 Alright guys, so we're going to start off this technique using a center parting. Like I said before, this is going to be a very basic technique, but there's a lot of structure involved, so I want to definitely go through this step-by-step before we get into blow drying for the dry cutting portion of the haircut. So my goal is to push all the weight forward in the haircut. So I want to have the shortest point in the back. So what we're going to do is start off sectioning from occipital bone down to behind the ear and then just bringing that section down about a two-inch section and just cutting it horizontal in my fingers, palm to palm. Most people would consider this zero-degree elevation. For me, it's not zero degrees because we're working with so many different rounds of the head, but I do consider this the lowest elevation possible. So what that's going to do is give me a one-length effect to the hair. So I'm bringing everything down. There is a slight elevation because my finger is underneath the hair, but for the most part we're going to go in and clean that up in the dry cut anyways. So we're just going through cutting that horizontal line in the back. Everything is coming directly back to me horizontally. Now I work that diagonal forward parting all the way up the head, so you'll see me doing that, but I'm bringing everything down to the same point. So stationary guide, the only elevation is what's underneath my finger and just keeping that consistency throughout the haircut. So working my way back, over-directing everything directly back, keeping my finger horizontally straight across the back and creating that over-direction. What that over-direction is doing is pushing all that weight forward. The most important thing about hair cutting is understanding how you're shifting weight within a haircut. If I bring everything all the way back to me and at the lowest elevation possible, I'm going to get the heaviest result in hair cutting. If I bring everything back to me and elevate it high, it's going to be nice and light, but still have that forward growth in the front. So just understanding your degrees of elevation is going to help with your hair cutting a lot. The reason that I wanted to do this as a one-length is because I believe that you'll see the shift in the weight a lot easier than if I were to elevate it. So this isn't necessarily a haircut that you're going to do on everyone. Really this is a basic technique and then we're going to go through and we're going to lighten it up using a ton of point cutting techniques at the end. So you can see everything coming straight back, creating that straight line and pushing that weight forward. So the longest point of the hair, because of the over-direction, is going to be in the front of the head. And we're just working our way across. Again, this is a basic haircut, but the technique that we're going to do at the end will change it from a basic haircut to a more advanced haircut. The reason that we call it a basic haircut, basic haircuts are actually the hardest haircuts to do because they involve so much structure. So that's why you see a lot of people going through and doing basic shapes like this, because that's the foundation of hair cutting. Going through and doing fancy point cutting, texturizing, stroking techniques, all that stuff is very simple once you learn basic structure. So still working off of that diagonal forward parting as we work our way up the head. The key part here is just to make sure that our finger angle stays consistent in the back. I think that that's the hardest thing. That's why you need to have that solid guide and why I like to make sure that I cut my straight line across the back at the very beginning. So that I know that both sides are even and I have a nice clean guide throughout both sides of the haircut. All right, so what I want you guys to notice in this part of the haircut is how I shift my finger angle back to match up with the angle that I've been creating the entire cut. So I take that diagonal forward parting, but I don't keep my finger angle diagonal forward because I want to keep that zero degree elevation. So everything's coming straight back to me and keeping a flat horizontal line with my fingers. OK, so as we finish up the last few sections, I think the key things so we don't get too repetitive here are making sure that your finger angle stays consistent, your elevation is nice and low. And then as you work through, we're going to fix everything else in the dry cut. So what I want to do now is I want to work into how to create a smooth finish for dry cutting. So a lot of you guys have asked, how do we do a smoothing blow dry, a flat wrap blow dry? So I'm using the Bercato Active Serum. This is my choice for this hair type. So just make sure you pick a product that's going to best suit the hair type that you're working with. And then I use my Ergo paddle brush. Now, a lot of people like to use a tighter vent brush or smaller brushes. I like using a big brush. I like the control of it. I like the tension of it. So I work that through flat wrapping around the head. And then what we call is leafing, which is scooping up the hair. So you'll notice that I brush the hair back and then I go back into it. So it's almost like I'm parting the hair by brushing it back. And then I go in and scoop it up and leaf it to grab that tension. Leafing is all about creating tension in the hair because our goal when smoothing hair is to make sure that I'm working on the base to mid shaft, not the ends of the hair. So don't concentrate so much on the ends. When you're leafing just like that, you're pulling that tension, tightening the hair so that you get a nice smooth finish from the scalp to the ends. Now, the reason that we do a flat wrap and we wrap it back and forth, you'll notice I go forward, then I go backwards. I'm creating mobility with the base of the hair so that I can really allow the hair to fall in its most natural position and just working it back and forth. So it's also beveling the edges with the round of the head. So it's doing a lot of things at once. And then the leafing part is adding that tension like we talked about to just get a nice smooth polish on the hair. So I really like using the paddle brush. Ergo brush is awesome. It's got a nice kind of rubber feel. So it's got a lot of grip on it and the bristles are they have negative ions in the tip of the bristles. So it helps with smoothing the hair and laying down that cuticle. So just going through finishing up. Now I'm going to polish the ends just a little bit. But like I said, that's at the very end of it. And it's really just because I like to see that separation from when I bring down the top and what I've done on the bottom. So the part that I've sectioned on the top of the head, that's from