Triangles—how do they relate to hair?
You may recall Sam first spoke about triangles in the popular haircut DVD CutOuts – Everything You need to Know About Cutting Fine Hair. In this haircut, Sam used triangles to create movement and hidden texture to make fine hair appear fuller!
Fast forward to today. The Sam Villa Arteam used Triangles in the Modern Heritage Collection, especially the technique we present to you today, Triangular Pinch which is a creative and simple hair cutting technique.
Let’s begin by reviewing several techniques to get movement out of a haircut to control our outcome:
- Elevation: Up and down movement.
- Over Direction: Front to back movement.
- Finger Angle: In and out movement.
One of the coolest and easiest techniques we can utilize in over direction is the Triangular Pinch; creating a large (or small) triangle section and ‘pinching’ the over direction into the center of that triangle. Keep in mind the smaller the triangle the less movement in our end result.
Let’s think about a triangle in terms of the wide area and the pointed area. You have less over direction within the point area of the triangle and more over direction within the wide area. We position the triangle on this model with the point at the high point of the head and the wide area sits just above the occipital. Why do we position the triangle this way? We want to create a radiation of length toward the outside corners of the widest part of the triangle. Can’t you almost visualize it happening without actually seeing it?
Tools of Choice:
- Professional 7” Dry Cutting Shear.
- Why this shear? When taking condensed sections we need a shear that will get through more mass of hair so the section of hair we are cutting is not pushed within the blade of the shear. The 7” shear is designed with raised ridges on both blades for more stability and control and will allow the hair to stay put while closing the blades. This shear can be used on wet or dry hair.
- Professional Long Cutting Comb in Black.
- Why this comb? We always want to use a contrasting colored comb for the hair color we are working with; black comb for lighter hair, ivory comb for darker hair. The contrast between the comb and the hair keeps us on track and allows for better visualization to what we are cutting.
Cutting the Triangle:
- Section out a triangle with the point at the top of the head and the wide area moving toward the back of the head.
- Comb the hair vertically and over direct both sides of the triangle to the center of the section.
NOTE: Notice the top/pointed end of the triangle has very little over direction and the wide area has a lot of over direction.
- Come into the section with the 7” Shear and cut a straight clean line.
- Release the hair and crosscheck to see the result.
Now you can actually see the perimeter of the triangle has a fair amount of length that creates a radial effect from the center outward. The result when dried is more movement throughout the triangle area. Due to the large size of this particular triangle you can clearly see the radiating length out toward the corners of the triangle.
Incorporate this technique into the cuts you are already creating to add texture and movement. Remember, smaller triangles produce less movement and larger triangles creates more.
To view the full length haircuts created incorporating the Triangular Pinch go to our Video On Demand channel and look at the Modern Heritage collection.
