Getting haircuts when you have naturally curly hair can be pretty anxiety inducing! Not everyone knows how to handle curly hair. I know this firsthand, as I have received many bad haircuts in my lifetime! Thankfully with years of doing my own curly hair and training myself how to cut it as a cosmetologist, I have learned a lot. I hope these tips will help guide you in knowing what to ask for when you get your curly hair cut!
Find the Right Stylist
The biggest piece of advice I have is to ask other people with similar textured hair where they get their hair cut. If that doesn’t help, you can research your area to find stylists who specialize in curly hair. The internet makes this search a lot easier than it used to be!
Don’t be afraid to leave your current stylist to try another one. I know it can seem like a messy break up, but you can always go back to your previous stylist for other hair treatments. If they continue to give you bad haircuts, it is time to find a stylist who can give you the haircut your curls deserve!
Educate Yourself on Your Curls
Don’t leave all of the knowledge up to the stylist. There will be plenty of stylists out there pretending to know about curly hair; but they probably don’t actually know as much as they may want you to think. Having a little knowledge yourself can save you from a lot of heartache.
Curly hair does not always grow as quickly as straight hair. It has to go around in its curl pattern before working its way down. When you are telling a stylist how much you want cut off, remind them that the curls will bounce up when they dry. Tell your stylist how much your hair tends to shrink. Every curl pattern shrinks differently and they won’t know what your hair is like compared to other curly hair. Chances are, you probably don’t need to cut off a full inch of hair to make the hair go up by an inch. It’s really easy to get hair too short when you are working with curls!
Curly Hair Cutting Techniques
Curly hair can be cut wet or dry. Cutting curly hair wet should be left to the professionals. Curls shrink so much when they are dry that it is especially easy to get it cut too short. Don’t let that totally scare you from allowing curls to be cut wet though. If you have any plans of straightening out curls, the odds of the hair getting cut straight enough that it won’t look crazy when it is straightened are much higher when hair is cut wet. Keep this in mind when you are telling your stylist what you want.
When curls are cut dry, it’s easier to be able to see where the curls will land exactly. There is less of a chance of curls getting cut too short but there is a higher chance of the cut being uneven when it is straightened out. If you have no plans of ever straightening your hair, this is a great option!
Curls love layers! Curly hair can take on a bit of a triangle shape if there aren’t layers involved. The hair on the top ends up being flat and it widens as it gets to the bottom. This is where layers come in. Layers don’t need to be crazy short; just adding some dimension within the haircut will help the curls lay more evenly throughout the head. This is where a lot of stylists can get hung up. Many stylists don’t realize just how many differing layers can help, rather than just long layers that aren’t much shorter than the length of the hair. Don’t be afraid to tell them to cut short layers to give your curls more life!
Thinning and Texturizing Curly Hair
Thinning and texturizing the hair can also help curls lay nicely. It can also help take out extra bulk that creates too much heaviness for the curls to have much life. Leave thinning and texturizing to the professionals. This is another thing that can go wrong really quickly. Something to watch for is making sure the stylist isn’t thinning past the bend in the hair. All that means is if you hold the hair at the end of the strand loosely, the hair will bend in half. It isn’t always going to be at exactly the halfway point; it is different on every head of hair. Hair shouldn’t be thinned past that bend in the hair. When it is, it creates a lot of issues, including holes in the haircut.
I can’t emphasize this enough. It is so important that you don’t get your hair thinned past that bend in the hair! I could spend an entire day telling you horror stories of bad haircuts I have gotten because the stylist didn’t understand this rule.
Texturizing the hair is done with a razorblade. It isn’t as common to do with curly hair because it can make the ends look sparse. However, if there is a lot of bulk happening in the ends of the hair, having the ends texturized is a great way to remove some of that bulk and get rid of that triangle effect, without adding so many layers.
Getting Curly Hair Cut
Basically, getting a haircut when you have curly hair is going to involve more than just searching for a cute hairstyle online and taking it to a stylist. Being educated about the curls themselves, what is best for them, and finding a good stylist who knows how to work with them will be the keys to curly success! If you do your homework, you will be rewarded in the end. Nobody deserves to hate their curls because they had bad haircuts!
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