parietal ridge around to mid crown and then back around parietal ridge. Really, it's just sectioning off the round, that round part of the head. Now what I'm doing is going back and forth, working the brush back and forth on the hair, blow drying back and forth. That's going to work out all calyx. And then you'll see that I go through and I part the hair. I hold with my pinky and then I leaf the hair forward. So adding that tension. Again, the tension is just to work the base to mid shaft of the hair. And then I brush the hair back and forth diagonally, which is working out any of those calyx on the top of the head, like we said, and just creating a smooth polish. The reason for a flat wrap blow dry is to work out and allow the hair to fall naturally around the head shape. It's going to give you your best result when doing dry cutting or also for any of those guests that have crazy hair growth patterns on their head. So working through, finishing up that blow dry. Now we got our vibra straight iron. I'm going to work diagonal forward, exactly like the haircut. So a lot of times when you're ironing a haircut, I like to personally go through and iron the exact same way that I cut it and then go back forth just like I was cross checking a haircut and iron it back that way. So you'll notice my big focus is mid shaft to ends because I've already done the base. That's the key thing with ironing. This will make your iron work go a lot faster if you're working the base to mid shaft with the brush and getting it polished and then just going through and touching it up on the ends. So just like I said, same thing going through and ironing the hair just like we cut it in the haircut. You'll notice also that I part the hair. I comb it down and then I grab it in between my fingers like I'm cutting it because that holds a lot more tension in the hair and that allows you to get a more smooth and polished finish as well. I'm using a wide tooth comb for this part of the cut because I like the 332 comb from YS Park. It just allows me to get through the hair a little bit easier and still allows me to section the hair. All right, now we're going to move into our dry cutting techniques. This is one of my favorite parts. You guys know I love dry cutting, but we're actually going to go in with a clipper just to smooth out that edge. Now, you could use your scissor as well. On a mannequin, it's really good to use a clipper, but also on a person, a clipper works really well as well. I think we have a lot of tools and we should use all of those tools if we have them. So this is the clipper that I was sent from Andis. I love it. It's very powerful. It's got a triple zero blade on it right now, so it's real tight. I can get right to the skin and I'm going to zoom in in a second so you can really see what I'm doing. But all I'm doing is I'm beveling the edge just to soften that edge and then I'm going right to the skin to make that line nice and solid. So you'll see kind of how that end of the hair right there, it bevels under. That's all from the clipper, just kind of grazing over the hair. You don't want to go right into it because it'll cut it right off. But just daintily, I guess daintily is probably not a word, but going in there softly beveling that edge and then cleaning up the line at the bottom. Then I twist the head back and forth. That lets me know if my guest is going to do the same. So as they're going throughout their day, they're going to be twirling their head around. I want to make sure that no matter how they twist their head, the hair falls exactly back into place. That's what's going to make your haircut stand out from everybody else's is when your guests can go home and recreate that look. And it looks like it falls into place perfectly. So you can see how that lays really nice. Now we're going to go in and do some point cutting. Now elevating the hair, what you'll see when you elevate the hair, because we had everything down at the lowest elevation, you can see the heaviness around the inner part of my finger, the top part of that section. You can see how heavy it is. So I'm just going through and point cutting into the hair. So I want to show you guys that type of technique. Now the key to this is to make sure that everything's just coming straight back from the head, exactly the way that we cut it as well so that we're removing weight, but keeping the shape. So if I were to over direct this hair too much, I would ruin the shape that I created. So I want everything to come straight back off of the head. You'll notice I'm combing the hair the same way as well. So I'm pushing the hair away from me in towards the center. That's going to help from pulling it too far out and rounding off the shape. Now I'm over directing everything straight back and just a little bit more point cutting in there. Same thing here, but now I'm standing in front of the head, but over directing everything straight back and just softening that corner. And again, I'm not creating a ton of layers in this part. What I'm doing is just softening the edge of the hair so it falls nice. So now I'm going to work a horizontal section. I just want to show you guys a couple of point cutting techniques. This really doesn't necessarily what I would do in this haircut, but I want to show you guys the technique of it. So this is more like a tap point cutting, so I'm barely opening the scissor. So I'm just coming down and as I hit my finger, I'm closing the blade. So definitely practice this, but I'm working more in a tapping motion with the scissor so that I can quickly go through and point cut and remove just a little bit of hair at a time so you can see that motion. So now I'm just going to go through. This is not sped up. So you guys can see it's definitely a quicker point cut. And I'm just tapping through the hair and removing some bulk from the mid shaft of the haircut so you can see how that hair comes out. I'm going to do another horizontal section and show you guys another technique. This is going to be more of a deep point cut. So I'll spread out the hair a little bit with my fingers and I'm going to go in and open the blade a lot more and pretty much pass the blade through and just softening those ends, taking out definitely more hair in this technique to soften. And then the last point cutting technique I want to show you guys, this is the same tapping technique. You could do either one, but my finger is sliding up as I go. So it helps remove weight kind of scattered throughout that section from mid shaft to ends. And that's the haircut, guys. I hope you guys enjoy it. This is definitely a little bit longer vlog. Let me know what you think in the comments below. I appreciate all of the feedback. And I hope you guys can use these techniques in the salon. We'll see you guys on the next video.