Should you cut curly hair straight or curly?

When it comes to curly hair everyone and anyone that either has curly hair or has had to deal with curly knows that it's not the easiest of jobs. Why? Well, simply because for one, there are SO many different types of curls out there with their own individual pattern or as some may say a natural curl pattern and two is of course curly hair almost never sits the same as it did the day before. Which means some love it and some hate it!

As we all know most curly haired people, be it male or female, short or long, for or not, tend to wear their hair in their natural curly state. Let's be real, who can actually be bothered trying to tame a mane that was born to stand out and be different!? Which brings us to our whole point in this article. When it comes to cutting curly hair a hairdresser or barber really needs to know what they are doing before they go in full steam ahead cutting curls. Curls are more fragile than we think and need the utmost care taken when dealing with them.

Cutting curly hair straight

Cutting curly hair when it's straight may seem like it's a simple straight hair cut, but, in actual fact, it's not! It's completely different, because as soon as that curly hair is wet then the curls are back up doing their own thing taking their own shape and form. Picture this - Your client comes in with those crazy curls and is asking for a trim and a reshape to get her curls sitting nice again. So off you go and shampoo your clients hair and blow dry it straight ready to cut as you would straight hair. Your client goes home happy at the time until she/he has to wash their hair and the curls come back and there is NO nice shape to the cut at all! It looks chunky and a lot shorter than they anticipated. So they come back complaining which is not what we want!

Now, rewind back to the start and do it all over again - but this time you cut the curly hair wet. While yes it may take a little longer to ensure everything is even, as the hair springs back up you can see the curls all sitting in their natural state, leaving you to create the perfect shape for the crazy unruly curls. HOWEVER, this is not always the case. We have all come to accept that curls are in a world of their own and sometimes just sometimes the curly hair may respond well to cutting the curly hair straight. Although not recommended, if you are daring enough then please feel free to see if your curly haired client has the lucky curls that behave no matter which way you cut the hair.

OR the absolute last exception of cutting curly hair straight, is basically if your curly haired client never ever wears their curly hair curly and always straightens their hair. Yes, their hair would potentially have loads of heat damage, but hey if that's how they want to deal with their locks then who are we to judge!? At least they came for a haircut!

Cutting curly hair curly

Cutting curly hair curly is ALWAYS the best option. If you read above, do we really need to explain why? Well we're going to anyway. If you didn't already know, it's not really recommended to brush or comb curly hair when it's dry, because, well, hello frizzy fro! So when cutting curly hair we recommend to either wet the hair down with a spray bottle or better yet shampoo the hair so it's all consistently wet.

Cutting curly hair in its own natural form allows you to see where the hair is going to fall or take to its shape as long as the hair is wet of course and hopefully freshly shampooed. With every cut you make you'll need to make sure when stretching out the hair with each section, make sure to keep the tension not too tight and consistent. This will help to keep the haircut not only even but also will keep the curl intact so that you don't stretch out too much tension of the curl. Taking care of the curls from the get go should be number one priority on your list before making any cuts.

Once finished we recommend to dry the hair with a diffuser or let the curls dry naturally so you can then make any final touch ups you may need. Why do you ask? Well because when curly hair dries it looks nothing like it did when it was wet. So like any good hair stylist you can then check over your work and do any further touch ups if need be.

Curly VS Straight?

So which one should it be? Whether it's a trim or a complete restyle we recommend cutting those curls when the hair is curly and of course wet if possible - better yet, freshly shampooed with conditioner. Now of course we're not ruling out straight hair cutting at all, we're just saying to choose your techniques wisely before making your choice on what type of curl you cut straight or curly. Happy cutting our curly haired friends!