Wednesday, April 21, 2010

M: Razor, very long, long flat cut, texture

This haircut will follow the usual: cut side, connect sides to top, finish top. Lots of cutting to give direction and to develop bulk will be done.



Section

Make a horse shoe shaped parting at the top of the parietal ridge. Look for the top of where the front hair line slopes back. Section where it first starts to go vertical.



Cut sides and back

Start front hairline and take vertical sections about 1 inch wide. Pull at 90 degrees from side of head and hold with fingers down near the end of the strands of hair. These sections on the side will be directed back by cutting the section front to back. The razor blade is vertical so that it all makes contact with most the vertical section at one time. The blade starts about 3 inches from the scalp and the blade is nearly flat with the hair strand. It may be tilted about 10 to 15 degrees from being flat. A light stroke is made which goes from about 3 inches from the scalp to about 6 inches. Multiple strokes are made to get through the section.

It looks like this stroke cuts most of the hair close to 3 inches as it goes through a stroke. The rest of the hair is left with a frayed look at the end. This spread out end part is not very long from what I can see.



(Instead of thinking of 3 inches to start the cutting, look at the length of hair needed to reach from the top of the section to the ear. This may be more helpful to estimate the length to leave the section. )




Behind the ear, the sections are taken in the same vertical manner, but they are directed down by cutting from the top of the section down. The same long stroke is made going from 3 to 6 inches. Multiple strokes are made to get through the section. The sections are cut from the horse shoe shaped parting to the hair line below. The section may have to be picked up in parts going from top to bottom.



In watching the demonstration of this cut, the stylist makes about 7 strokes to get through the held part of each section.



Work around the back of the head to the other side. Once the other ear is reached, start to cut with the razor blade vertical and cut toward the back of the head.



All these sections have been pulled straight out from the head without over directing to the front or back and without elevation.



Start over at the front and use similar vertical sections. Hold these sections with fingers down near the end of the hair. Hold the razor horizontal to the floor and with the spine of the razor near the scalp. The blade will be facing you and the back of your hand. Tilt the leading edge of the blade up about 10 to 15 degrees. Insert the blade in the section about 1 inch from the scalp and cut up gently in the section as you slide the blade toward you for about 1 to 2 inches. Do not cut all the way to the end. Cut about 1/8 of an inch going up. Make 6 to 8 small cuts like this in the held hair. The purpose is to give some short hair under long hair to lift the longer hair up.



This procedure is done all around the head.



(In the back and sides there seems to be a contradiction. These sections were originally cut with the hair directed down. Cutting in the current method is now trying to lift this same hair up. )



Connect sides and back to top: notch to direct it back and then cut to guide also directing it back.

Re establish the original horse shoe shaped section if it is not visible.

On the side make front to back sections in the horse shoe shaped section. Comb straight out to the side. Hold the section and cut notches internally to the section starting at 3 inches from the scalp. The stylist cut 4 notches in the hair held in the first two fingers. So each notch is not wide. The notches are aimed back with the short side to the front. Pick up the next part of the section and cut more notches. When the section has been notched, the section is cut to the guide length that is below. Cut this so it is directed back.



Continue to take more front to back sections within the horse shoe shaped section. The notches in the later sections start further from the scalp. These are then followed by another set of notches like in the first section which are closer to the scalp. These will start in the 1 to 2 inch range of the scalp. ( It is not clear why both sets of notches could not be done at the same time.) The section is then cut to the guide to direct the hair to the rear. Each section is elevated slightly above its parting to further reduce the weight at the end of higher sections. Length can be left at the front by directing the front of the sections back before cutting to the guide.



Do the other side the same way.



In the back/crown area, horizontal sections are pulled back and cut to the guide below. The hair is directed down. Notching is not used internally. Pivoting planes around the crown are used. The first pivoting plane is behind and ear and directs to the corner where the back and side meet, the second is straight behind the head, and the third is behind the other ear at the other corner.



Texture on the top: Slide cut front to direct back and notch from side to natural part to give lift.

Re establish the horse shoe shaped parting if it has been lost.

Find the natural part in the horse shoe shaped section. Do this by combing all the hair back in that section and then gently pushing it forward. It should separate with the natural part. It may be down the middle. When you have the natural part, re part the horse shoe shaped section so you can control the smaller sections and their pieces.

Make side to side sections starting in the back of the horse shoe shaped section. These will be separated into two pieces with one on each side of the natural part. Stand behind the client and pick up one of these pieces. Hold the piece to the back of the head and toward the natural part. On the front side gently slide the razor blade up the surface of the section to cut a little shortness. Start about an inch off the scalp and continue for about another inch. In the same piece, now cut vertical notches which are aimed from the side of the head and going up toward the natural part. These notches will have their short side toward the side of the head and their long side toward the natural part. As the piece falls it will fall away from the natural part and the notches will give it lift away off the head.

In this example, there was a short piece on one side of the natural part and a long piece on the other side of the natural part. In the short part 2 or 3 narrow notches were cut starting about 1 to 2 or 3 inches. In the longer piece about 4 narrow notches were cut to about the same length.

The shallow cutting on the front of the section pieces was to direct the hair back.

The two procedures are designed to direct the hair back and to give the pieces some lift and volume from the notch cutting.

Summary:

This haircut looked tedious and complicated. However once a few techniques were pulled apart it was clear that the number of steps was fairly small with lots of repetition.

It seems that seeing the steps in the haircut is useful, but figuring out how to use a razor with good dexterity is probably going to be the most important step in doing this type of haircut.

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