Sherry Ratay is an internationally acclaimed, celebrity colorist award-winning color expert and salon owner. Here, she discusses how to choose balayage to complement a client's face shape.
Some will say that Balayage is a never-ending trend, and yes, I agree. Balayage was first recorded in 1975-1980; from the French; it was a look of coloring the hair in a way that was sweeping from dark to light. This could be a high contrast or a soft contrast with dark and light colors, your decision on the contrast would be determined from the client’s hair density and their personality.
Some would say it is as easy as that, but I would like to share the way to really customize your balayage to each client. It focuses on the shape of the face. Throughout our studies, we have learned that the oval face shape is ideal, due to the visual balance you see. The question is always, where do you start the lightness, where do we leave the darkness, how much lightness do we create, how much darkness do we leave? These are all very good questions when creating the balayage for the visual balance.
When adding lightness to the shape of the face you are then expanding the visual area and when adding or leaving the darker hair it minimizes the visual area. You can create a larger space or minimize the space just by adding lightness or darkness. If you are not wanting to draw attention to an area that is larger, color or leave it in the shadow/dark. If you want to accent an area, color it lighter with reflection/light in that area.
Here are a few examples:
*If your client has a large forehead, you will want to leave them with a dark root and start the lightness between 3-5 inches from the root, past that visual area of the forehead, which is around the area of brow to nose.
*If your client’s cheeks and nose are the largest part of their face, you will want to keep the hairline dark around her ears and to the temples area, do not add lightness to that area on the hairline.
*If your client has a pronounced jaw line, you will want to keep the darkness on their hairline in front and slightly above the ears, as well as the hair that falls underneath and behind the ears. You will then be creating a shadow which will create the depth that is needed to minimize the area of concern.
When you are analyzing your clients face, you will want to distinguish if their face is longer in length or wider in width. This is where the lines of design come in for balance, to once again create the illusion of an oval face shape. Horizontal, vertical, and diagonal.
When creating lightness on a horizontal line, you are creating a strong visual starting point. Horizontal is not the ideal line to work with when creating your balayage, balayage is sweeping from dark to light.
*If your client’s face is longer than it is wider you will want to begin your lightness 1-3 inches out from the scalp on their front hairline, keeping the depth of the darker natural color at the scalp area. This will diminish the visual appearance of the length of her face.
*If your clients face is wider than it is longer, you will want to place vertical lines closest to their face to create the illusion of length. Only do this around the face, not withing the balayage painting throughout the head.
The fun begins when you start to create your balayage throughout the head. These lines should only be diagonal, as this will create the perfect balayage that sweeps from dark to light, color dancing within each other.
Sherry Ratay will be teaching a class at IECSC Florida, "Quick & Clever Balayage Techniques" on September 29, 2025. To learn about the classes offered at the show, be sure to register to attend IECSC Florida from September 28-29, 2025. What's more, use code AMERICANSPA to get 20% off education classes.