Foundations of Layering Hair - 3 Different Elevations and How They Effect Weight Balance

hi friends Andrew Carruthers here education director for Sambia and welcome to another episode of artists studio today we want to share with something with you that we do in our hands-on classes pretty often and this is more of a study of elevation so we're not going to necessarily go through a specific haircut but if you follow along especially on another manikin head you're gonna have a much better understanding by the end of how the different kinds of elevation that we use in the lecture in patterns tends to affect our overall haircuts so we're gonna use Lydia here this is the mannequin head that pivot point co-developed for us you can get them at San Viacom and on Lydia we're going to break it into three different areas and we're gonna do three different elevations and see how do those three different elevations affect the distribution of weight top to bottom so I'm gonna get started get her sectioned off let's start layering so step one that you want to take care of is to part off the back portion of the mannequin head into three areas now there's a good reason that we didn't do this into the sides and it's because the density and the hairline changes so dramatically that if we continue the layering into the sides it's not going to give you a real clear comparison of the three different areas so only do your sections until right here at the hairline where the density changes but you want to have three fairly similar size sections so that there's a really fair comparison let's go to our front right and in the front right section we're going to start with very high elevation so we're going to just use kind of a static elevation which if we call 90 degrees it's vertical which is your classic kind of square layer type of elevation where you're taking this section and you're elevating it up straight vertical straight up to the ceiling and we're going to get the this point here on top we're gonna grab the six and a quarter-inch streamline series shear we're gonna cut everything fairly blunt so we don't need a super long shear here but I do tend to like a little bit of length on this year just so that way we get a nice clean cut all the way across the top of this section so again our elevation is going to be straight up vertical straight towards the ceiling we're gonna just take that entire section as a condensed section we're not incredibly concerned with high precision at this point because we just want to get more of a sense of what these three elevations do and how they distribute weight top to the bottom so we get that whole section if you don't have big monkey hands like I do it's fine for you to go through and subsection this into slightly smaller pieces just so it's a little easier to handle but I got big old paws so I'm I'm just gonna grab the whole thing so we're going to take it fairly short so that we can definitely see the result and we're just gonna cut one across that top with just a nice horizontal cutting line not following the head shape just very flat with the floor again this is something very typical that we do as a hairdresser so we tried to choose three things that we do commonly within hairdressing to make the comparison so that's gonna be your first area and that's gonna be that back right segment the next one is going to be the center so as you take out your your Clips oh I almost forgot make sure you clip off to the hair that you just cut you want to do that so that you don't pick some pieces up and include it into the next section the next section the center section now we're going to do another very typical thing that we do which is follow the natural head shape we'll use the length that we cut at the top on the first section as our beginning length that ever thing else is going to be disconnected of course because it's not going to match the elevation of the previously cut section so we'll take the section clip out we're using the dry sectioning clips that we have and mainly just so that they don't create a big old crease in the hair so this next section again we're going to work more 90 degrees to the head shape and we'll take just a tiny little piece at the very top from that previous section you can see that right there we'll include that into the top of the next section this might be a little unorthodox for you to start the layer from the top but do not worry again looking for the effect not necessarily trying to perfect our technique right now so you can see the elevation is 90 degrees to the actual shape of the head and our cutting line will also be 90 degrees to the shape of the head so we're following that natural curvature of the head think about this just like the 90 degrees state board haircut that you all probably have to do to pass your state board test so just be cautious to continue to work very parallel to the head shape with the elevation and cut to that natural head shape as you work lower and lower if we start to cut down into the actual perimeter no big deal that's permissible and again mainly just because we're looking to have that nice comparison of what happens between the three different types of elevation we're pretty much connecting right to the perimeter so good guess Andrew nice work we'll just check through that real quick make sure we're nice and balanced top to bottom that looks great to me so we'll leave it take our clip and place it into that section one more time so you hold it out of the way now the third section this back left section this one's a little funny but it's something that again we do very often in layering hair so the first one we did what we like to call them I neither is vertical which is kind of straight up towards the ceiling on this third section the final section we are going to elevate to something that we call ninety degrees horizontal and we do this a lot in the salon thinking okay we're layering the hair we take all the hair we hold it parallel with the floor and we cut a straight line here technically if you follow the Gaussian kind of terminology everything above here isn't necessarily even layered because it's below 90 degrees and because of the finger angle here it's cutting short too long at the top this is kind of technicalities because in general this is a way that we tend to layer hair within a salon so that's why we included it in this process and it's really going to help you to understand how your elevation affects your shape on this third one we don't want to use the top as the guide mainly because it's going to end up extremely short in relationship to the rest of the hair so what we're going to do instead is we're gonna create a guide in the middle of the section because that's gonna be the shortest point of this type of layering don't get too worried about the why at the moment well that works out really nice because it's basically the length of my comb so comb length we're gonna go right into the middle of the section here we're gonna hold that parallel with the floor we'll measure out to the end of the comb and we're going to just give ourselves now I always like to go just a tiny bit longer than the actual guide just because that way we can always cut back into the guide just slightly from there the elevation again is going to be in what we call 90 degrees horizontal which just basically means that the hair is being held parallel to the floor there's my guide I am gonna go just slightly shorter because I know that I left myself that buffer everything's being over directed just to the center of the section it's a fairly wide section but again we're not super worried about the over direction factor with this particular practice we're more looking to understand what elevation and even our finger angle does because the finger angle is changing in each of these shapes as well last section just be cautious to make sure that the over directions consistent in top to bottom so that it doesn't get all wonky and show you something completely different and again just comb through that double check for consistency now go ahead and set your shears down and let's look at