Rachel Peters Talk Shop: Cutting Bangs is a Critical Skill

by Rachel Peters Talks Shop on Monday, February 8th, 2010

Rachel Peters has been a stylist in Austin, TX for nine years. She has worked in salons and spas of all kinds specializing in hair cutting, coloring, and on-site wedding hair & makeup in Central Texas. Rachel blogs about interesting new trends in the salon industry and life as a CurlStylist. Other interests include karaoke, mustaches, and YouTube kittens. For questions, comments or to schedule a consultation, visit Lovely Day Hair & Makeup.

Bangs
Are that on which the world hangs
I’m only holding your hand so I can look at your bangs
- They Might Be Giants “Bangs”

short blunt bangs

Ah yes, bangs. Fringe, wisps. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, but no matter what, stylists have to learn to cut them correctly. Nothing says “deal-breaker” quicker than a client whose hair stylist can’t cut her bangs. In my first year as a stylist, I worked at the mall. Ugh. I ran into a lot of characters, some of my most loyal clients, and some clients you’d expect from … the mall. One such client was a woman who came in for a cut and style. She had dark, waist-length, permed hair with the biggest poof of teased bangs I’d ever seen. Now, this was not twenty years ago. This was 2003. This woman had been rocking ’80s bangs for quite some time. So I, like any conceited, young stylist, tried to gently nudge her into the 21st century.

I began by asking her how much she would like trimmed, how she typically styled her hair each day (which involved a can of Paul Mitchell’s Sculpting Foam and a gallon of Freeze & Shine), and if she had ever thought about wearing her bangs to the side. The answer was a gentle “no,” so I kept prodding. I trimmed the ends, added some layers, and casually trimmed the bangs. I didn’t make any sudden changes, because my plan was only to style the bangs differently. You know, just to show her how to love herself again by unveiling her true beauty…again conceited, young stylist.

long blunt bangs

After scrunching the permed ends (always a painful memory), I took a medium round brush and blow dryer and swept the bangs over to one side. She eyed me in the mirror, and I was imagining she thought I was a genius. But without missing a beat, she snatched that brush out of my hand, picked up a hot 1″ curling iron from another stylist’s station, and went to town on her brown poof. This was not her first merry-go-round. She yanked one section back, clamped one section forward, and teased the two together into one clump of a rat’s nest. It looked like she pulled a wad of hair out of a dirty brush, rubbed it in a dog’s bed, and stuck it to her forehead. “There,” she barked, “maybe that’ll teach you a thing or two about fixin’ hair.”

I couldn’t believe it. I could feel my face flush and my heart begin to race. And before I could stop myself I heard the words coming out of my mouth. “Well, I’m sorry. I didn’t learn to do hair in 1982.”

You could have heard a pin drop. Needless to say, she did not become a loyal, returning client.

Learning to cut bangs correctly can be daunting. A lot can depend on the texture and color of the hair. There are a few basic rules to follow:

1. For blunt bangs, rely on shears perpendicular to the forehead. No angling or the fringe will have layers.And if you’re going blunt, stick with super long or super short bangs. None of this “in-between” nonsense.
2. Sideswept bangs are a delicate art. Don’t simply cut straight bangs and push them to one side. Learn to over-direct the hair to the opposite side you intend the hair to sweep. If the client wants bangs sweeping to the left, I like to stand on her right. I pull the entire section towards the right side of her face and cut straight across. This creates a diagonal line where the right side is the shortest point and the left is the longest, hence the sweep.


“wispy” bangs

3. “Wispy” bangs, or bangs that are so transparent you can see the client’s forehead underneath, are OUT OF STYLE.

Wait a few more years, and they’ll come back in style.

If you’re working with a cowlick, first try to coax the client away from bangs all together. If that doesn’t work, try a sideswept bang where the majority of the hair rests on the cowlick and “weighs it down.”

Take the time to learn and bangs can become a breeze.