What do you want your hair to do?
“Curly” describes texture, not one haircut. Some clients want more movement around the face; others want to keep length, reduce width, support fine curls or make dense hair easier to live with. I ask how you normally wear it and how much time you want to spend on it. A cut that only works with a particular product routine is rarely the right answer if that routine does not suit your life.
Bring examples if you have them, but show me what you like about each image: the silhouette, length, fringe, volume or feeling. We then decide what can work with your own pattern and density.
Choose the method for the shape.
I look at the hair dry before making a plan. That reveals natural fall, shrinkage and places where one part behaves differently from another. Dry cutting can be especially useful when refining volume, the outline and pieces around the face.
Wet cutting also has a place. It can give useful control when building a clean structure or working with length and balance. Sometimes I combine wet structure with dry refinement; sometimes the work is mostly dry. The question is which method gives your hair the result you want, rather than whether a stylist follows one rule for every curl.
Watch where the weight sits.
Two people with a similar curl pattern can need entirely different shapes. Fine curls may need weight preserved at the perimeter. Dense curls may need some internal space without short pieces that expand at the surface. Shrinkage can vary across the head, so a fringe, crown or face frame must be judged as part of the whole shape.
I work toward a silhouette that feels like you, whether that is a bob, shag, longer shape or something quieter. You can also tell me if you sometimes wear your hair straight: that changes what needs checking during the cut.
Make the grow-out part of the plan.
A haircut should still make sense as it changes. Before finishing, I look at the outline, the distribution of weight and how the shortest pieces will sit as they grow. I finish the hair in a way you can understand and give practical advice that fits your own wash and styling routine.
Many of my curly clients return after several months; the right interval depends on the shape and how you like it to look. If the cut only feels right on day one, we have not solved the useful part of the problem.
What should you ask?
Ask how the stylist will assess your natural texture, what they plan to preserve or remove, and how the cut will work with your ordinary routine. Describe any past cuts that felt too triangular, too thin, too short once dry or too dependent on styling. The better I understand what did not work, the better we can plan what will.
For my appointment, arrive with your hair dry, detangled and close to its normal state, without a tight style hiding the pattern. Most curly haircuts take 60 minutes; a major change, correction or particularly dense or long hair may need 90 minutes. Prices and the full appointment details are on my curly-hair page.