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Designing the Hair
The result begins before the tool touches the hair.
You have learned to read a face and set up your space. Now you learn to read hair. This part sits on the DESIGN section of the Spine, the decisions you make before you ever pick up a tool.
Reading Hair
These variables are independent. Never use one as a shortcut for another.
Before you design anything, you read the hair. Not as one impression, but as a set of separate variables. Each one tells you something different about how this hair will behave, and none of them stands in for another.
Read separately
- Strand diameter / texture, fine, medium or coarse.
- Density, how much hair exists in a given area.
- Pattern, straight, wavy, curly or coily. Don't make detailed curl-number classification the primary model.
- Condition, chemical history, heat history, breakage, elasticity, fragility, surface condition.
- Porosity, how readily the fibre absorbs and loses moisture.
Pattern, strand diameter, density, condition and porosity are different variables. "Fine hair" and "thin hair" are not the same thing.
Structure of a strand
- Cuticle, outer overlapping scales; governs shine, smoothness and grip.
- Cortex, strength, elasticity, curl; holds a heat-set.
- Medulla, soft core, not always present; little styling impact.
Cuticle and backcombing wording. Don't teach backcombing as simply "lifting the cuticle, then closing it." Teach: backcombing creates friction and mechanical interlocking between fibres, producing grip and volume. Aggressive backcombing increases friction and can damage the fibre surface, use only the amount needed and remove it gently. Surface smoothing improves alignment and finish appearance; it does not literally "shut the cuticle like roof shutters."
Fine and high-porosity hair drops a curl fastest; read texture and porosity at the trial and you'll know exactly how to prep.
Client A: fine strand and high density. Client B: coarse strand and low density. "Why do 'fine hair' and 'thin hair' not mean the same thing?"
- Strand diameter
- The thickness of an individual hair, fine, medium or coarse. A property of the single fibre, not of how much hair there is.
- Density vs bulk
- Density is how much hair exists in a given area; it is separate from strand diameter. Fine strands at high density are not the same as thin hair.
- Porosity
- How readily the fibre absorbs and loses moisture. High-porosity hair takes and loses a set fastest.
- Elasticity
- The cortex property that lets hair stretch and recover; part of reading condition and how well a set will hold.
- Pattern
- The natural shape of the hair, straight, wavy, curly or coily. Read it as a variable, not as a curl-number classification system.
A bride's hair is soft and hard to keep volume in, and you catch yourself calling it "fine hair." She actually has fine strands but a very high density of them. What has gone wrong in your reading?