The hair-dye technique that creates natural-looking highlights is balayage. In balayage, color or lightener is painted freehand onto selected sections of hair instead of being applied uniformly from the roots.
The name comes from the French word for “sweeping,” describing the brush movement used to create gradual, diffused highlights. Colorists can vary the placement, saturation, and width of the painted sections, producing dimension that often looks softer and less uniform than traditional foil highlights.
Balayage is commonly confused with ombré. Balayage describes the hand-painted application method, while ombré describes a color transition, usually from darker roots to lighter ends. Foiling is another application method in which strands are isolated in sheets of foil, often creating more precise and brighter highlights.
Because the color is usually concentrated away from the scalp and blended into the lengths, balayage can grow out with a less obvious line than an all-over dye job. The result still depends on the starting hair color, lightener, technique, and maintenance.