balayage

[prettygoodword]

balayage (bah-ley-AHZH) - n., for coloring hair in which dye is painted on using long strokes to lighten or highlight it in a natural-looking way.


Often with a brush, but there's other techniques. It was developed in France in the 1970s -- and so no surprise we got the word from French: literally, sweeping, from balayer, to sweep from Old French balaier, from balei/baleis a broom/brush, alteration of Late Latin ballāre, to dance. (Confession: I hadn't known this word till it popped up in a word of the day list.)

---L.

Comments

[full_metal_ox]

Not a word you’d be likely to know unless you’re particularly interested in hair styling or hang out with people who are.

(Current proponents of the technique are at pains to point out that modern balayage is not your grandma’s dirty-blonde-on-mouse-brown stripe-frosted shag; the contrast is usually subtler.

https://www.elle.com/beauty/hair/g28666/balayage-hair-highlights/)

[prettygoodword]

Not a common topic in my friend-set, no, at least when I'm around.

[lokifan]

(Confession: I hadn't known this word till it popped up in a word of the day list.)

Interesting! D'you cut your own hair? Or maybe it's just less popular where you are. Balayage is one of the standard offerings in a hairdresser's in London, at least, so you see it on their lists of services.

[prettygoodword]

I'm pretty sure it's common here, but even before I convinced (during lockdown) janni to just give me a buzz cut every month or so, I only got very basic cuts without styling ("number 6 on the sides and back, thin out the top, over the ears").

[med_cat]

A good word and a technique that can result in attractive hairdos if done properly :)

[prettygoodword]

So I learned when I researched this word. I really ought to have known it.

[med_cat]

I have heard it from someone who had it done ;)