How to Craft a Dope Hair Shape in 2023
Shape = style. We’re encouraging you all to partner with licensed professionals to explore dope hair shapes for the New Year. And let us set the record straight—cutting curls most of the time doesn’t mean taking off significant length. A Cut is just a refinement, a polishing of the hair. This blog post will provide inspo for different shapes for short, medium and longer lengths.
What Haircut Is For You?
The one you want to show up in the world with. Your face shape doesn't matter. Your body size/shape doesn’t matter. Your age doesn’t matter. What does matter is how you want to been seen by the world around you and what your current hair budget is.
One of our Cut It Kinky Mentor Stylists, Sonnie @silkedbysonnie, introduced the concept of hair budget to us. So, what is Hair Budget?
“It’s an estimate of length, density, and texture as it pertains to achieving specific haircuts, sets, and styles. What we as hair care professionals can do with the hair that you bring to the salon.”
Your hair budget is based on the following:
Condition of the cuticle: Has your cuticle been compromised by over manipulation, abuse from alternative styling, dehydrating care practices, or 6+ months without any end maintenance (a haircut)?
Varied lengths: Have you experienced breakage due to cuticle damage? Has the hair been cut in a manner that has left holes, divets, dog ears, and mullets when worn in its natural + curly state? Can we create an overall cohesion (note that we did not say evenness) with the shape of your hair in its natural + curly state?
Expectations of finished result: Do you have everything you need to carry your desired finished result? If you have fine hair, it will not have the same finished result as someone with coarse hair even with the exact same steps taken in the cutting and styling. Same with having an inspiration model with hydrated hair that has intact cuticles when your hair has been in braids constantly for 12 months and you weren’t cleansing/conditioning while they were in your hair. If you are not where you want to be to carry your desired finished result, having a realistic timeframe and care commitment to shift the condition of your hair or grow a new head of hair will be imperative.
What Is a Taper Cut?
A tapered haircut typically starts out longer at the top of your head and gets shorter as you go down the natural hairline on the nape and sides of your hair. Tapers can be tight and angular, soft and longer or rounded.
A taper or a short style in general requires a consistent schedule for maintenance cuts, which could be every 6 to 8 weeks depending on how short or tight you’d like to keep it. Depending on how the hair is cut and how individuals likes to wear their hair, setting and styling this cut may be required every 4 to 7 days.
Tight & Angular Taper
Cut It Kinky Class Model
Long and Soft Taper
Styled by Cut It Kinky Alumni Stylist, @shelbyrosecurls
Short & Round Taper
Styled by Cut It Kinky Alumni Stylist, @giviniv
What Is a Bob?
A bob is a length of hair from mid ear to collarbone. Truthfully, most of the clients we see in the salon are in bob length territory. A bob can have multiple shapes from sharply angular to a perfectly round circle, and anything in-between. Bobs can have sharp angles, soft angles or be rounded with a short crown
Bob with Sharp Angles
Cut It Kinky class model
Bob with softer angles
Cut It Kinky class model
Round bob with short crown
Cut It Kinky class model
Angles in Curly Cuts
We often hear our community members stating that they hate the sharp lines in curly cuts. Let us let you in on a professional hairstylist secret, every single haircut has lines and angles. What you are seeing on social media pages of curl stylists are photos of flat day 1 hair.
The head is round, so as the style lives life, the hair rounds out with purpose. If you are not a fan of high and sharp angles, you can opt for lower, softer angles during the consultation with your curl stylist.
What Is Long Curly Hair?
Our perspective of long curly hair, is hair that reaches your collarbone and beyond. Longer lengths can be one length, have long and soft layers or avant garde—which is a short crown with lots of layers throughout. Truthfully speaking, we don’t see many clients with longer lengths in the salon
.
The reason for this is that many clients we see are actually in the beginning stages of their natural hair journeys, as they may have previously followed hair care practices that weren’t the most beneficial. This could include heavily using oils and butters, frequently wearing protective styles and shampooing infrequently which can often result in dehydration, holes from breakage, damage from heat, over-manipulation, hair loss challenges and more.
As a hairstylist, there’s only so much we can do in one salon session. A curly cut cannot change the condition of the hair that was initially brought into the salon. First time salon clients are often in a corrective cutting phase for 6-24 months depending on the circumstances of their hair. When partnering with a stylist for the first time, it’s important that we set realistic expectations from the very beginning.
We are born with all of the hair follicles we will ever have and there is no product or medication that gives us more follicles than God, our mamas, and our daddies gave us.
Long one length cut
Styled by @legendarycurlsatl
Long soft and layered cut
Styled by @legendarycurlsatl
Avant garde cut
Styled by @curlsbysusieswaner
Be sure to check out our Pinterest page to draw inspiration for your next salon appointment that includes styling of all lengths—many stylists that are actually directly from our Cut It Kinky Alumni Stylist Directory.
Still not sure of what kind of shape to get? In our digital consumer education platform, The SeeSomeCurls Visual Library, we provide detailed troubleshooting help for tight curlies + naturals for hair cutting, styling, how to partner with licensed professionals and much more.
Our 1.1K+ course community of tight curl + naturals are shaving more than 50% of time off their wash day, being showered left and right with hair compliments, and are receiving direct support of a very encouraging community of tight curlies + naturals who have been exactly where you are.
