BEFORE
AFTER
Woohoo, the weekend is almost here! My wedding anniversary is Saturday, my mom is on a plane for a spontaneous visit to come see us, and Lee and I are off to NYC tomorrow for a little get away weekend just the two of us!! So we are all pretty excited around here! Before we leave, I had to finish up this fun post to share with y’all today. I get a lot of questions about my hair….how I style it, what kind of highlights I get, etc. so I thought it’d be fun to document a day at the salon, and show you what all Nicole does to my hair and how we achieve my color and highlights!
The first question I always get is “Where do you get your hair done??” The answer is Artistre Salon & Spa in Hainesport, NJ. Nicole has been doing my hair for years, and she truly is an artist and master at what she does. Every time I go in for an appointment, I always feel so welcome, and I think I’ve said this before, but it feels just like Truvy’s Salon from Steel Magnolias (just a more updated version, of course)! Everyone knows your name, they LOVE Ella and help take care of her anytime I have to bring her with me (she loves hanging out at the front desk with Lexi), and they truly have become like family.
When it comes to what I get done to my hair, it’s pretty straight forward and we don’t really change it up. Don’t fix what’s not broken, right?! My natural hair color is a kind of a “mousey” brown and can look very blah and boring so we always start off by doing a single process of color that is a deep reddish brown. Plus, I have a few grays starting to show up in the front, and y’all know we can’t have that. So I’m usually in there for that service every five weeks or so.
Regarding my highlights, that’s where it’s really neat to watch Nicole work! She basically paints bleach onto the ends of my hair, and brushes it towards the root, about mid shaft, so that it has that grown out effect and isn’t just a sharp transition from dark to blonde. Usually every other visit, I’ll have her paint a few pieces around my face so that it all looks cohesive. She usually goes over my balayage every three months. That wouldn’t be necessary if I were just doing highlights, but since I’m coloring my roots every 4-5 weeks, that color tends to bleed onto the blonde after a few appointments, and I like for my highlights to look bright and fresh! Since that can be a lot on your hair, we usually do an Olaplex treatment every other visit to keep my hair from turning into hay and completely breaking off!
I usually hang out for about 35 minutes while the color and bleach process, and I always get a toner during my shampoo to take out any brassiness that might still be lingering in the highlights. Olaplex now has a shampoo and conditioner, which they used on my hair this last visit, and it left my hair feeling SO soft!
And that, my friends, is the step by step process of how I get my balayage highlights! It’s a great way to add dimension to your hair without having to do a full head of foils each time you go, and it also allows you more time between your visits. Like I said earlier, if you don’t need to color your natural hair or touch up your roots, you could just get these highlights and go months without having to step back in the salon! I hope this has been helpful and answered any questions you had about the process and how we go about it. If there’s anything I left out, please feel free to let me know, and I’ll be happy to answer any other questions!
If you’re looking for a salon home, I highly recommend Artistre Salon! They have been so good to me, have so many great services, and I never walk out of their doors an unhappy customer. Check out their website or their facebook page to see all the services they offer, and if you decide to book an appointment, they have been so sweet to offer a 20% discount to all my readers on their first visit! Just use code TARABUONO when you book or check out, and they’ll get you fixed up! I’ll link all of the products I use at home too (shampoo, conditioner, texturizing spray, etc.) at the bottom of this post.
If you’d like to see more of Nicole’s work, you can check her out here!
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