Why Cut It Kinky Education Doesn’t Use Mannequin Heads

During a first time client appointment we are often doing a corrective cut on hair that may have holes throughout the shape, a baby crown, or variations of both.

The client may be experiencing a varying degree of chronic dehydration that manifests itself as styles not lasting, breakage, and/or major frizz.

Our job as curl specialists is to assess the current condition of the hair and explain to our clients where their hair is currently. We work to understand where they want their hair to be in the future, then forecast the length of time, treatments, and care processes it will take them to reach their curl goals.

But, even when we have excellent consultations and have done everything we can do within the allotted service timing, our clients reaction can be  muted and unsure. 

Before we begin to judge ourselves, our work, or our clients take a pause and think.

 Sometimes, our clients have never experienced their hair like this.

This may be the first time they’ve felt their hair truly be wet, not just covered with water.

The first time they see a curl pattern past the shampoo step.

The first time they’ve felt their bare hair unencumbered by a coating of occlusive build up.

Their first time experiencing hang time after the dryer.

Their first time looking at themselves in the mirror with their hair like this.

It is an adjustment. Your client may need time to process their feelings about the experience. What we do is about so much more than just hair. 

This is one of the main reasons why at Cut It Kinky we don’t we use mannequin heads in our workshops. 

Every tight curl lives on a real person head. That person has had a lived experience with their hair. Those experiences and the culture they exist in has contributed to an identity and narrative surrounding their hair. 

It is imperative to us at Cut it Kinky that tight curl education not happen in a vacuum. Just knowing how to do the hairs is not enough. Understanding how to listen to what is not being said and properly interpret what is being said during a consultation is a major component for success with the tight curly + natural hair client.