How to Brief Your Stylist
The words that help a stylist cut what you pictured. A short guide to references, length, and maintenance.
Most disappointing haircuts are not a mystery of talent. They are a mismatch of pictures. You arrived with a feeling. The stylist heard a length. Forty minutes later you are both being polite about a cut neither of you quite described.
A useful brief is short and specific. It covers where the hair ends, what it has to do in real life, and what you do not want.
Bring one picture, and narrate it
One reference is better than twelve. Say what you like in it: the length, the fringe, the amount of layer, the part. Say what you do not want copied. A photograph of a person with very thick, straight hair will not land the same way on fine waves, and a good stylist will tell you that if you give them the chance.
Then add the life around the haircut:
- How many minutes you will spend on it in the morning.
- Whether you air-dry, diffuse, or blow it out.
- Where you want the longest point to end, shown with your hand on your own head.
- What you are tired of. “I am tired of a triangle” is more useful than “just a trim.”
Leave room for a correction
Ask the stylist to show you the shape before the final detail work, especially if you are going shorter. “Can I see the outline before you take the corners off?” is a fair question. So is “What will this look like in six weeks?”
Describe the haircut on a Wednesday, not the haircut on the day you leave.
If you want the language for a softer bob, it is in the lived-in bob. If you mostly want the stylist to understand your face, start with the face-shape guide and then throw half of it away. The brief is the part you keep.
