Getting Good Feedback When a Haircut or Style Goes Wrong
If you keep trying a style and it’s just not working, then it’s often difficult to know how to get the best feedback on what’s going wrong. Maybe the layers feel too chunky, the fringe doesn’t sit right, or the overall finish is dull. More often than not, the issue is not so much the technique, but that the problem feels too general. “It doesn’t look right” is infuriating as a piece of feedback, because it doesn’t give the hands anything to work with. Getting useful feedback starts with not looking at the overall look, and beginning to define what you’re looking at.
As a student, it’s often better to focus on just one aspect of the work and define whether it was successful or not, rather than asking if the overall look was successful. Start with the outline. Is the outline symmetrical? Then think about the weight. Does the weight feel even throughout the shape? Next look at the surface. Does the surface look smooth, textured, wispy or dense? These questions will start to give you something to read. Once you can begin to separate out the outline, weight and surface, then your next practical session will be far more defined.
One of the most common issues with feedback is that the student asks too early, before they have observed their work closely enough. It’s very easy to present a finished haircut or style to someone and simply ask “what do you think?”. This will often lead to very general observations which can be negative or unhelpful. Better to identify one thing that you’ve observed, that you would like some feedback on. You may have noticed that the back feels thicker than the sides, or that the ends kick out rather than lying flat. If feedback is attached to something specific that you’ve identified, then the feedback you get is more likely to lead to a technical solution rather than a general like or dislike.
The camera is your friend, especially if you’re feeling frustrated. At the end of your practice session, take a shot from the front, from both sides and from behind if you can. Allow the hair to settle before you take your shots. Then compare your photos with your intended result. You may see that your sectioning had shifted, or that you had placed the volume in too low a position, or that your line had become irregular around the face. This type of exercise is useful because it forces you to slow down. When you are in front of the mirror, your hands and eyes are still active. In a still photo, the result is unable to hide.
A 15 minute feedback session can be incredibly useful if it’s applied in the right way. The first few minutes can be spent recreating just one specific part of a style that is challenging for you. This might be a fringe, a crown, or one side of the outline. Then stop and observe just that part of the style from multiple angles. Use the remainder of the time to repeat that same part of the style with just one adjustment in mind. Perhaps you want to apply more tension, or use smaller subsections or alter the position of your brush. The objective here isn’t to complete a full style, it’s to compare one result with another and observe the change.
Finally, if you feel like the feedback you’re getting is confusing or contradictory, then go back to what the hair is telling you. If the shape is collapsing, then ask yourself if you have too much weight in one area. If the surface is rough, then consider if your section was too large or your airflow too diffuse when you styled. If the whole thing is skewed to one side, then consider if your partings and body positioning were consistent as you worked. Feedback doesn’t always have to be a big drama to be valuable. Sometimes the most valuable feedback points to just one little habit that keeps repeating.
Working with your mistakes in a patient way, rather than an embarrassed way will help your hairdressing to improve far faster. A misshapen outline, a heavy corner or a weak finish can all be valuable learning tools if they are observed in the right way. Feedback is most useful when it helps you to see what your hands were doing, not just whether the end result was good or bad. Once this becomes a regular part of your practice, then each imperfect result will start to show you the way to your next attempt.
