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n. A technique of coloring hair in which the stylist applies the color by hand to create natural-looking, graduated layers of highlights with a less apparent regrowth line than in traditional highlighting. [French, a sweeping, balayage, from balayer, to sweep, from Middle French, from Old French balaier, from balai, besom, alteration (influenced by baloi-, stem of baloier, to move about agitatedly, from Late Latin ballāre, to dance; see BALL2) of earlier Old French balain, either from Breton balazn, besom, or from Gaulish *balatno-, the broom plant (Cytisus scoparius), both Breton and Gaulish from earlier Celtic *banatlo-; see bhā in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] |
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