P's cut

It’s another real cut!

The Client

P is a middle-aged man working in one of the campus cafes. He has a square face and salt-and-pepper hair that was starting to get shaggy when he arrived. P asked for short sides and back with a longer top, and specifically complained about his previous barber leaving him with a messy neckline and some oddly long hanks of hair on one side in the back.

I was immediately struck by how much hair P had. It was coarse (a clear type 1c) and very densely packed on the scalp. Even pushing it around, you almost couldn’t see his skin through it. He also had multiple cowlicks, a nape whorl, and a lot of motion at his crown, which explained the odd long bits: they followed the spiral around and down at its lowest point.

P also had a hard out that meant the cut really needed to be done in an hour. I didn’t feel too afraid of such a generous time limit.

The Cut

I’ve been told by my own barbers that my hair is quite thick. P’s hair was at least twice as thick as mine, but the features were otherwise quite similar, so I felt confident in my ability to work with them.

Since P hadn’t requested a fade, I went in with the clippers without much hesitation. I tapered down slightly from the occipital bone to create a more natural shape and give him more time before the hair got long in the back. I wasted some time tapering the neck and trimming around the ears early (more on that later). I scissor cut the top, following the travel of the hair rather than trying to create the perfect rectangular top section of our training videos. I did leave the area around the crown a bit longer to prevent any bits sticking straight out, but took care not to leave it so long he’d end up with great hanks of hair like before.

The real challenge was the blending. P’s hair was so dense and so highly directed. Taking sections with my fingers quickly became a fool’s errand. I used clipper over comb. I used scissor over comb. I called over my instructor to get her advice and did both all over again. I picked up and cut the hair any and every which way, with multiple cross-checks. It worked, but it was slow, and for a cut that really shouldn’t have taken so much time. Looking back at the photos, I can still see a visible ridge where the clippers stopped and the scissors began, but I’m not sure what more I could’ve done without really overworking the area or creating different problems.

Finally, I cleaned up the neckline and around the ears with trimmers (again, more on that later), and completed a nondescript one-length beard trim.

The Styling

We were running short on time for styling, so I decided once again to stick with my own preferences: some paste to get the cowlicks to lie with the rest of the hair and some sea salt spray for texture. In this case, they were perfectly appropriate for P’s thick and stubborn hair.

The Takeaway

P was happy with the cut (edit: he even talked me up to other staff at the cafe!), and so am I! But I think this cut mainly taught me about the importance of correctly structuring my time.

Take the neckline. I like the result I achieved! I also have a combined cowlick and nape whorl, so I know the best solution is to shave those areas and create a faded or tapered neckline above them to maximize the amount of time before things start getting wild back there. That had been my intention, but because I wasted time doing it early and then got nudged to clean it up more when time was running short, I ended up creating a rounded neckline instead because it was quicker. It looks great in that photo, but I know I could’ve given P something with more longevity if I’d planned correctly.

I think I fixate on the neckline and around the ears because these are the specific areas that bother me enough to go in for a haircut, but there’s no need to cut them early! Trimmers at the end take care of those areas better than scissors or clippers can, and with less risk of nicking the client.

I also want to practice my clipper and over-comb techniques more. The less time I spend fussing with my scissors, the faster my cuts will get. I should get back to those speed drills I’ve been doing.

But I’m being very self-critical. The result was good! The client was really happy with it! I just never feel content saying that and moving on.