In a world of rapid and frequent viral colour trends, sometimes it’s the biggest, boldest and strangest looks that make the headlines, and sometimes it’s the simple concepts and amendments or additions to classic ideas that start a craze. This latest trend is the latter, taking arguably the biggest colour trend of the last few years, Balayage, and reversing it for, you guessed, the Reverse Balayage trend.
First debuted on Reddit by hairdresser Deryn Daniels from Colorado, the look is now gaining traction on Instagram and in the global media sphere, with beauty features in publications such as PopSugar and Allure. Deryn’s hero looks starts from golden blonde and cascades into deep brunette hues, with both rich, strong tones creating a more extreme contrast and igniting the obvious new trend. “In a world full of blonde balayage be a reverse,” she writes on Instagram, and it’s so simple it just might work!
Of course, the difficulty is in first taking many clients to that covetable blonde tone before darkening the edges of their hair, and the skilful subtle fade and graduation necessary in regular balayage remains in its reverse iteration. Hand painting techniques, and that all-important ‘sweep’ motion (the English translation of Balayage) are still pivotal.
Where Balayage keeps things easy for your clients, allowing them to go months without touching up their roots while enjoying trendy, lightened ends, this trend, of course, does the opposite. But hey, that just means more salon business for you with more regular maintenance required from willing clients.
Unlike a lot of internet trends, the look is achievable, and commercially relevant. It could be the ideal new option for the clients that are (finally) bored of Balayage and are willing to try something familiar but new.
As Missy Elliott famously advised “flip it, and reverse it.” We’ll just assume she was talking about this.
What do you think of the trend?
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