A few years ago, at the peak of my Pinterest obsession, I decided I needed ombre hair. My boards were littered with soft, highlight-ready hair (opens in new tab) that looked manageable. I showed my hairstylist at the time the cutest ombre hairstyle I could find (opens in new tab) and modestly wondered if I should move to California, cue The O.C.

theme song. I'll spare you the sob story, but to recap: the hairstylist painted a bold blonde line down the middle of my head and bleached the ends. It was nothing like I had imagined. To say that I was completely scarred (and forever kept away from ombre) would not be an exaggeration.

But it seems I was not the only one who had a terrible experience with ombré. To this day, the industry's obsession with ombré has been replaced by a preference for "balayage" hair. And just as I was berating myself for choosing ombré over balayage that day at the salon, I had an epiphany: the two styles are oddly similar. So, to learn the real difference between balayage and ombré hair, and to avoid an awkward salon experience like mine, I enlisted the help of celebrity hairstylist Liauna Capri (open in new tab), co-owner of the L.A. salon Nine Zero One (open in new tab) ...

Here's where many of us have gone wrong at the salon: we don't even ask for what we think we want.

"First things first: balayage is a technique, and ombré is a gradation of color," says Capri, whose client roster includes Selena Gomez, Ruby Rose, and Nina Dobrev. 'In fact, there is no such thing as a hair color called balayage. Balayage is a way to achieve ombre."

And it gets even simpler: balayage means "sweep" in French. Says Capri, "When using the balayage technique, you literally move it around like you would apply bleach or lightener to your hair."

While this technique sounds very similar to highlights, there are actually important differences between the two. Highlights are applied starting at the roots and working all the way to the ends, whereas balayage is applied like a feather, starting at the ends and working upward," says Capri. Balayage is usually applied directly to the hair, whereas highlights are wrapped in foil. The foil is going to lighten the hair for a really bright effect, especially if it's sitting under heat."

However, if you omit the foil, as most stylists do with balayage, the oxygen oxidizes the bleach, resulting in a dry, not-so-bright color. I feel like hair stylists have gotten into balayage because it's much faster and quicker to lighten hair without foil." But since you can't get the same brightness without foil, everyone started using stronger bleach." That's where Capri's preferred method of balayage comes in. She says, "By putting the balayage pieces in foil, you can make it super light."

"You can do it in a very lightweight way," she says, "and it's very easy.

But if balayage is not actually hair color, why do so many people confuse it with hair color? The answer, says Capri, has a lot to do with ombre's not-so-great reputation. While one can blame misleading Pinterest boards, Capri has a more specific idea of what caused ombré to become a dirty word in salons.

"Five or six years ago, some celebrities ended up with super solid blonde on the bottom of their hair and super solid dark color on the top," she says. "Ombre got a bit of a bad rap because people were creating a dip-dye effect," she adds.

"Extensions are similar, and when people do bad extensions, people assume that all extensions are bad."

But obviously, ombre styles can be beautiful when done correctly, and there are plenty of stylists who can do it. To create a soft, natural flow of dark to medium to light, all you need is the perfect amount of medium, gradient color in the middle," says Capri.

Fortunately, this enviable technique is also one that is easy to keep looking fresh. 'It's not a technique that starts at the scalp, so the roots are already there,' she says. Nine times out of ten, if it's done right, someone can literally come into the salon a year later and not actually need more color."

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