You don’t really need to go deep and give yourself an at-home vocabulary quiz to learn intense hair coloring terms like double-process, lift, single-process and balance (although that would be pretty impressive). All you need are the basic hair color terms and trends which we’re breaking down for you below:
Hair Color Terms: Common Words and Definitions to Know
1. Babylights
A super fine highlighting technique used to soften and add dimension to the hair while mimicking the natural looking sun-kissed highlights most babies have when they’re young.
2. Base
Before applying colors or highlights to achieve the look you want. Stylists often applies an alternative hair color as a coating first.
3. Balayage
A hair color technique that involves “sweeping” or “painting” color onto the hair by hand which creates a natural looking finish.
4.Coverage
A term that’s helpful to know if you’re in the market for covering gray hair; it determines the hair colors ability to cover grays.
5. Highlights
Strands of hair that are lightened one or two shades lighter than the natural color of your hair.
6. Lowlights
Thin strands of hair are darkened one or two shades darker than the rest of your hair. This technique is mostly used to create depth and volume to the hair.
7. Ombré
Using the balayage technique, colorists sweep or paint color onto the bottom section of the hair length.
8. Sombré
A fancy way of saying “subtle ombré“. This look is created by mixing darker and lighter tones to create a less dramatic look like the ombré.
9. Toner
A formula used to soften and blend highlights, balance out the tone or enhance the overall look of the color. Bed Head By TIGI Dumb Blonde Toning Protection Spray is a great toning spray to use on color treated hair.
