GUIDE · 6 MIN
How to talk about color in Spanglish
A vocabulary cheat-sheet for the chair: ombré, mechas, baby lights, and the words your Tía actually uses.
Why this matters
Half of bad color jobs in the Valley start with a translation gap. "Highlights" lands differently than "rayitos" — and "balayage" gets confused with "babylights" all the time. Use the real words, you spend less time fixing what you didn't order.
Five words to know
- Mechas
- Highlights, full panel. Bold contrast.
- Rayitos
- Babylights. Soft, fine, sun-kissed.
- Iluminaciones
- Face-frame highlights only.
- Decoloración
- Bleach lift — ask about timing.
- Tonalizar
- Toner. Kills brassiness.
What to send
Two photos: hair right now in natural light, and the result you want. Add one sentence about what you DON'T want — that line cuts re-do bookings in half.
"If she says 'pero suave' — soft, but — believe her. That's the brief."