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02.20.2026
Discover Hair Ribboning for the Chunkiest Balayage Yet
By: Zara Kenyon
Have you heard of hair ribboning? A new take on everyone's favorite service, balayage, it levels up your client's look with bolder highlights that maximize body and movement. So, when you're tasked with boosting dimension, this is one technique you want in your repertoire. Keep scrolling for tips on how to craft the look – and how to help clients maintain it at home...
What is Hair Ribboning?
Hair ribbons combine the thickness of chunky highlights with the seamlessness of freehand painting, so your client is treated to a higher-contrast take on a traditional balayage. These cascading ribbons can be painted lighter or darker than the base color, depending on the desired finish, resulting in bright, dimensional strokes that give hair plenty of body-boosting movement.
What is the Difference Between Ribbon Highlights and Balayage?
Ribbon highlights and balayage have a lot in common with each other. They both harness the beautiful blending that you only see with freehand, open-air highlights. You also focus both techniques through the mid-lengths and ends of the hair with a tailored approach. Your goal: to highlight and enhance the natural beauty of your client's color and complexion.
But, here's where they differ: while balayage is a hair lightening technique that's typically soft and subtle, ribbon highlights are applied to wider sections of hair for a bolder result. Cascading ribbons deliver bright, contrasting pops of color for a head-turning finish, whether your client asks for golden blonde ribbons, thick, depth-bestowing lowlights, or all-out sweeps of rainbow shades.
The Quick Take:
- Ribbon highlights and balayage are both freehand painting techniques.
- Balayage is usually soft and subtle, with finer sweeps of lightener or color.
- Ribboning involves painting thicker sections of hair for a bolder, high-contrast look.
Who Suits Ribbon Highlights?
Not sure if ribbon highlights are right for your client? Here’s how you’ll know it’s the perfect technique…
- Their inspiration photos show chunky highlights versus finer weaves.
- They have high-density, high-volume hair – the ideal canvas for wider slices of lightener.
- They want a more dramatic, high-contrast color change than a traditional balayage typically delivers.
Your Hair Ribbon Highlights Kit
If you're using ribbon highlights to add depth to your client's hair, reach for your color product of choice, around two shades darker than the base color. But if you're adding lightness and brightness with those cascading ribbons, your highlighting kit needs extra attention. Here are four essential products for the dreamiest finish:
1. Wella Professionals Balayage Brush
Our specially designed, curved balayage brush makes mixing and painting simple, ensuring the blend from dark hair into light has a beautifully melted finish. Plus, it's wide enough to perfect those chunky highlights. Use it to saturate 1-2-inch sections of hair for an even lift.
2. Wella Professionals BlondorPlex
Hair ribboning usually requires more lightener than a traditional balayage, so as well as making sure you price the service accordingly, opt for a product that respects hair's integrity. BlondorPlex not only gives you up to 9 levels of lift – ideal for high-contrast color – but it also gives your client up to 97% less breakage*. Meanwhile, the anti-brass complex ensures the cleanest canvas.
3. Wella Professionals WellaPlex No. 2 Bond Stabilizer
After your client's ribbon highlights have lifted to the correct underlying tone, rinse with WellaPlex No. 2 Bond Stabilizer to complete their BlondorPlex service. Leave it in the hair for 10 minutes to strengthen the hair structure and rebalance pH levels. Then rinse thoroughly for flawless ribbons that are ready for toning or styling.
5 Ribbon Highlights Looks to Try
1. Caramel Blonde Ribbon Highlights
Image Credit: @annie4cruz
This caramel blonde combines both chunky ribbons and finer weaves of lightener, delivering a multi-dimensional look that draws on the benefits of two techniques. Perfect for giving a dirty blonde base color a new-season glow-up, the look also harnesses the true-to-tone vibrancy of Color Touch for major radiance.
The Formula:
- Ribbon highlights and balayage: BlondorPlex + 6% Welloxon Perfect
- Toner: Color Touch 7/89 + 1.9% Color Touch Emulsion
2. Chunky Bronde Ribbon Highlights
Image Credit: @balayagebylex
For show-stopping ribbons, level up the lift and give your brunette clients a boost of caramel blonde. The ultimate in bold bronde (brown-blonde) looks, ribbon highlighting takes the famously soft look and gives it major definition. The piecey, chunky finish makes it perfect for summer with its beachy, sun-kissed vibe. Just add loose curls or waves, courtesy of EIMI Ocean Spritz and a wide curling iron.
The Formula:
- Ribbon highlights: BlondorPlex
- Melted mids: Color Touch 5/03
- Mid-lengths and ends: Color Touch 8/03 + 7/3
3. Brownie Batter Ribbon Highlights
Image Credit: @hollyydoeshair
This rich, chocolatey masterpiece shows that even chunky placement can appear ultra-seamless. Add finer weaves, and you'll get a beautiful blend that exudes dimension with every hair swish. Color Touch is bringing the vibrancy here, with hints of ash that feel cool yet rich all at once, so brownie batter ribbons make the mid-lengths and ends of hair shimmer.
The Formula:
- Ribbon highlights: Blondor + 6%
- Gloss: Color Touch 8/71 + 7/71 + 1.9% Color Touch Emulsion
4. Golden Face-Framing Ribbons
Image Credit: @danielleemilie
When your client's goal is glow, face-framing ribbons work their magic. Chunky sweeps of lightener through the front give both hair and skin a healthy radiance, enhanced by a golden toner. A touch of red in this Color Touch hue brings beautiful warmth to the overall look. For added shine, finish with a drop or two of ULTIMATE SMOOTH Miracle Oil Serum.
The Formula:
- Ribbon highlights: Blondor + 6%
- Toner: Color Touch 8/41
5. Root Beer Ribbon Highlights
Image Credit: @hairbyangelaalberici
For that root beer color, blend bronzy tones through a dark brown base, as seen in this shimmering look. The high-contrast lift and placement, courtesy of hair ribboning, ensures the highlights don't get lost in the depth. They pop and glow in the most eye-catching way. Shine is key for this look, so consider a SHINEFINITY Color Glaze. For a translucent veil of zero-damage color and up to 250% shinier hair**, it's a product every client will love.
How to Maintain Ribbon Highlights
Before your client leaves the salon with their flawless ribbons, make sure they've got the right products and techniques to maintain highlights at home. These three steps will ensure their shade goes the distance...
1. Always Apply Thermal Protection
Heat styling is one of the biggest culprits behind color fade, so if your client wants to protect their shade, they should minimize their use of hot tools. But if they're not ready to put down the flat iron or curling iron yet, heat protection will allow them to style as they please, while keeping their ribbon highlights protected against brassiness and damage. Recommend ULTIMATE REPAIR Protective Leave-In, which harnesses AHA and Omega-9 in a delicate cream, giving hair a boost of care and repair every time your client uses it to style.
2. Refresh the Tone with a Hair Color Mask
If your client has high porosity hair that doesn't hold on to color well, they may want to try topping up their tone in between their salon visits. Color Fresh Mask is a quick solution that revives and refreshes their highlights; a tinted treatment that takes the place of conditioner, enhancing their shade in 10 minutes. All they have to do is smooth it through clean, damp hair on days when color needs a boost, allow it to develop, and then rinse thoroughly. They'll see the difference instantly.
Now you've got the full lowdown on hair ribboning, you're ready to create the look for your clients. Why not pair the technique with the hottest hair color trends of 2026?
* When using Wellaplex N°2 with Blondorplex, versus Blondorplex alone.
** Versus untreated bleached hair.
*** With regular use of ULTIMATE COLOR regimen from salon to home.
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