Beauty Pro Tips for Styling All Hair Types
As stylists, we all have our special skills.
Maybe you totally know how to rock the perfect shaggy bang cut. Maybe your thing is knowing how to take someone’s beautiful locks to their perfect shade of blonde. Maybe you’ve literally never run into anyone who’s better at cutting and styling curls.
Whatever your speciality is that you’re the actual best at, we applaud you.
But here’s the deal—if you’re aiming to be a stylist who’s able to work with anyone, anywhere, anytime (and if you’re not, hey, more power to you, you do you and stick to your target market), then you’re going to want to be ready to know how to style every hair type out there.
Yeah, we said every hair type. And, yeah, that’s a tall order. But you know what? We bet you can handle it.
If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to preparing yourself to be the most multi-faceted-all-styles-welcome queen of the salon or shop, don’t worry, we’re here to give you a little help (and a little peace of mind, too).
Check out a few of our tips on how you can start prepping yourself for being a badass stylist for every client—no matter what type of hair or style they’re rockin’.
KEY TAKEAWAYS: In this article, beauty pros get the inside scoop on prep, training, and tips they need in order to offer their services for clients with all kinds of hair types. Things like recognizing your weaknesses and improving them, staying in the know for what's on trend, practicing, and continuing your education can ensure that every client is welcome (and ready for awesome hair) in your salon.
Top Tips for Learning How to Style All Hair Types
First Things First—Know What You’re Dealing With
You’re a professional, you’re trained, and you know what you’re doing. But it is easy to get overwhelmed if you have a few different types of hair that simply aren’t in your wheelhouse.
Make sure you’re totally aware of the differences between coils and curls, wavy and straight, type 2a and type 4b, etc.
Study up and know the difference so that you can take a deep breath and really evaluate your clients when they walk in.
Stay In-the-Know and On-Trend
Study up on what’s hot and what’s not for every style out there. Start getting curious and asking important questions that pertain to all hair types.
What’s really popular for tight curls these days? How are we styling straight hair lately? Do fringe bangs work with wavy hair, or is that so last season?
While the current trend isn’t always going to determine how your clients want their cuts and styles, it’s helpful to be in-the-know about their hair type and what’s hot right now.
Ask For Help
There’s no shame in the asking for help game—seriously. If you work in a salon environment ask a stylist who’s more experienced in a particular type or style to give you a crash course.
Hit up your mentor (and if you don't have a mentor, maybe you should get a mentor?), talk to someone you admire, consult a stylist you follow on socials. Just ASK for help and next steps.
Odds are, they’ll be stoked to help you learn (and it probably won’t cost you anything but dinner and a lot of appreciation).
Continue Your Education in Areas You’re Not As Familiar
Do you struggle with styling and cutting curly hair? Are you totally lost when it comes to sleek and straight? Do you cringe when a client walks in with a thick mess of coils?
Take a deep breath—it’s going to be okay. Whatever your hair kryptonite might be, we promise it’s not permanent.
If you’re dedicated to taking your skills to the next level, we recommend going the distance and continuing your education in the areas you’re not as comfortable.
Enroll in a local class, get yourself a mentor, take online courses, stalk YouTube—do what you need to do to ensure that you’re ready for whatever comes your way, especially when it’s the style or hair type that you’re not as comfortable with.
And, just as a heads up, continuing education is a must for all kinds of cosmetologists–estheticians, stylists, nail techs. If you're in the beauty industry, CE is an absolute must to ensure you're staying on top of what's hot (and necessary, too!).
Practice, Practice, Practice
And then practice some more. If you truly want to be able to style all types of hair, it’s important to really put in the work.
And you know what? It’s not going to happen overnight.
If you’re able to practice on friends and family, do that. If you’re able to run a special for certain styles and hair types, do that (but make sure your clients are like, totally on board first). If you have a practice doll or dummy you can go to work on during your early stages, do that, too.
It might take some time, and it might mean that your nights and weekends aren’t as free as they used to be, but if you truly want to work with clients who have all types and styles of hair, you need to put the work in to ensure you’re prepared for whoever walks through that door.
Feeling a little more prepared to tackle the world of hair one style at a time? We thought you might be.
If you’re a stylist and have any additional tips for your beauty biz community, we encourage you to drop your knowledge in a comment below! We love to see the community working together and your recommendations, advice, and insight are always appreciated here.
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