Josef & Shaun Settle first developed their innovative new Shaoé Haircare Secret 7 Haircutting System while working with beginning hairstyling students. The Settles own Avant Gard The School in Avon, Indiana in addition to their 17,000 square foot multi-million dollar Avant Gard Salon Spa. 

When haircutting classes would begin, new students would learn their first haircut, the 180 degree cut. That first haircut was easy to learn and students had no problems mastering it. Then, the haircutting techniques became more advanced and students quickly became challenged with the method of degree haircutting.  

According to the Settles, now their students can learn literally any new haircut easily by adapting it to their Secret 7 System. The Settle’s method of haircutting divides the head into seven sections based on the client’s head shape, which will be completely customized for each individual. By simplifying the haircutting technique in this way, the Settles have allowed students to learn a method they can use for literally any haircut, guaranteeing the best results for their clients with a hairstyle created just for them.

Traditional Degree Haircuts:  All haircutting techniques and systems are currently based on degree cutting, whether it be 0, 45, 90 or 180 degrees.  Josef Settle says, “The problem with degree cutting is that you can ask ten hairstylists to show you the same haircut from degrees and they will all be different.  Haircutting should be about head shape, and degree cutting across the board just does not work. You are taught to bring up a guide on the highest point of the client’s head and start pie shaping off that guide. This may work consistently on the perfect head shape but everyone’s head shape is unique. We created the Secret 7 Haircutting System based on head shape haircutting, customized for every client for guaranteed results.”

Josef Settle literally dreamed up the idea for this haircutting system, waking up in the middle of the night with the inspiration. His staff and students found him in the school the next morning, wildly snipping away at a mannequin head using the seven partings of the head he had just imagined.  Josef Settle says, “This technique is not about me teaching a haircut. If I teach students one haircut; they will need to wait for that one client to come in who wants that haircut!  I am teaching students a technique that they can use for every single client who comes to their chair. No haircuts will ever challenge them. With our system, you take the seven sections of the head and break them down, which then easily relays how to do that haircut.”

Head Shape Haircutting: Shaun Settle shares, “After Josef broke down the system for me, I realized that the current method of haircutting taught to beauty school students and that all hairdressers are currently using is completely archaic and out of date. It does not allow for the flats and rounds of the head to be taken into consideration. With the old way of haircutting, you were always cutting a flat into a flat; making it a challenge for the client to get volume. We part off the head into seven sections; based on the flats and rounds of the head.”  The System is based on sectioning the hair, using a comb to measure the high and flat points on the head.  The flat points are used as the line to measure and the method of sectioning will allow hairstylists to become very precise with identifying these measurements.

Shaun Settle says, “What is so brilliant about the system is that we no longer say we are doing a 90 degree haircut.  We do custom haircuts, as every single client has a different size head with different flats and rounds. By the approach that we use we create a haircut based on the seven sections but they are based on YOUR seven sections. Your haircut is not the next client’s haircut.” One of the best benefits to the Secret 7 System is that a maximum of volume is created for clients. In the zones of the head that have flat spots, the Secret 7 haircut over directs the hair, giving clients control over the hair’s movement. Clients love the results and it is not uncommon for the Settles to hear clients share that it is the best haircut they have ever had!

Students love the system too. Josef Settle says, “I can have students going out on the floor for the very first day and have a client come in who wants a trendy new haircut.  I simply tell the student to think about what each zone of the head is doing. They get an ‘aha’ moment!  They realize that they can be creating an updo, a haircut, a blow dry or a hairstyle with the system. You simply break it down into the seven sections.  Now, there will be no haircut that will challenge you when a client walks in!”

For more information about Shaoé Haircare visit shaoehaircare.com.