case, I have A LOT of hair so the foiling got pretty intense halfway in.
To illustrate how many foils of bleach I had on top of my head at one time, you can see in the above photo just how much work went into colouring my whole entire head. I’m going to take a rough guess and say there were at least 30 foils weighing on top of my head. I literally felt like I was wearing a helmet during this point – the perks of having a thick mane. I’ve had my hair lightened on three previous occasions thus far but this balayage session reached record-breaking heights. I was honestly worried I’d have neck problems after today.
This was my first time at CL Salon and I was very impressed by their 5-star treatment. They frequently checked up on me by offering me chocolates, refills on tea and a pizza break so I didn’t die of starvation during these 8 hours. I found Amanda’s work to be quite meticulous; she took great care in sectioning off all my hair to create a very natural-looking effect on my new colour. Not to mention, she was super fun to talk to which made the long hours pass by a bit faster. I also liked how the salon wasn’t super busy that particular Sunday so I got my own space to relax in as Amanda worked her magic.
When they finally unveiled my new colour after taking off the foils and adding the toner to my bleached tresses, I wasn’t sure how to react to tell you the truth. It was so strange to see myself with darker hair as I was so used to my lighter blond colour for the past year. I had to remind myself that I’d come in asking for an ashed out greyish silver colour, which is a darker shade from my previous colour. Though I did lighten my hair to achieve this look, the toner is ultimately where your actual colour is applied and determines how the colour will turn out. Amanda also reassured me my colour will lighten after two washes so I didn’t need to worry about it being too dark.
The best part of every balayage session comes with the mandatory hair curling at the end. I always wear my hair straight so it’s always fun to see myself with some bouncy curls when I walk out of the salon. The curls also help to bring out the new colour and to show dimension, which is great for photos. Pictured above with my new do, it looks brownish in the photo but in real life, it was actually more of an ashy silver colour. After this, my 8-hour balayage session was finally complete and my hair felt so silky smooth that I didn’t want to wash it – nor could I – for days. Though the colour only lasted a few weeks, it eventually faded out to a nice honey blond colour which I’m more than happy with.
You can see pictured above that my balayage starts almost all the way from the top of my head now while leaving some of my natural hair to blend in with the blond. This creates a nice gradation for the rest of the hair, blending out for dimension throughout. The only thing that I didn’t like this time around was the amount of breakage I experienced post-colouring. Being it my fourth time having it bleached, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this was the most amount of split ends I encountered yet. I love lightening my hair but it definitely comes at a price. To take care of my damaged hair as best as possible, I use Living Proof Hair Mask on it every time I shampoo to help replenish moisture. For those wanting to colour their hair, remember that the most important part is how you take care of it afterward and that’s after you’ve successfully gone through x amount of long grueling hours!
If you enjoyed this post and would like to see more like these, please subscribe and follow us on Instagram @michellesinstyle!
CL Salon
771 Bathurst St
Toronto, ON M5S 1Z5
3 Comments
Your hair looks amazingly gorgeous. I can’t believe you were there for 8 hrs. I’ve found it hard at times to find a place where the hair stylist can actually make the time go by faster. Thanks for the recommendation.
Thanks so much Vicky! It was definitely the longest session I’ve had yet but it was worth it. They say once you get a balayage, you can’t go back so it’s very important to take care of your coloured hair as much as possible!