I finally stopped fighting with my shears during a dry cut

For a long time, I would spray a client's hair with water before a dry cut to 'control it', thinking it helped. Then I watched a stylist named Maria at a workshop in Sacramento, and she said, 'If you wet it, you're cutting a different shape than what you see.' She cut a client's dry, styled hair exactly as it was worn. I tried it on three clients this week, and the shape held so much better after they washed it. Has anyone else made this switch and found it changed how you approach a cut?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_anthony1mo ago

Yeah, that's the key right there. You're not just cutting hair, you're cutting how it naturally falls. Adding water changes the weight and bounce, so the shape you get isn't the real one. Dry cutting locks in the true movement.

piperbailey1mo ago

Exactly, and that's what @the_anthony is getting at with the real movement of the hair. I fought it for so long too, always misting it down out of habit. It felt wrong at first to leave it completely dry, like I wasn't in control. But you're not supposed to control it that way, you're supposed to follow it. The shape just sits right after because you cut it exactly as it lives.

knight.felix1mo ago

But what about hair that's always styled wet or with product? Cutting it dry seems like it would miss how it actually looks day to day. The real movement includes how you manage it, not just how it air dries.