Colouring hair is as much about selection and current state of the canvas as it is about placement. The art of doing less for more impact is smart and essential if you want to have healthy hair. Shadow coloring is about placement of color to help other colors pop. Can be that you want to go lighter or it’s too gold so adding a darker ash element helps give the illusion that the existing color is lighter and not gold.
If you have an off white wall beside a white wall suddenly the off white wall looks very off white. Now put the off white wall beside a dark brown or black wall suddenly it looks completely white. It’s an illusion but it works every time! Same concept with hair, to get the blonde to look blonde

Balayagè started out as a merging of colors that blend rather than a overall lightening effect. You can vary the density of color however it you want low Maintainence then for darker tones naturally it’s best to limit the exposure.

Now shadowing color on the roots or smudging blends the root color ( your natural color ) through to give you a blended tone change from roots to ends and can be done to correct or blend a regrowth or to help grow out your color. If you want to grow out a solid color whilst still using the color on the mid lengths and ends this is a great way to do it!

So before getting balayagè check the variations as there are many but most of all make sure you know if you want solid or a more broken up result.