I've been having my blonde hair professional coloured for about 20 years; from full highlights to babylights, balayage, 'Brazilian illuminage', moneypiece highlights, and even the occasional home dye, I've tried it all. But I've always been unsure about which technique is best for my hair type and desired look – until now. I recently visited Haug London Haus in central London where I had an in-depth consultation with Siobhan Haug , the salon's co-owner and award-winning colourist.
I told her that I'm a fan of a creamy, beige blonde look but with a lived-in, rooty appearance that would grow out naturally without a strip of dark roots showing after a few weeks. I thought traditional balayage – where highlights are hand-painted throughout the lengths for a sun-kissed look – might be the solution, but Siobhan used a technique called 'foiliage' on me instead. READ MORE: 'Covered all my greys' – the £5 hair dye with glossy results that 'cheats a trip to the salon' Also known as 'balayage highlights', a trend that has hundreds of thousands of likes on TikTok, foiliage involves applying highlights with lightener and foils right up to the roots, and then blending it out with toner to give a lived-in effect, reports OK! .
This was also best suited to me as I already had existing highlights fairly high up to my roots (balayage works best when applied to uncoloured hair to get the right graduated effect). Siobhan highlighted another advantage of this method: applying lightener r.