THE FABRIC OF HAIR

Winning haircuts with great consultations

Paul Chambers — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:44:14 +0000

Happy New years again everyone! Now is the time to attract new guests for transformational makeovers for the 2010 . I would like to express a little more knowledge in the area of personalized hair cutting from and another perspective . The infamous client consultation! This is where the process begin of connecting with the guest needs , texture, style and features to help us produce the best haircut suitable for them. How we do that? Ask open-ended questions; 1.)when 2.)what 3.) how … guests will open up a dialog for you to extract nuggets from , who they are and what they have used and why they want this particular look. We must always remember we are in the beauty business not the ugly business. We are selling image to our guests that will ultimately reflect our work once they leave the salon. Hot tip: don’t allow the guest to corner you into creating exactly what they show you in the magazine. Editorial hair is different from commercial hair . Editorial hair has been prep constantly for hours on set and retouched making the average stylist feel inadequate in reproducing that style. You gently explain to the client what is reality and unrealistic and work from you strengths in executing a similar shape that best fits their lifestyle , head shape and persona . The client will truly appreciate it when they are happy with the finish look. Besides they will invariably say you are the professional you know more than me I am just giving you a lead on how I think this is appropriate for me . So a great consultation is where we connect with the client to stimulate our imaginations to create and select the right shape for the guest. Bringing out the best they could look with what we have to work with and the information they provided to us. The next step is decision-making process what technique will we use ,what type of shape works best for the guest is asymmetry or symmetry, volume or sleekness . This is where knowledge and creativity comes together to exceed the guests expectations because we took the time to fully relate to the soul of that clients aspirations in personalizing their style. The haircut becomes a visual treatise of taste , shape , lines and movement encompassing the past present and possibly future hair trends . We as hair stylists must take the time to gather information from our guests so we know where we going and how to get their. Building our brand , style and art through our thrilled guests who just can’t wait to showcase their postmodern fresh cuts in their circle of influence. It’s a New Year it’s time to challenged our selves to elevate our craft to new levels because you are only as good as your last hair cut.

Creative Haircutting

Paul Chambers — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:12:41 +0000

Merry Christmas everyone and have a blessed New Year. We last talked about movement as it pertains in constructing a haircut. Before we go further in this concept I must note that all haircuts start with vision and taste that is appropriate for ther client. You can have the most creative haircut applied to the wrong head shape and client which will spell disaster and wasted effort. It’s understanding the texture you are working with so you will know what technique to apply for your shape. This is why one must know principles of movement as pertains to elevation,overdirection and finger angle . This will enable to guide your judgement in making decisions throughout your hair design. Elevation creates graduation or layers ,overdirection creates length and weight in a section you are cutting. Last of all finger angle which creates volume and depth within a shape. Did you notice the key word in describing what those three principles do ? It was the word CREATE this is what you want to achieve when you design your haircut. You want to control the placement of layers, length and volume inside your haircut giving your client a more personalized haircut for 2010.I use this same concept in my soon released dvd using the sixties layering technique shows how that is achieved visually on dense wavy hair transformed into a post modern cut. Remember if you know the principles of design and you can visualize it you can cut it . My next post will be coloring relaxed hair.

Color & Cut

Paul Chambers — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 03:37:48 +0000

Our last post I talked about giving tips from our soon to be release debut dvd cutting blunt lines for texture on textured hair with minimal about of texturizing. Let’s keep it simple in keeping within the frame work of universal principle’s as it pertains to hair design. The blueprint for creating any haircut whether it be classic cut or creative disconnect consists of sectioning and parting. All hair design’s can be simplified into two types fo haircuts blunt or graduated/layered. When we don’t want a blunt haircut we pick the hair up . To created texture in cutting blunt lines we simply elevate the hair we take a section of hair in an upward manner with over direction moving it out of its natural fall position or keep it in its natural position . Creating a beautiful graduated airy effect as if you use a point cutting technique. This is why one must understand the principle of movement in order to take your basic classic structure haircuts and transform them into postmodern cuts that are wearable .We will take this concept a little deeper in understanding what foundational principles create movement as it relates to sectioning , overdirection and fingerpostion on the next post.

Color & Cut

Paul Chambers — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:45:13 +0000

It’s been away a little while but I am back to stay. I just finished my summer project in producing our debut dvd color blends and disconnect seamless layers using elevated overdirected blunt lines . These techniques are done on dark pigmented textured hair. Some of my models turn clients are from diverse ethnic backgrounds but they have one thing in common they have dark pigmented hair textured hair. They have had problems in the past in overtexturizing their hair or brassy colored highlights. Well the good news is there are options . We at Kuttin Ege’ have developed salon proven techniques based on universal principles in servicing one of the most neglected segment of our market . Our dvd will be released in first week in february of 2010 . The next several weeks I will begin to talk about tips from our soon to be released instructional dvd in assisting stylists and students in how to properly formulate for dark pigmented hair and cut dense texture hair without hardly using any texturizing techniques. Remember, it’s about maximum results with minimum amount of effort in achieving superb results without sacrificing value to your clients.

Color Formulation

Paul Chambers — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:50:45 +0000

Color Formulation is the most important aspect of color artistry but least understood. My experience and techincal knowledge has helped me arrive at some pretty consistent results for my clients. Consultation is the key in understanding the texture you are working with.

Hot tip if you are working with course texture and dark pigmented hair you need to use higher working volume of perioxide in your formula so you will be able to remove large amount of natural pigment from the cortex to arrive at the level you so desire. Fine hair is the exact opposite since fine hair has less cuticle layers your formulation will be adjusted in using less working volume perioxide in arriving to your desired level. That what I think what do you think?