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I caught up with master colorist, stylist and makeup artist Katie Doherty at Greenwich Avenue’s Jaafar Tazi salon to observe how one hot highlighting technique can bring that hair from blah to bam in just a couple hours.

Greenwich’s Lisa Paradise, who has been a Doherty fan for the past five years, was ready to try something new so she chose Balayage coloring treatment on her blond do. The technique, which originated in the salons of Paris in the 1970s, is seeing a major upsurge with America’s high-end clients seeking a low-maintenance, longer-lasting and natural-looking way to brighten up.

“The word ‘Balayage’ means ‘to sweep.’ It came back to America about three years ago and it’s become a big trend,” said Doherty, who has been doing hair since she was 16 and has a way with hair analogies. For instance, she always says “Getting a split end is like a snag in your tights. It’s only going to keep splitting up higher.”

To her, Balayage “sweeping” is like painting the hair, so she carefully applied Paradise’s color with a brush from base to tip, strand by strand for her partial highlights. She explained to Paradise that she decided against doing full highlights “to keep the integrity of your hair,” something Jaafar Tazi is dedicated to, refusing to over-treat clients and recommending hair-healthy products like Moroccan oil scalp treatments for winter months and L’Oreal’s sulfur-free anti-aging conditioning products.

With Balayage highlights, “There’s no foil so it will literally look exactly as you apply it,” Doherty said. “It’s different (than other highlighting techniques), because, unlike foils, it doesn’t give hair direct lines of demarcation and you don’t see roots right away. The roots are diffused. Just like Sarah Jessica Parker and a lot of the stars are revealing, the rooty look is really in, so as the highlights grow out and you have roots, it doesn’t look bad.”

Following 10 minutes of heat and a blow-dry, the resulting look is a sun-kissed throwback to summer that will lighten your January and last for months without a streaky phase. To Jafaar Tazi’s chill-out lounge soundtrack, Paradise said, “I only get highlights once a year.” She crossed her legs and sipped her foamy Thursday-eve cappuccino. “So this is it.”

Doherty pointed out to Paradise, “You can stretch this as long as you want and you can mix it with different styles and color techniques.”