Cutting Curly Hair: 3 Common Mistakes & How To Avoid Making Them

3 Solutions To The Most Common Mistakes When Cutting Curls

More and more curly-haired clients are ditching their flat irons and embracing their natural texture. And with the right haircut, you can help enhance her curl pattern. However, there’s a lot of misconceptions about cutting curly/wavy hair, so below, we’re sharing three of the most common mistakes stylists make and curl specialist Evan Joseph’s (@evanjosephcurls) solution to each!

Mistake #1: They don’t have a plan.

Solution: Create a mental blueprint instead of blindly cutting into the hair. So what factors do you need to consider? Evan says shape is everything when cutting curly hair so let that guide your approach. How long is it going to be around the face? Are you going to create fringe that falls right above the brow? Are you going to start the angle at the cheek, the tip of her nose or her jawline? How long do you want the first layer of hair in the crown to be? What is the overall length of the base going to be? Once that’s all figured out, the last thing is to find a way to connect everything together. 

Note: Rather than studying her face, shape will be determined by how the client wears her hair naturally and any issues they want to address, like lack of volume in the crown.

Mistake #2: They randomly start slicing into the hair.

Solution: It’s not uncommon for stylists to randomly cut because they think mistakes will easily be hidden, but slicing will only create frizz and remove ends that won’t grow out nicely. Instead, precision cut or cut one curl at a time. Evan’s go-to technique may seem tedious, but treating each individual curl as one unit is much simpler because all you have to do is blunt cut the ends. Watch how Evan does it in the video below:

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by ᎬᏙᎪN ᏠᎾᏚᎬᏢᎻ ᏟᏌᎡᏞ ᏚᎢYᏞᏆᏚᎢ (@evanjosephcurls) on Nov 29, 2018 at 5:59pm PST

Mistake #3: They either shampoo or straighten the hair first.

Solution: Both of those things are major no-nos. Shampoo strips natural oils from the hair, leaving it dry and brittle, while straightening her strands simply makes no sense since she doesn’t wear her hair straight. Here’s what Evan says to do instead:

• Have the client arrive with her hair how she typically wears it.
• Then, blunt cut her dry hair one curl at a time.
• Once you’re satisfied with the shape, wash her hair with a zero lather cleanser.
• Follow with a conditioner that does not contain silicone or demithicone.
• Then, have her flip her head upside down and use a micro-fiber towel to soak up the water without creating frizz. (Watch the video below to see how it’s done!)

Pro Tip: Never run a brush or comb through curly hair because it can cause breakage. Instead, gently finger comb while conditioning the hair at the bowl.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by ᎬᏙᎪN ᏠᎾᏚᎬᏢᎻ ᏟᏌᎡᏞ ᏚᎢYᏞᏆᏚᎢ (@evanjosephcurls) on Jan 5, 2019 at 5:31am PST

Click here to find out the four things stylists wish their curly-haired clients knew!