How To Add Layers To Your Blunt Cut Without Losing Any Length
A blunt cut can go two ways. You can either look incredibly chic or 10 years older than you actually are. Personally, my blunt cut had me feeling hopeless. Once my blunt bob grew passed my shoulders, my cut looked way more mom-like than it did chic. I wanted to add style to my heavy hair, but I worried about losing any of my hard earned length.
Have you ever heard of “back-cutting?” Don’t worry, I hadn’t either. Created by Franck Izquierdo, owner of IGK Salon New York, Miami, and L.A., “back-cutting” is a technique that allows hairstylists to cut internal layers into the hair. And Howard Reyes, celebrity hairstylist at IGK Salon, explained to me how he could use said technique to take the weight off my blunt cut without removing any length.
“You don’t need to have Farrah Fawcett layers to have movement,” he said. I told him to go for it, obviously. Here’s the before (L) and after (R):
Howard blowdried my hair straight and sectioned it off in between the front and back, just like any wet haircut. He made two sections in the back, pinched together all of the weight in one area, and teased my hair using thinning sheers. He combed the excess hair he had just cut, and repeated those steps until my haircut was finished.
During my haircut, Howard bestowed even more hair knowledge upon me. See what he had to say about “back-cutting,” blunt cuts, and products below.
How does one know when it’s time to update a blunt cut?
I think the best time to change a blunt cut is as soon as it hits the shoulders, and then some. When it sits like a broom, heavy, it has nowhere to move. It can make your head look like a bell, and that’s not a good look.
Why’d you cut my hair when it was dry instead of wet?
So I could see the true nature of the hair! I could see if there were any waves or cowlicks. I could see the true weight of the hair. Wet hair lies to you. Everybody’s hair looks thinned out when it’s wet. When it’s dry, it expands. It was just the most honest way for me to see how your hair laid.
What products were used to achieve my final look?
I used R+Co Park Avenue throughout the hair to give it shine and get it ready for me to cut. Then I used a little bit of R+Co Dallas at the root just to give it lift. I finished with R+Co Death Valley, which is a dry shampoo I used to break up the little bit of iron work I did on your hair. So, I was blowdrying your hair and adding the R+Co Death Valley so it could be evenly distributed. It gave it a more rock n’ roll, sexy look.
Say you’re getting a bad haircut, how can you tell if the stylist is removing length you don’t want removed?
If somebody wants to remove weight, and they add external layers, it’s going to take off some length. There’s so many ways to remove weight internally these days. “Back-cutting” gives an illusion. When you comb it all down, your hair looks like it’s all one length.
Follow Howard on Instagram.
