Beauty Streak

Finally, winter is slowly but surely leaving its chill behind. The days are getting longer, warmer, and days by the beach are weeks away. Personally, I cannot wait to be kissed by that summer sun, and lucky for me, I don’t have to. Every summer, I spend a lot of time in the sun, and my hair reacts by getting natural highlights. I’m a brunette, and I do love my tiny blonde streaks. But this summer I will be spending a considerable amount of time indoors, and I still need to get my sunshine fix. I’ve never been one for extreme hair coloring or bold changes, but I am down for some light highlights. Enter balayage, a freehand highlighting technique meant to be low maintenance, multi-dimensional and to give a sun kissed look. Perfect.

It all started with a consultation. I’m sitting in a comfy chair in a building that used to be an art gallery. I’m a sucker for repurposed buildings and Studio 101 is no exception. The chic interior of exposed brickwork, floor to ceiling framed mirrors and hardwood floors makes me feel like I will soon become a work of art myself. I talk with Jason Dolan. He owns the salon and “splits” his time between here and New York City. By split, I mean that he is here every other Tuesday, and I was lucky to get in. During the consultation we review the basics: what am I looking for, what am I not looking for? Then we start.

My hair happens to be straight that day (normally I wear it curly), and Jason is surveying his canvas, my hair. He takes a few moments, looking at it from different angles and gets an idea of how it naturally falls. Then he mixes up the solution and starts. He takes small sections and lightly brushes it as he works his way down the strands. As he gets closer to the bottom, he rests the section on a small paddle where he is able to apply more pressure and cover the bottom of the section more intensely, the idea being that the ends will have a more sun kissed look.

It takes more time to do it this way, but the results are so worth it. After the selected sections have been painted and lightly wrapped in cellophane, I am put under a heat lamp to activate the process, then it is washed out and my hair blown out. Even the blowout was topnotch. My hair is very thick, coarse and curly. Usually it necessitates both a blow dry followed by a flat iron. Oh no, not here. My hair was blown out and straightened in one fell swoop. Not only was my hair silky and smooth, but as I turned my head from side to side, I caught the flashes of sun kissed hair. They look so natural and I know that as the summer goes along, I can get even more to add sunshine to my locks.