The Pleasures and Perils of Thick Hair

Thick hair can be beautiful and easy to look after but it’s got a big personality and doesn’t always take kindly to less than excellent haircutting. It can rebel by getting bushy, looking like a helmet and falling forward, refusing to go any other direction. If medium length thick hair is layered in less than optimal ways it can get somewhat of a triangular, pyramid shape and bunch up toward the bottom. If short, thick hair is not cut with precision it will show the choppiness of the cut more than other hair types. As with all things in life, there’s always two sides, if the benefits of thick hair can be recognized and enhanced and the difficulties moderated, all will be well.

Very different than fine hair, thick hair expands into whatever shape the layers have been cut into. Due to its volume and density, cutting it is somewhat like creating a sculpture, which, being a sculptor, I find quite enjoyable. If the shape is suitable, thick hair will blend and flow nicely, if not it may become something you’ll probably feel needs to be controlled and coerced. But there’s just no point in arguing with this kind of hair, it’s a no win situation, even if you can manage to force it to do something it doesn’t want to do for a while, it’ll take a lot of time and energy. And in truth there’s no point, when it’s cut in a way that respects and cooperates with it, not attempting to conquer it, all of its natural beauty will be revealed and the fight will be over, it will quite happily do what’s been asked of it because what’s been asked of it is not unreasonable.

Thick, straight hair is like a showroom for a very nice haircut. It’s also a showroom for a mediocre one. Every snip, be it skillful or misguided, is on full display, there’s no place to hide. Thick, curly hair, on the other hand, can hide a questionable haircut nicely, but given a choice would much rather place itself in the hands of someone who understands its exuberant nature. Hair, just like any other part of us, can be happy or unhappy. When it’s happy it’s much more willing to do nice things. When it’s not … well … you know what it does.