Hair cutting tips: Combine technique with a creative eye

"The best advice I can give to a new hairdresser is that technique is your most essential tool," says Diego Raviglione, corporate artistic trainer for Graham Webb International. "Technique is what separates the mediocre from the spectacular."

ten years of ordinary

At the beginning of his career, before his work had been published in magazines like InStyle and People, Raviglione went into his first job with little regard to the basics he had practiced.

"When I graduated from school, I put all of the technique that I had learned on the back burner," he recalls. "I was winging every hair cut. As a result, the silhouettes I was putting on the head and the hair cuts I was creating didn't have any real substance to them, mainly because they lacked a strong foundation. It wasn't until I went back to foundation hair cutting ten years later that I became a strong and confident cutter."

go from good to great

All hair cuts, no matter how extreme or commercial, are the result of combining technique with a creative eye. In order to go from a good to a great hair cutter, you must first become a master of technique. There is absolutely no longevity to learning a new hair cut, because in the end you will always forget it. But if you study the ‘cause and effect' of hair cutting, you will always know exactly how the hair is going to fall, move and sit on the head form. You'll be able to create any hair cut that you wish."

changing trends

While technique doesn't change, trends do. Although you must continue to apply your technique to the latest looks, Raviglione cautions against becoming a slave to trend.

"We must observe the world around us with an objective eye," he continues. "However, if we become entirely dictated by trend, we will be creatively crippled. It's more important to take your own inspirations and manifest them into hair design. In order to do that, you must be able to identify what inspires you and also have the technical ability to execute the look. Always remember: a creative eye armed with artistic discipline is the formula for a master stylist!"