Blonding is one of our most requested specialties near Madison, WI. It can completely transform your look, adding brightness and dimension that enhances your features and elevates your style. At Genesis Hair & Day Spa, we approach every blonding service with precision, strong technical knowledge, and a full understanding of your hair’s current condition before we ever open a foil.
We take the time to discuss your hair history, your color goals, and your maintenance preferences to create a plan that genuinely works for you. Whether you’re going blonde for the first time or maintaining a long-term look, our team builds a step-by-step strategy that achieves your desired shade while protecting your hair.
A lived-in blonde is designed for soft, natural-looking dimension that grows out beautifully over time. This result blends brightness with depth to create a lower-maintenance blonde that still feels fresh, effortless, and elevated. It’s perfect for guests who want a blonde look that feels bright but not overdone, with seamless grow-out between reservations.
A dimensional blonde result gives the hair a mix of brightness, depth, and movement for a more natural, multi-tonal finish. Rather than looking flat or overly solid, this blonde feels rich, blended, and full of contrast in all the right places. It’s a great choice for guests who want their color to feel soft, expensive, and beautifully customized.
A balayage result gives the hair soft, seamless brightness with a natural, dimensional finish. Hand-painted for a customized look, this blonding service creates lightness through the mids and ends while keeping the grow-out more blended and low maintenance. It’s perfect for guests who want an effortless, lived-in blonde that feels bright, modern, and beautifully customized.
A high-impact blonding service is designed for maximum brightness, bold dimension, and a more noticeable transformation from root to end. It’s perfect for guests who want a standout blonde with strong brightness, high contrast, and a fresh, statement-making finish.
Blonding reservations always start with an honest conversation. We’ll look at your current color, your hair’s history, and how it’s responded to lightening in the past. We’ll talk through your goal, set realistic expectations for where we can get in one visit, and map out a plan, including a timeline if your goal takes more than one session to reach safely.
Our stylists choose tones that work with your skin tone. We create a custom formula that gives you dimension, depth, and a natural-looking result—not flat, one-dimensional blonde.
Depending on your goals, we'll use different techniques. Traditional highlights with foils give you precise, bright pieces. Specialty blonding techniques like balayage (hand-painting) create softer, more natural dimension.
After your lightener processes and we rinse, we tone your blonde to perfection. Toning neutralizes any unwanted warmth or brassiness and gives you that perfect shade of blonde.
Before you leave, we give you tips on maintaining your blonde at home; like which products to use, how often to come back, and what will keep your color looking fresh. Blonde requires maintenance, but with the right routine, it's totally manageable.
Highlights are usually done with foils for precise, bright pieces of color. Balayage is hand-painted for a softer, more natural look. Highlights give you more contrast and brightness; balayage gives you lived-in, sun-kissed dimension. It completely depends on the look you’re going for.
Yes and no. If your hair has ever been previously colored, lifting lighter with hair color alone is not possible. If your hair is completely natural and has never been colored, then it may be possible to lighten with color depending on the starting level.
It depends on your starting color, hair length, and how much blonde you’re adding. Partial highlights usually take 2-3 hours. Full highlights can take 3-4 hours or more. Planning on going from dark to blonde? It might require multiple sessions in the chair to get you as light as you want while keeping your hair healthy. We’ll give you realistic timing during your consultation.
Lightening hair involves lifting your natural pigment, which can be drying. But with proper technique, quality products, and good at-home care, we minimize damage. If your hair is already compromised, we’ll talk about that during your consultation and create a plan that keeps your hair healthy while getting you to your blonde goals.
It depends on the technique and how fast your hair grows. Traditional highlights usually need touch-ups every 6-8 weeks. Balayage and specialty blonding can go 10-12 weeks or longer because it’s designed to grow out softly. Your hair colorist will give you a recommendation based on your specific color and technique.
In some circumstances you may be able to, for example if you’re starting from light to medium brown and your hair is healthy, we might be able to get you to blonde in one session. If you’re starting from dark brown or black, it’ll likely take multiple sessions to protect your hair while you go lighter. We’d rather take our time and keep your hair healthy than rush the process.
It depends on your undertones. Cool-toned blondes (ash, beige) work well on people with cool or pink undertones. Warm-toned blondes (honey, golden) suit people with warm or olive undertones. Neutral blondes work on most people. Other people love the contrast of blonde shades that shouldn’t “work” with their undertone – but end up looking great. Your hair colorist will help you figure out what’ll look best on you during your consultation.
Prices are subject to change based on if extra time or product is needed. Price is also dependent on the level of the provider you book with.
Foil highlights create brighter, more defined ribbons of lightness throughout the hair for a fresh, dimensional result. This service is great for guests who want a more noticeable blonde effect, overall brightness, or targeted lightening from root to end.
Starting At $110
This service combines foil highlights with a base color for balanced dimension, brightness, and a seamless overall tone. It’s a great option for guests who want to lighten the hair while also refreshing their root color, deepening their base, or blending gray coverage.
Starting At $166
Balayage create soft, dimensional lightness with a natural, blended finish. This service is perfect for guests who want brightness through the mid-lengths and ends with a more lived-in, lower-maintenance grow-out.
Starting At $187
This service pairs custom balayage with a base color refresh for a more complete, polished result. It’s ideal for guests who want added dimension and brightness while also adjusting depth at the root or covering grays.
Starting At $240
Not sure what service you need? Take a few minutes to fill out our free online consultation, & one of our knowledgable staff members will be in touch to advise you & find you a stylist or provider!
