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That talk with my old mentor changed how I see highlight placement
I ran into my former instructor from beauty school at a grocery store in Portland last Saturday. She told me she's been doing all her highlights by hand now, no foils at all. She said it makes her look at the hair's natural movement instead of just following a pattern. It made me wonder how many techniques I still do out of habit instead of really thinking about them. Has anyone else gone back to a simpler method and found it worked better?
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the_kim18d ago
Hand painting forces you to really pay attention to where the hair falls and how light naturally hits it. I started doing balayage a few years back and noticed my highlights looked softer even when I went back to foils for certain clients. The key is to lift the section and look at it from a few different angles before you place your foil or paint, not just slide it in on autopilot. Try alternating between hand painting the top crown sections and foiling underneath, it keeps you mindful of both methods.
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pat_fisher2417d ago
...and honestly that's kind of how everything is when you stick with it long enough. You learn one thing and it changes how you see the other stuff you already knew. It's like cooking, you figure out how to season something right and suddenly you're paying more attention to salt in everything else too. Same with driving, once you learn to check your blind spot properly you start noticing how many people just don't. So yeah, hand painting probably just made her more aware of angles and light, but that awareness sticks with you no matter which method you use after that.
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Foils are fine for what they are. Hand painting is just a different tool for a different job, not some enlightenment moment. People treat switching techniques like they discovered fire all over again. You can still think about the hair's natural movement with foils, you just section differently. Maybe she just got bored with her usual method and needed a change. Not everything has to be a big revelation about your whole approach.
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