“A French word meaning ‘to sweep’, balayage is a great technique for natural sun-kissed looking highlights that grow out in an extremely soft, natural way. The result can be subtle or bold depending on the amount of colour added but the highlights always seamlessly blend in and out, making it hard to tell exactly how the colour has been done.

“By painting onto the hair directly, the highlights are blended and make for a result that appears as if it could be natural – similarly to when the hair lightens naturally in the sun over time. Balayage can be a great introduction to hair colour as it comes with very little maintenance and can be almost undetectable as hair dye when done subtly.

“The lightening product is painted directly onto sections of the hair, applied in a sweeping motion. A paddle or board is used to facilitate saturating the longer parts of the highlights, and occasionally the colour is applied directly onto the hair using the hands and brush alone.”

Highlights: a comprehensive guide to every type of highlight, from balayage and halo lights to hand painting