Autumn Balayage: Warming Your Colour Back Up

September on the Costa del Sol still feels like summer, but the light has started to change. It is softer, lower, warmer. And hair that looked perfect in July can suddenly look a little washed out against it.

This is when I start seeing clients from Riviera del Sol and Calahonda coming in for what I think of as the autumn reset. Not a whole new colour. Just a warming up, a repair and a tidy.

Why summer leaves colour looking flat Three months of sun, salt and chlorine will:

• Lift your ends a level or two beyond where I left them
• Pull warmth out unevenly, so some pieces go brassy and others go pale
• Dry the cuticle so light scatters instead of reflecting, which reads as dull
• Fade any toner or gloss almost completely

None of that is a disaster. It is just hair that has had a good summer and now needs some attention.

What an autumn balayage looks like The technique is the same hand painted balayage, but the intent is different.

Instead of pushing for maximum brightness, I bring the tone down and warm it up. Caramel, honey, toffee and soft copper through the mid lengths, with the brightest pieces kept around the face where they do the most work.

I usually root smudge or shadow the top as well, which deepens the roots slightly and makes the ends look richer by contrast. It also buys you longer between appointments, which nobody has ever complained about.

The finished look is warmer, glossier and noticeably more expensive looking than sun bleached ends.

The repair part matters just as much There is no point putting beautiful colour onto damaged hair. It will not hold and it will not shine.

So an autumn appointment with me usually includes:

• A bond building treatment worked through the lengths
• A proper cut to take off the summer ends, even if it is only a centimetre or two
• A gloss to seal everything and bring the shine back

That gloss is what makes people stop you in the street. Shine reads as health, and health reads as expensive.

Booking ahead of Christmas A small piece of practical advice. If you want your colour looking its absolute best for the Christmas and New Year run, September and early October is when to start.

Colour looks its richest around two to three weeks after it is done, and if your hair needs a couple of appointments to get where you want it, you want that time in hand rather than trying to squeeze it in during December. My December diary fills earlier every year.

Keeping the warmth in Warm tones fade faster than cool ones, so:

• Wash in cooler water. Hot water opens the cuticle and lets colour out
• Use a colour protecting shampoo, sulphate free
• Skip the purple shampoo unless we have agreed you need it. On a warm balayage it will only mute the tones you paid for
• Book a gloss at six to eight weeks to top the richness back up

Book your autumn colour If you are in Riviera del Sol, La Cala or across the Mijas Costa and your hair has had a proper summer, come and see me. We will take stock of what the sun has done, decide together how warm you want to go, and get your colour looking rich again in one appointment.

Autumn hair is my favourite hair. Let us make yours worth the season.