Precise Hair Cuts...

If you're going to blah blah blah to your client about how you like doing military hair cuts, you might want to make sure you do the as precisely as the client is asking for.

Something I've learned:  When a guy asks for a "high & tight", he's done military time or is a police officer, which means A) he's had this cut a million times and knows what he's looking at (which means you can't bullshit him) B) he's a bit of a perfectionist and wants this hair cut done right.  Take your time and do it correctly.

What does this mean, in case you didn't get my meaning??  Well, it means establishing where the guard change in your hair cut is going to occur, discussing exactly how long the top (where the only length to the hair cut actually is) needs to be, the shape of  the hair line in the back and the clean up around the ears , as well, need to be precise.  Get where I'm going with this yet??

When you do the initial cutting of the longer hair on top, and the desired length is "finger length", you can't just cut it in one direction and call it good.  Nor can you walk away from that hair cut without checking the "corners" to make sure you left no unnecessary length behind.  What "corners" am I speaking about??  The ones at the front of your hair line...kind of the "bang" (fringe) area.  If there's any length left behind, not only does that hair cut look incomplete right then and there, guess what it looks like as it grows out?? 

What you must do when cutting the length is this cut is cross check it...if you start vertical, check it horizontal, THEN check it on the diagonal.  There will be weight points (hair that was missed) EVERY WHERE.  It's also important, and this was taught in beauty school, to not cut hair past your second knuckle.  Why??  Two reasons.  1) you're more likely to cut your knuckle or the web of your fingers...NOT a pleasant feeling. 2) That's also where your hand is likely to curve to rest your wrist on their head to keep the angle of your hand where it needs to be.  Which, in turn, creates a curve (and a weight point) in the hair cut.  When you're cutting at the round of the head, you actually WANT this....when you're cutting the top, where it's supposed to be flat, not so much.

Thankfully, I saved the hair cut.  Whether or not this man comes back to get his hair cut with us again remains to be seen.  I made sure to chat it up with him, and to be friendly, just to help things along. I also made sure to ask him what he wanted and paid attention to the details to make the hair cut happen.  The lines of the hair cut were there, just not complete.