I was combing hair wrong for years until a client pointed it out

I always combed from the crown down to the neckline when doing a taper. A regular, a guy named Ben, asked me why I did that because it made his cowlick stand straight up. I tried combing from the neckline up against the growth pattern first, then set it with the grain. The difference was huge, the hair lays flat now. Anyone else have a simple technique they were doing backwards?

3 comments

3 Comments

christopher_craig1mo ago

Wait, so you're basically training the hair to lay flat by going against it first? That makes so much sense for stubborn cowlicks. I'm trying to picture the exact motion. Do you lift the hair at the root with the comb on that first pass against the grain, or are you just redirecting it? Like, are you combing all the way through from the neckline up, or just a quick lift at the base?

kelly614d ago

My uncle was a barber and he swore by that exact move, @christopher_craig. He'd get the comb right under the stubborn part at the scalp, lift it up and hold it for a second with a bit of product, then lay it down. It was like he was resetting the memory of the hair.

julia8921mo ago

Wow, that's such a small change with a huge result... So when you go against the grain first, are you basically just lifting the hair at the root to then smooth it down? I always thought you were just supposed to follow the natural direction.