I had a client the other day who came to me for the first time. She was a beautiful woman in her mid-20s, and when she sat down in my chair I admired her curly hair. All curly girls have a unique curl pattern and like most curly girls, she had different curl types throughout her head. She had loose (2B) curls at the nape of her neck, medium size (2C) curls at the crown of her head, and tighter (3A) curls framing her face. I love this variance in curl texture and told her that I thought her hair was beautiful. Too me, the variance in curl pattern is what makes curly hair so attractive. Your curl pattern is as unique as your fingerprint, and no one else has your exact curl pattern.
“I hate the curls around my face,” was the first thing she said. I examined the way her hair had been cut before and I could see why she was frustrated. The tighter curls around her face sprung up higher than the looser curls below them and created a “shelf”. All curly girls hate “the shelf” which looks like an upside down letter “L” on the side of their head.
“It seems like I always have these shelves on the side of my head,” she said in exasperation. “Can you please get rid of them?” she pleaded.
I explained to her why her hair formed a shelf. It is common mistake that hairstylists make who don’t understand how to cut curly hair that has differing curl patterns throughout the head.
There are three primary reasons why a shelf is created in curly hair. The first and most common mistake that hairstylists make that creates a shelf, is cutting curly hair when it is wet. The problem with cutting curly hair when it is wet is that there is no way for the hairstylists to see how high the different curls will spring up when they are dry. And the problem is made even worse if some curls are tighter than others, because the tight curls will spring up higher than the looser curls. If the curls that frame the face are tighter than the curls below them, this is a guaranteed way to create a shelf.
The second way that a shelf is created is when all the hair is directed straight up and the hair is cut square to the top of the head. Unless you are Sasquatch and you have long hair growing on your ears and on your cheeks, then cutting your hair this way will always result in a shelf on the sides of your head. To avoid this, the hair that frames your face must be left out and cut separately from the hair that is directed upward.
I will discuss the third mistake later. So back to my client with her unwanted hair shelf problem. To eliminate her shelves, I first framed her face by taking diagonal sections from her part to her ear, directing her curls slightly forward and down and cutting with zero tension. Then I moved to the back of her head to cut her looser 2B curls. I took horizontal partings from her nape and worked my way up the back of her head always cutting with zero tension until I was satisfied with the density of the perimeter of her hair. Then I began elevating her hair and continued cutting her slightly tighter 2c curls, again using no tension. I proceeded in this way up to the top of her head being careful to leave out the curls that I had already cut around her face.
After shampooing, conditioning and styling her hair curly, I asked her to stand up so I could do some finishing touches on her haircut. Forgetting to do this part of the haircut is the third reason that a shelf is not spotted and eliminated. I asked her to stand up, and then flip her head forward allowing her hair to hang down. I looked at her hair from this angle and cut any extraneous curls that I may have missed in the earlier part of the haircut. Then I asked her to tilt her head to each side so I could make sure that her curls fall nicely along the side of her face and the tighter curls blend in nicely with the looser ones. If there is a shelf there, then this is a sure way to spot it.
I then asked her to sit back down in the chair, applied some Natulique Organic Ultra Shine Spray and handed her a mirror so that she could look at her new haircut.
“I love it! The shelf is gone!” she exclaimed happily.
Mission accomplished.
