Flipped and Curled Layers

Hairdresser styling hair — Photo: Dean Bertoncelj/Shutterstock

Q: I recently got a layered haircut. The longest layer is like 2 inches past my shoulder and the shortest layer is about an inch or 2 past my chin. Well, the woman who did it did a wonderful job. She styled it beautifully! The problem is, I cannot figure out for the life of me how she did it. I’ve been doing it over and over and it won't come out right.

Somehow she made the bottom layers flip out, and they flipped perfectly and the top layers were curled in. She did all this just using a round brush and hairdryer, and I bought the same product she used in it while I was at the shop, but anyways. It just looks like the curled in top layers, and then an inch underneath flipped out layers, so cute, but can’t get it right.

Please let me know if you know how she did this. Everytime I try to flip the bottom out they either curl to the side, go straight or go under.

A: Well, your stylist had a few advantages over you:

First: she styles hair for at least 8 hours a day every day for however many years she has been practicing. Naturally, she’s going to have a knack for making the hair behave the way she wants it to. She’s also going to have the experience to make it look really easy.

Second: she has the advantage of being able to work on your hair at an angle of view that is easier to deal with. You, on the other hand, can’t see the back of your head without a mirror (in fact, you need two mirrors to see the back of your head) and you have a much smaller range of motion and ease of reach in relationship to your head than your stylist would have.

Now, what do you do to resolve your problem? The answer is to simply go back to your stylist and tell her that you need her to show you how to style your hair the way she did it. This is typically a part of the service for which you pay and should have been handled at the time your hair was cut.

In most “new haircut” situations a stylist’s client falls into one of two categories: the one who wants to do it exactly the way you did it when you created the style, and the one who will immediately restyle the cut to suit him/her after you finish. The second group tends to outnumber the first group by such a significant amount that a stylist can easily forget to explain what he or she is doing to your hair as they work.

I would love to be able to give you a few simple instructions here and resolve your problems, but it is truly better for you to learn from the stylist who created the look for you. I wish you the best of luck.

©Hairfinder.com

See also:

Styling technique for a basic blowout

How can I give my hair flipped out ends?

Can you explain how to cut hair to achieve a flick up at the sides and bottom?

Talents and skills to become a good hairdresser