Creating your own balayage hair extensions at home is easy and in this post, I will share a great method for you to balayage your own hair extensions and create a beautiful ombre effect for your hair.

The best way to balayage hair extensions at home is to use ombre hair extensions that are a few shades lighter than your natural hair color and then use a 10 vol cream developer and cream color to darken the top or end part of the extensions. 

For more on this, check out my guide below.

Before Getting Started

• It’s easier to buy extensions with the bottom section of the ombre closer to the color that you are trying to achieve. You will then only need to dye the top end of the extensions to match your root color.
• If you have naturally dark hair, it’s also a good idea to purchase extensions with the top section of the ombre at a lighter color. This will make it easier for you to dye the top part darker to match your root color.
• If you have natural light color hair, choose extensions with the top section of your ombre that matches your root color. This way, you will only need to dye the bottom part of your extensions to your desired darker shade.
• A cream developer of 10 vol is selected as you are only looking to dye the lighter section of your extensions darker to either match your roots (dark to light ombre for people with naturally dark hair) or your desired darker shade at the bottom half of your extensions (light to dark ombre for people with natural light hair). Either way, A 10 vol developer will not offer any lifting of the hair’s color level. It only opens up the cuticle to allow the deposit of the desired color.
• Check out my guide on getting hair dye off your skin if the dye accidently comes into contact with your skin while trying the method below.

What You Will Need:

• Ombre Hair Extensions
• Cream developer (10 Vol)
• Cream color
• Hair Dye Conditioner
• 2 mixing bowls
• 2 color mixing brushes
• Tin foil
• 1 wide-tooth comb brush
• 1 narrow tooth comb brush
• 1 pair of gloves
• 1 toothbrush (optional)
• Change of clothes (optional)

What You Need To Do:

1. Put on your gloves and change your clothes (optional)
2. Lay the tin foil down on top of your work surface. Use sections that are longer than your extensions. The tin foil’s job is to ensure you don’t get any of the dye on your work surface.
3. Mix the cream color and cream developer in a mixing bowl. Use a 1-to-1 ratio of the product. This means if you used 5 ounces of hair color, you should use 5 ounces of cream developer.
4. Using a mixing brush, mix the cream color together with the cream developer. Keep mixing until the mixture has an even and smooth consistency.
5. Lay down your extension on top of the tin foil. Use a tooth comb to brush through it to ensure there are no knots or kinks.
6. Using the mixing brush, apply the color mixture to the section of the hair extensions that you want to dye darker. Choosing ombre extensions will make this step easier as it provides you with a “guide” to let you see where the color transitions and how far up or down the extensions you need to dye.
7. Use a tooth comb brush to spread the color out at the shade transition section of your hair extensions. This will help the shade transition section look more natural. Brush this section a few times and alternate between the wide and narrow tooth combs for best results. It may also help to use a toothbrush to help spread the color solution out better.
8. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 to ensure that the section you want to dye has a saturated amount of hair color.
9. Flip over the hair extensions and repeat steps 4 – 7 on the other side.
10. Add hair dye conditioner to the 2nd mixing bowl and using the 2nd mixing brush, apply the conditioner to the lighter section of the ombre extensions (the part you didn’t dye).  This will prevent the darker colors from bleeding into the lighter section of hair extensions when you rinse out the dye later.
11. Leave the color on the extensions for the recommended time as stated on the product labels then rinse out the dye with warm water and shampoo.