Jane Birkin, Caroline de Maigret, Françoise Hardy… Identify an elegant French girl, and likelihood is they’re intently related to an effortlessly aspirational magnificence look. Minimal make-up apart, it’s all about these little coiffure particulars: A great reduce, sure, but additionally glorious colour. French balayage is the method our Parisian pals swear by for sun-kissed, luminous and natural-looking colour that–crucially–doesn’t look completed.

“French balayage is a freehand coloring method that takes its historic roots from the Carita sisters in Paris within the Seventies,” explains Jack Howard, world hair colour educator at L’Oréal Professional. It’s possible you’ll not have heard of the Carita sisters–Rosy and Maria–however they have been Paris’s most in-demand and influential hairdressers within the mid twentieth century, tending to the hair of everybody from Catherine Deneuve to Princess Soraya, who grew to become Queen of Iran in 1951. The time period “balayage” means “to comb” in French, and it was a method the sisters popularised, in a bid to create a natural-looking spotlight by working with very fantastic strands of hair.

Whereas colour innovation and instruments have undoubtedly developed since these days, the premise remains to be very a lot there, and colorists nonetheless paint utilizing the balayage method on smaller (and bigger, generally) strands of hair, making use of colour to items the place the solar would naturally hit. The aim is for it to look fully pure. “When somebody has had French balayage, their hair picks up the sunshine in sure locations–it’s understated however nonetheless catches the attention,” Howard explains. “You don’t know what you’re , nevertheless it brings delicate gentle and a wholesome look to the face.”

The alternative of assertion hair–an enormous no-no in case you’re French–this sort of balayage fits individuals of all hair colours, textures and ages. Howard is especially emphatic that it’s a superb method for many who are going gray. “Just a few French balayage items put via gray hair can actually brighten it up, add extra dimension and refresh the coiffure,” he says. “It’s undone and easy and mainly appears to be like such as you’ve been on the seaside for a number of weeks.” It helps to boost and convey radiance to the pores and skin, too, as an added bonus.