Session 2 - Demo, Hair Trim

Three baby dolls volunteered to have a hair trim for the recent Good Things Women’s Ministry demonstration portion of the session. The Precious Moments’ baby doll with curly brown hair was especially good to show how to trim a big springy lock. A skinny 18” rock-n-roll doll with long straight hair down to her knees was the next volunteer and helped demonstrate how to create bangs. The last baby doll was a cuddly thing with thin hair.

Fortunately, Courtney, with long brown hair and a nice wave, happened to need her bangs trimmed. Courtney has a kindergardener boy, a set of twins and is PG with her next one due in April. So between not having extra time and extra change, the opportunity presented itself to her for a quick trim and she took it.

I was the demonstrator for this session and have cut and trimmed hair since college trying to make ends meet. I have probably saved my family thousands of dollars in home cuts over the 27 years + of raising my kids who are now between 19 and 27.

I previously spent some time, however, consulting with Butch, a professional hair dresser who attends our church. She and I huddled together in the ladies bathroom one Sunday morning at church before the noisy busi-ness distracted us. She walked me through the best way to demonstrate a hair trim. She had brought her scissors and comb and so then wetted her curly bangs right there at the sink so I could “practice” on her. I suddenly felt the confidence that she expressed in me flow through the plastic comb and into my fingers as she handed it over. After cutting her bangs, I was reassured that I was now ready to demonstrate at our Good Things with ease.

I wrapped Courtney in the black haircutting cape and secured it with the Velcro closure in back. And, just like Butch reminded me, I wetted the front of her hair by dipping my comb into a glass of water and pulling it through her bangs.

Annette was our volunteer as an attendant to the Rock-n-Roll doll and mimicked the same strokes that I used with Courtney on the doll. She was having a hard time holding this tall doll and pulling the comb through her bangs so Betty Lou helped her hold the doll. Good grief, you’d think the doll was rebelling as they held her still.

Courtney’s bangs were shaped in an arch around her face and had grown to the bottom of her eyebrows. I combed out her wet bangs and following the same shape of the arch, I trimmed a half inch all the way around the shape, being careful not to clip the eyebrows. (Wouldn’t that be terrible? To cut gashes in the eyebrows where the bangs overlapped?)

Annette and Betty Lou, however, were having troubles with their responsibility on the other side of the table. First of all, Rock-n-Roll girl had plastic hair and it was swooped up and back and was all different lengths. The two women had a hard time of it just getting the comb through the bangs. But they finally succeeded amidst a bunch of giggling. They drew the long hair over the doll’s face and trimmed it down to its eyes. Which of course, the hair then flew up over the doll’s head as if it were possessed. This brought another gaggle of giggling from the entire group.

Certainly not to be distracted from working with my live client, I then pulled small sections of the bangs down and out and made cuts to the bang at a straight up angle. This gave the edge of Courtney’s bangs a slight layer to them. With each new section of the bangs, I included a bit of the lock I just cut to hold in the same position and make sure were cut at the same length and angle as the previous section. I continued around, still following the curve of the arch within the layered angle.

Rock-n-Roll girl doll was getting equal treatment. With Betty Lou holding her legs (now isn’t that just what we always have to do with those rock-n-roll girls?) and Annette doing the trim they layered the freshly cut bangs on the doll. They did a terrific job although you could now call the doll “Spike” and she would now probably sing punk rock.
I demonstrated without cutting that if I wanted to give a deeper cut to the layer, I would hold the locks of hair out horitzontal and then make a cut straight up. The same method could be made to a full hair trim if you wanted to.

Smaller locks of hair are trimmed in each section if the person has thin hair. The cuddly baby doll was a good example of this. If the hair dresser had too full of a lock, the trim would be uneven when it layed back in its natural place.

For curly hair and where curly hair is the preferred style, many hair dressers trim the hair when dry. This way they can see where the curls lay naturally when dry. Also, the curls are usually different sizes so if cut wet then let dry, the hair may look different lengths. Demonstrating on our Precious Moments doll, I showed how to find the beginning of a full encircled curl and where to cut at the top of the curl. If curly hair is just blown dry for a straight hair style, then the same method for wetting the hair and cutting can be used.

The hair trim session went over well and several women said they were grateful that this was shown as they had small children who were constantly in need of a trim. With money tight in most households, this is a good skill to learn.

It was a couple of days later that Courtney told me that she had trimmed her Mom’s hair using the same principle of trimming then layering with her bangs. She said it turned out well and that her Mom was happy with it. Now isn’t that neat?