As always, before you cut, there are number of client characteristics you need to look at, including: facial features and face shape; hairlines, hair-growth patterns; hair quantity, quality and texture. For this haircut, you need to pay particular attention to the fringe area because you will be creating a fringe for the finished look.
Facial features and face shape
The shape of your client’s face and head are unique. Use your observation skills to identify their individual features.
Your haircut should enhance their good features, eg their eyes and cheek bones, and disguise their less attractive features, eg a heavy jaw or big nose.
The different face shapes are:
Hair-growth patterns
You need to take your client’s hair growth pattern into consideration when you are cutting their hair because some patterns influence how a cut is carried out. The most common ones are:
If your client has any of these growth patterns, you should cut without using pressure to allow for the natural movement of the hair.
You may need to cut the sections of hair within the growth patterns longer than the rest of the hair. This allows for the movement of the hair as it springs back to how it falls naturally. The hair looks level even though it has not been cut level.
Quality of hair
The quality of hair means the condition. Good quality hair is easy to style. Hair that is thin and brittle is more difficult so you will need to use styling agents such as mousse or gel.
Quantity
Quantity refers to the density of hair – how much hair is on the head and how thick or fine the hair shape is.
These factors are important when you are thinking about the balance and control of a hair style. For example, it is easy to show volume on thick hair. On thin hair it is more difficult so you need to use styling gels and mousses.
When you are applying chemical treatments, the thickness of your client’s hair will dictate how much product and what techniques you use. For example, fine hair can be more resistant to colour and perm treatments.
Texture
There are three types of hair texture:
The texture of your client’s hair affects the size of the sections you take. For thicker hair, you need finer sections to make sure the guideline is visible. You need to see the guideline to know exactly where to cut each section of hair.