Boston - January 10, 2006

Different Strokes

Bayalage Hair Painting

Is anybody really fooling anyone else with their highlights these days?

Even if you’re lucky enough to score a natural-looking color, just wait. Thanks to the generic slice-and-dye techniques of most foiling jobs these days, your roots will look like a regular ol’ checkerboard within a week.

Don’t even play that game. Instead, put your head in the hands of Marisa Demarco at Mario Russo. She uses a hair-painting method called Bayalage (huge in Europe, big in New York, barely known in Boston) to create customized highlight patterns that perfectly suit your locks.

Because hair is individually painted (using a real artist’s brush, no less), when your roots grow out, there’s much less of a demarcation. And because the highlights are personalized, they wind up exactly where you really need them.

The upshot? Color that’s so flattering and natural you may want to start a new school of hair painting.

Just call it Good Impressionism.

Available at Mario Russo, 234 Berkeley Street, between Newbury and Boylston Streets, Back Bay (617-266-4485 or mariorusso.com).