In Beauty

Babylights & Layers for Spring

As you might know by now I’ve been very lucky to call Goldwell my partner in crime when it comes to hair for the past year. Not just did I have the opportunity to get my hair cut and colored by one of the best Goldwell hairdressers in town (actually, one of the best there are!), but I also got the chance to learn a lot about hair and everything that has to do with it.

One of my major learnings during the journey with Goldwell this year was that there is a crazy amount of options when it comes to highlighting your hair. From chunky highlights to hand-painted bayalage highlights and all sorts of foiled highlights in between, it can be quite hard to choose the technique that works best for your hair and gives you the desired look. As always, it’s best if you bring along a photo of the hair you’d like to have to your appointment, so your hairdresser can advise you what technique to go with.

When I visited my hair heroes last week, I told them I’d like to get my hair ready for Spring, meaning: Shiny and glowing hair without changing the color too much, and just a fresh cut with some layers. Initially, I was very keen about getting curtain bangs, but just five months before our wedding day I didn’t want to go too wild with my hair.

After consultation with Mario Krankl, we decided that babylights and extra long layers would be the perfect fit for me. Not to add any more confusion, but the technique of babylights was fairly new to me as well. When I had my first ombré look done six years ago, I moved on to balayage and now babylights are the latest hair highlighting technique everyone is raving about.

The technique isn’t much different than the usual foil highlights or the more modern bayalage highlights that you’ve likely been getting for years. The main thing that makes babylights stand apart is the sectioning and spacing between the various foils. Babylights are created using micro section, which means teeny tiny sections of hair are highlighted creating a subtly brighter and very natural looking highlight effect. It takes a lot of patience and attention to detail by a skilled colorist to get babylights just right.

My hairstylist Nadja added Babylights all over my head and strategically towards my face to add brightness just where desired. Babylights are usually concentrated around the face to brighten up the hair and through the top/crown section of the hair to give a natural sun-kissed glow. Afterwards my hair was colored using the new Goldwell Pure Pigments, which are an innovation by Goldwell that I was able to see in Barcelona during Color Zoom for the first time. Pure Pigments are concentrated tones that add a unique play of color reflections and shine to your hair color. They are available in six colors: Pure Yellow, Pure Orange, Pure Red, and Pure Violet, which create vivid tones and effects while Pearl Blue and Matte Green soften and counteract unwanted tones. Nadja used the Pure Yellow Pigments on me and when saw the bright color I was a little shocked at first – but it turned out just the way I wanted: Shiny and luminous.

In term of cutting we decided that the extra long bangs would be a subtle preparation for curtain bangs, which I’d still love to have! But let’s talk about that idea again once the wedding took place…

In case you feel like freshening up your hair for Spring too and would like to see one of the Goldwell hair heroes in your area, simply use the salon finder to search for a Goldwell hair salon close to you.