CurLab- New adventures in cutting...

As I teach curly cutting to the stylist's at East 42nd Street Salon, I am always looking for ways to expand upon the basic method of dry cutting.

I developed CurLab as a service to help develop the curriculum, offered to regular curly clients as a "lab" environment on cutting.

I recently cut a head of curls in CurLab for the first time using a wet technique that I call "ribboning." It was daunting cutting a head of curls wet-- but I am a FIRM believer in expanding beyond one's comfort from time to time, and I now know enough about how to read a head of curls to accurately predict bounce-back on a wet head. This is a technique I would NOT use on every client-- but for certain effects, it could be quite useful.

Essentially the hair is well-prepped beforehand. The hair is thoroughly detangled and the curls are allowed to bounce into their natural coils. The curls MUST be intact to do a proper wet cut-- this is crucial. One goes through the head, curl by curl, and makes a very clean cut at a precise angle at the bottom of the ribbon.

The advantage of this method is that it works extremely well on hair that tends to coil into itself easily (strong ringlets or loose ropes, etc). It also allows for a very, very clean and defined shape.

I am a believer in the magic and simplicity of the dry cut, and I don't expect to change my thinking on this. But it was good for the brain to meander around a bit and try something new.

And the client was happy at the end, which is what is ultimately important.

I'm curious to see the grow-out in two months time...

Til next time... hair peace. :)