Using only shears, check out how Eufora International Creative Director Philip Carreon creates this precision cut, incorporating an edgy undercut and creative color placement. Want to see the entire process? Get the video for free on BTC University!
STEPS
Before
Take a rectangular-shaped parting back behind the high point of the crown and from temple to temple. Use the high archpoint of the eyebrow to determine the parting.
Part off a secondary horizontal parting from the top of the ear. Move the sections straight back to center, keeping your parting just above the occipital.
Using a vertical strip section, cut a 45-degree angle, leaving about a 1 ½ inch length at the occipital and getting shorter as you move toward the nape. Then, move back to center and continue towards the opposite ear. For even tension, try not to cut past your second knuckle. Use your blade to clean low-growing hair without disturbing the natural neckline.
Take down the midsection, divide it in half for manageability and clip away. Follow the guide, creating more length at the top of the 45-degree angle. Make sure you maintain the same length at the top of the section by following the previous side guide and previous lower guide. As you move around, continue to pivot the angle.
To detail around the ear, hold the ear back with your free hand and delicately snip behind the ear with your shear tips. Then, fold the ear back to detail around the top with the tips of your shears.
Hold the ear down to detail in front of the ear and down and around to the sideburn. Cut freehand to allow the growth pattern to fall natural. Repeat on the opposite side.
As you move to the top of the section, give a slight rounding at the top edge to avoid a heavy horizontal line. Continue around to the sideburn, cutting on a diagonal over the ear.
Line up the top of the upper portion of the midsection. Following the guide and staying on a 45-degree angle, use the tips of shears to slightly disrupt the geometric line. As your section becomes more diagonal, visualize the straight 45-degree angle line, but shatter the edge with point-cutting.
As you move around the ear from diagonal to almost horizontal, straighten out your line with a clean cut. Follow the hairline from the temple up to the natural part, cutting close and short to frame the face. Finish the opposite side, changing your hand position.
Release the upper section on the side of the natural part and split it in half. Continue parting the vertical strips on a 45-degree angle. This time, measure the last guide. With the back of your open blade, slide from underneath, carving up and out. As you pivot around the head and over the ear, close the shears a bit more to give a longer slide, thus giving more length. Keep the hair moist for a smooth glide.
Continue to the back again, finishing off the upper portion of the top section. Where the guide drops out is where to begin the slide cut.
As you come around to the front, keep the same angle, follow your guide, but this time slide down to move the hair towards the face. Use your guide from the previous section, then slide forward.
Follow these steps on the opposite side by splitting the section in half and continuing to slide-cut from underneath, stopping at the back of the ear.
On the next section, use the last slide section as your guide. This time use large point-cutting to create a 45-degree angle towards the chin. Keep the elevation high in the back and drop the elevation as you move towards the chin. Reexamine your connection point for too much drop-off.
Continue to drop subsections down. With a diagonal sectioning, connect your guide, overdirecting back. Keep the elevation high in the back. As you move towards the front, drop the elevation. For the final back sections, raise them even higher, straight out from the head. This will keep the overhang from being too heavy.
Position your body behind to overdirect back and around. Pull up the perimeter and point in to further disrupt the weight. Move towards the back to check for bits that may need to be removed.
Cross-check by overdirecting, pulling the long side to the back opposite side. Take horizontal partings across the top section, to cross-check and remove large corners.
Take a diagonal parting from the back short side of the crown down to the opposite front side at the corner of the eyebrow. Cutting these two 45-degree angles will create the longest point at the chin. Quickly pull up sections to check for weight, using point-cutting to eliminate.
Taking a small half-fringe section, pinch small amounts of hair, sliding downward to create a gamine fringe. Then, slide on the ridge of the long fringe section, down and around to roughly connect the gamine fringe to the long asymmetrical slide.
Create a crescent-shaped parting two-thirds of the way back from the front hairline, staying in the top section. Leave enough hair at the back to fall over and blend with the color panels.
Then, follow the pattern of the previous crescent-shaped parting, creating a zigzag parting ½ inch below. This creates heavier and lighter strips of hair within the section. The light/heavy pattern will indicate where to paint.
Place a foil under the section, then paint the ends of the hair to grip the foil. Saturate the ends to achieve a solid color tone.
Then, re-saturate the brush. Look for the thicker strips you created by your zigzag crescent partings. With the brush tilted to one side, paint the strips, rolling the brush slightly to add some pressure so color saturates through the strip. Then, feather in between the strips and saturated ends.
Add a foil on top to not disturb the pattern. Slide your pinched fingers down to adhere, fold gently on the sides and small fold on bottom, then fold the section to the back. Repeat the same technique and partings twice.
Finished look