what we have here so let's let look at them piece by piece the last section that we did one that's ninety degrees horizontal you can really see that at the top of this section you're actually entering into more of graduation and the reason you can see that is you can see that little bit of weight line and start to build at the top of your layers now this is really good to see because it tells you two things number one if this was on purpose you wanted to build some weight towards the top of the layers where the top surface didn't get very hit or sorry very light but you wanted to keep a little bit of heaviness at the top of the layers and collapse more in the middle then this type of elevation is pretty key for that exact technique the other reason we feel like this is something really good to notice is that very often in the salon one of the questions that we get asked is why do I struggle with getting weight at the top of my layer that I seem to have to texturize out of the haircut later most often if we watch someone cut layers that are getting heavier at the top it's usually due to the fact that as they get to the top portion of the haircut they're holding that section at a low elevation versus either following the head shape or going up to a higher elevation and that will cause that weight at the top of the layers so whether it was on purpose or not on purpose this shows you what happens when we do this so let's go to section 2 we'll clip that out of the way just for now just so we can look at each section piece by piece then we'll come down next to each other as one final look so in comparison if you look at this section you're going to notice that yeah you can kind of see whether the layers stop at the top but there's not a heaviness there's not a weight line to this so this was that section only did it all at 90 degrees to the head shape and in fact if you look at this top to bottom and let's look at it even from kind of a profile view you'll see that it has that roundness to it that mimics the head shape so 90 degrees is the elevation especially if we're following with our finger angle because that adds to it as well that's the elevation that's gonna give us the most balanced layering pattern top to bottom in the most even distribution of weight let's go to the first one that we cut which was the 90 degrees vertical so as we cone that down what we're going to notice is that you're probably not going to see a big start and finish point because these layers are very very soft on the very top that much elevation because it has to travel so far back down to reach its natural fall it softens itself quite a bit so the higher the elevation the more we're removing weight from the top but also remember the higher the elevation even if you're cutting blunt because it has to fall further to reach its natural fall it's also gonna soften the shape corded that it's gonna soften the texture so with this we'll see that we have very very short texture on top but then the layers kind of drop off quickly you can see that the layers don't really exist too far down past about that point and then it quickly builds into our perimeter so at very high elevations we take the weight away from the top surface but leave the density towards the perimeter at very low elevation we're gonna see more density removed from the perimeter and building the weight towards the top of the section and then if we follow the head shape with it and I new degrees this one is going to keep us more balance to the head shape and give us a more balanced distribution of weight top to bottom so let's take all three out and now just especially if you've worked on this at home mannequin head just kind of comb through each section section by section and notice how different that falls it's very cool so let's think about what types of hair these might be most beneficial to if I'm working on a fine haired guest in the salon and think about where fine haired guests want to keep the most density it's at the perimeter right so if they want to keep the most density at the perimeter and then the other opposite problem that our fine haired guests have is that they tend not to get much body into their hair and naturally so think about which of those three types of elevation by elevation head shaped elevation or low elevation which one is going to distribute weight best for a fine haired guest that wants the most lightness at the top and leave more density in the perimeter good guess it's that first one that we did the higher elevation because as we can see that gives us that lightness on the surface so if they hit it with a round brush or a curling iron a little bit of hairspray they have the ability to add some fullness into the air without sacrificing the density in the perimeter so let's go with the opposite direction let's say we have someone that has very thick hair or hair that likes to expand a lot if they don't want the hair to be as full they don't want a ton of volume at the top but they more complain that they kind of have that triangle head right where it's kind of flat at top and then it comes out and it gets really cool at the bottom which of these three the high elevation low elevation are following the head do you think might benefit that type of guest most we would tend to say him or the lower elevation you could potentially do the 90 degree as well because that's gonna distribute the weight more evenly top to bottom that might be good if you do still in a little bit of a shorter layer to the top so that they have a little bit of bounce through the top but think about it this way especially on a curly or a coarse haired guest this top wants to kind of pick itself up on its own so if we leave a little bit of weight to it it'll distribute things more evenly and then it takes more weight away from that perimeter and through the center of the overall shape so it really affects that overall silhouette by collapsing in that area that's usually very but it also leaves a little weight up here to resist the attendance you have that type of hair it's a really kind of puff up and become a little too full now of course 90 degrees is a great elevation because it gives us a really great baseline to work from for a lot of different textures a lot of different haircuts just gives us a nice even balance and we can also combine these in different ways maybe it's starting 90 degrees but then you leave your elevation a little bit more flat with the floor so that it doesn't tuck in as much at the bottom there's lots of ways you can modify these it's not even that these three things are the only things that we can do it because we can really work between those different elevations in so many ways even in between the high elevation and the low elevation this is a very viable place to cut hair and we would challenge you to get and work with a mannequin head and try multiple different positions and also consider what does the finger angle do to the overall shape as well so we hope that really helps to take away some of the mystery behind what elevation to choose to really give your guests what they need behind the chair thinking about this in advance and thinking about how it's going to affect this silhouette and the density of the hair is so key to your end results if you have any questions reach out to us we always love to hear from you guys and thanks so much for watching I'm Andrea Carruthers back here again for you on the artist studio [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Sam Villa Hair Tutorials

Views: 179,535

Rating: 4.9124689 out of 5

Keywords: layers, layered haircut, how to cut layers in hair, choppy layered haircut, hair cutting styles, soft layered haircut, straight layered haircut, how to layer hair, layering hair, layers for thin hair, how to cut short layers, hair tutorial, how to cut hair, beauty, beauty tips, hair education, how to hair, hair, hairstyle, hair video, sam villa, sam villa education, redken, look allstars, hair tips, hair tricks, beauty salon, cosmetology

Id: jcyCBz981tw

Length: 19min 6sec (1146 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 02 2020