Your clients will love these five on-trend cuts
Published
10th Jul 2020
by laurahusband
Your scissor work is going to be more important than ever to clients in the coming weeks and months following lockdown so HJ has asked five hairdressers to share their tips for recreating their favourite on-trend cuts.
How to recreate these on-trend cuts: Dramatic length and texture
Anne Veck, salon owner at Anne Veck Salons in Oxford and Bicester says: "Cutting long and thick hair is not more difficult than any other hair style. The key to recreating on-trend cuts that involve dramatic length and texture is in the consultation and clean execution. Like any other service, you have to make sure you speak the same language as your client. Quite often people with long hair are very attached to the length of their hair and when they ask for 1cm off, they do mean 1cm even if the length is past the shoulder and it won’t make much difference to the finished style.
Cutting Asian hair is a challenge compared with caucasian hair because it is especially straight and thick. It usually won’t lay flat against the head and a normal cut with scissors doesn’t always work for this reason. It’s a good idea to use a technique like point cutting to layer the hair as this gives a softer look while adding body and texture. If you do want a dramatic style, I suggest more chunky layers. Whatever you want to achieve the choice of tools is very important. I work with 5.5” scissors and the most important thing to remember is that long hair is usually old hair – three years old if past the shoulder so you need to keep the condition at its best.”
Thomas Hills, salon owner at TH1 in Oxted, Surrey says: “Love it or hate it, it’s impossible to ignore this season’s trend for masculine detailing. Several Fashion Week SS20 shows paraded models sporting traditionally feminine styles peppered with unexpected masculine details. It’s a trend that creates a real style dichotomy within one look, which I love. It’s also an exciting way to create androgynous styling. This look uses classic men’s hairdressing techniques to create a beautifully androgynous feminine shape. I used a classic scissor-over-comb technique. It requires discipline, working from short to long, while building up weight throughout the temples and crown visually. The top is slightly disconnected to create the free-flowing texture, while the fringe has been cut freehand, which again is disconnected from the internal texture. To finish, hair was dried naturally.
I used a cocktail of soft crème and clay to encourage irregular movement for an image that portrays power and strength. Scissors were used in a multitude of ways to create internal texture. I used twist cutting to reduce bulk at the roots, channel cutting to create a fusion of textures, and I distorted the ends by breaking into the mid lengths and ends randomly. This stops uniformity within a style allowing more freedom within the hair.”
Karine Jackson, salon owner at Karine Jackson London says: “Unlike a lot of stylists I like to stick to one pair of scissors to create all different types of looks. I use different techniques depending on the final effect I want to achieve and I stick with my trusty sharp 5” scissors.
This image is from my 2019 Twisted Linear collection where I created my own take on two iconic looks – the mullet and the bob. To create the mullet part of the style I blunt cut the bottom section, shatter the middle section of the hair halfway up, weaving through and taking precise sections to work on. For the bob, again using the same scissors, I heavily blocked cut and shattered the ends by using the point cutting technique. This is because I wanted to maintain a strong line whilst softening the edge slightly. Finally, I cut in a fringe by point cutting the hair to give further definition and finish off the look. This summer I think we are going to see different textures of hair, for example Afro looks with a lot of movement."
Mark Mountney from Zoology, London says: “I believe great on-trend cuts are about personalised suitability and individual style. For this look I used my 6” scissors to create the base haircut on wet hair. Once the hair was dry, I worked on customising the haircut. Still using the same scissors I sliced through the hair to create texture, movement and softness. The finish is a very visual process for me based on personalisation. In many ways, the biggest trend this season is working with texture and enhancing the hair’s natural movement.”
TONI&GUY artistic director Philipp Haug says: "We are seeing a lot of short hair for SS20 and keeping the perimeter edges slightly longer adds softness, femininity and a more sophisticated feeling. This haircut is sub-divided into an undercut and a longer section on top, with a lot of detail in the undercut. I took a big section on top which we left longer, then worked with scissor-over-comb through the sides from the bottom to the top. This is a reverse scissor-over-comb technique. The benefit of this is that we can leave the perimeter and sideburns as long as we want. For this cut I used 6.5” scissors, which are 5 slightly bigger than I usually use. With smaller scissors you can get more precise with your graduation, but when working with scissor-over-comb a bigger pair of scissors and a bigger comb will give you more control.”
Masculine detailing
Thomas Hills, salon owner at TH1 in Oxted, Surrey says: “Love it or hate it, it’s impossible to ignore this season’s trend for masculine detailing. Several Fashion Week SS20 shows paraded models sporting traditionally feminine styles peppered with unexpected masculine details. It’s a trend that creates a real style dichotomy within one look, which I love. It’s also an exciting way to create androgynous styling. This look uses classic men’s hairdressing techniques to create a beautifully androgynous feminine shape. I used a classic scissor-over-comb technique. It requires discipline, working from short to long, while building up weight throughout the temples and crown visually. The top is slightly disconnected to create the free-flowing texture, while the fringe has been cut freehand, which again is disconnected from the internal texture. To finish, hair was dried naturally.
I used a cocktail of soft crème and clay to encourage irregular movement for an image that portrays power and strength. Scissors were used in a multitude of ways to create internal texture. I used twist cutting to reduce bulk at the roots, channel cutting to create a fusion of textures, and I distorted the ends by breaking into the mid lengths and ends randomly. This stops uniformity within a style allowing more freedom within the hair.”
Mullet with a twist
Karine Jackson, salon owner at Karine Jackson London says: “Unlike a lot of stylists I like to stick to one pair of scissors to create all different types of looks. I use different techniques depending on the final effect I want to achieve and I stick with my trusty sharp 5” scissors.
This image is from my 2019 Twisted Linear collection where I created my own take on two iconic looks – the mullet and the bob. To create the mullet part of the style I blunt cut the bottom section, shatter the middle section of the hair halfway up, weaving through and taking precise sections to work on. For the bob, again using the same scissors, I heavily blocked cut and shattered the ends by using the point cutting technique. This is because I wanted to maintain a strong line whilst softening the edge slightly. Finally, I cut in a fringe by point cutting the hair to give further definition and finish off the look. This summer I think we are going to see different textures of hair, for example Afro looks with a lot of movement."
Customised texture
Mark Mountney from Zoology, London says: “I believe great on-trend cuts are about personalised suitability and individual style. For this look I used my 6” scissors to create the base haircut on wet hair. Once the hair was dry, I worked on customising the haircut. Still using the same scissors I sliced through the hair to create texture, movement and softness. The finish is a very visual process for me based on personalisation. In many ways, the biggest trend this season is working with texture and enhancing the hair’s natural movement.”
Short undercut styling
TONI&GUY artistic director Philipp Haug says: "We are seeing a lot of short hair for SS20 and keeping the perimeter edges slightly longer adds softness, femininity and a more sophisticated feeling. This haircut is sub-divided into an undercut and a longer section on top, with a lot of detail in the undercut. I took a big section on top which we left longer, then worked with scissor-over-comb through the sides from the bottom to the top. This is a reverse scissor-over-comb technique. The benefit of this is that we can leave the perimeter and sideburns as long as we want. For this cut I used 6.5” scissors, which are 5 slightly bigger than I usually use. With smaller scissors you can get more precise with your graduation, but when working with scissor-over-comb a bigger pair of scissors and a bigger comb will give you more control.”