Class notes, sassoon hair cutting

A friend and clipper cutting enthusiast, Jim Durkin recently completed a hair cutting class at Sassoon. he shared the following notes for the program with me. He and I had had some conversation of the definitions of some iems related to hair cutting. These are Jim's reflections on the terms and how the Sassoon team shared their interpretations. Very insightful. I have no argument with the terms as defined and their application of them. I might explain things differently, but I fully agree with their principles and concepts. I thought any hair cutter would find these interesting. I offer up a big thank you to Jim for sharing from his experiences.

I have included a link here for the Sassoon Academy if you want to build on your skills too!

http://www.sassoon.com/academy/

Jim offers up the small disclaimer that these remarks are transcribed from his notes. There may be room for slight variation from what was said to how he captured it. No intent to miss quote any of the instructors who shared so much with him.

Took the ABC course of cutting by Sassoon. They mentioned a few things about how they see graduation and tapering. At the last hair show in Atlanta I think you had inquired about these. My instructor, Don Haidl, said others outside of Sassoon might see the terms differently. They saw graduation as using 1 to 89 degrees of elevation. They broke it up into external graduation as 1 to 45 degrees and internal graduation as 46 to 89 degrees. Graduation was a build up of weight.External graduation: A heavier build up of weight Develops a weight line with widest part being where the weight build up stops Is below the occipital bone It helps fill in the head shape by creating width Makes head shape better where it may lack Internal graduation: Used where not so much weight is needed but still some width would help It is seen as build up above the occipital bone It does not have a weight line because the build up does not stop They described it as any time you worked above the occipital bone Weight is higher and not so heavy compared to external graduation.Layering was a removal of weight created by lifting the hair 90 degrees or higher. They went on to describe:a. Flat layering as an even removal of weight that will even out the head shape. It builds corners if hair on side is pulled to plane parallel to side and hair on back is pulled to a plane behind the head. b. Convex layering as removal of weight following the head shape. It does not contribute to maintaining length and it will be round.c. Concave layering as creating an anti-head shape with shorter hair internally and longer hair externally. This will remove the most amount of hair compared to other layering. The more extreme it is the harder it will be to have it suitable for the client.Bottom line is they saw graduation as a build up of weight and layering as a removal of weight. They kept repeating that haircutting was to give the most flattering/suitable head shape for the client by adding or subtracting as needed.