How to Find The Right Haircut (3 Steps)

Don’t stress it. Make this very simple.

I have a three-step process that will help you find the right haircut for you.

Before we jump in some tips, there’s something that’s very important that I need you to know.

First of all, there is not just one style that is going to function best for you. There are tons of different styles and that’s why this system that I’m going to share with you works so well.

It’s because every time you feel like ‘you know, I think i want to try something different, I want to do something new, I just don’t know where to start’, these are the steps that you would follow to figure out the direction you want to head.

At the very end of this I’m going to share how you take this system and either use this at home to help you understand how to cut your hair at home or if you’re going to take it to a stylist, I’m going to give you steps on how to utilize this system to better explain to your stylist what you’re trying to achieve.

For now let’s dive into the steps.

Table of Contents

How to Find The Perfect Haircut

Determine the Length

My first step is determining the appropriate length. It’s always going to look better if you bring it to the strongest length.

First things first.

Just look in the mirror and say ‘okay how long is my hair now and how do the ends look’.

What if you’re trying to grow your hair longer, it’s not quite the length that you want it to be.

For me the most important thing is just to pay attention to the ends. If they look strong and you’re getting length, let it grow.

Go get them trimmed or trim them at home when they start looking broken and they’re not going to grow any longer.

The simple step number one is just figure out what length do you want and then we’ll work everything else from that point.

Determine Front Layers/Bangs

Step number two is determining front layers.

The question is do you want layers in the front of your hair or do you want bangs. I consider them the same thing or similar things because it’s basically everything in the front.

Do you want stuff going on in the front?

Here are the questions that I personally would ask my client to help them determine if this would be a good idea for them.

First, do you pull your hair back a lot? If you’re constantly pulling your hair back up off of your face, then you may want to think about how much of that hair you would be comfortable with falling into your face.

I would go for the argument that even when you pull your hair back, having some front layers and having the ability to have some of those break, fall out of the ponytail, you can always clip those back with two simple bobby pins.

But at the same time, that little bit of point of interest, when you pull it back, gives you a lot of option and can look very flattering and very elegant.

For me, even if you pull your hair back all the time and you need it out of your face, I still lean a bit towards the idea of some sort of front layering, but that’s not for me to choose. That is for you to choose based on your specific needs and wants.

Then the next question you would have to ask yourself is if you do want to do front layering, what lengths do you want, what would be too short, would be too long. Are you gonna go into longer bangs or even bang.

You just want to determine first do bangs make sense for you, do you feel like you would feel good in them, do you feel like they could be fun, do they fit into your lifestyle?

Are you always leaning forward, is stuff going to be falling in your face, if you decide that you want to do bangs, but you want to leave them longer.

Start thinking about all of that stuff to help you determine if front layers are going to make sense.

At the end of this article I am going to give you some insight into different face shapes and some things that I personally think are flattering on those face shapes. We will kind of touch back on why I think front layers are a smart move or if I think they’re a smart move.

Let’s move on to step three.

Layers in the Back

Step three is all about layers in the back. In the salon we call that internal layering.

Here are the questions that I would run clients through. But I will preface this by first saying that nine out of ten times, if not more, that’s a good decision.

Having some sort of internal layers will give your hair movement, it’ll give it shape, it’ll allow for volume in the right areas. It does all the things that you want it to do.

It’s really what creates a shape versus just having hair.

There are some very rare instances where some hair textures are so fine and so thin that actually having one length in the back can have a tendency to look denser. But that is very rare, I would say that if I see a hundred clients, I might see two that are in that scenario.

And in that scenario I would still say that means in the back you would leave it one length. But in the front, I would absolutely layer it to give it some sort of movement.

I’m not trying to say that layer is the only way to go, but again, the reason that I lean towards them is because they allow you to create an actual shape and movement and style within the haircut.

But you need to determine if that is going to make sense for you,

Other questions that I might start thinking about are how often do you want to get your hair maintained, meaning are you going to be cutting this at home or are you going to be going to the salon.

How often do you want to do that and the reason that’s important is because while layers do give amazing shape and they are a huge benefit, when it comes to overall style, they can require a little bit more maintenance. Because they’ll have a tendency to not grow faster, but because they are lighter when they’re shorter and you’re getting all this movement and shape.

As they start to get longer you’ll notice that they feel a little bit heavier. You’re not getting quite the same movement and shape and all of a sudden, you feel like you need to get them maintained.

If you hate maintenance and you never want to deal with any sort of maintenance going to the salon, you just want to be able to get a haircut once a year or once every eight months, whatever it is, then maybe layers wouldn’t be the best fit for you when it comes to internal layers.

You also want to ask yourself ‘maybe maintenance isn’t a big deal on a haircut basis, but what about day-to-day maintenance?’ Sometimes layers internally can create a little bit more day-to-day maintenance. You’re going to want to style those ends and smooth those ends out because those ends are going to create the overall shape, but also, if you don’t style those ends, sometimes those ends can look a little rough.

And because now those ends are not just at the bottom of your hair, you see them more and it can translate as damage or frizziness or dryness or whatever.

So you do want to pay attention to that.

Face Shapes

Let’s jump into a couple face shapes and what I personally would recommend for them.

First of all, if you have a round or square face shape, ensure that you don’t have any lengths, any sort of layering, coming directly in at your chin. It’ll have a tendency to add more fullness, create the illusion of more roundness or squareness. Many times that can work exactly opposite of what you’re trying to do, which is elongate.

Also keep in mind that you don’t want a ton of fullness on the sides. Too much fullness essentially does the same thing as bringing a length into your chin, because that’s typically where the fullness sits and that’s what can make it look wider.

The next thing you want to pay attention to is bangs.

There are some bangs that will work, but you want to be very specific. Nothing too blunt, too strong, especially if it’s super straight across.

What if you have a longer or an oblong face or rectangular face?

What are you looking for in those scenarios, you want to pay attention to length. If you have too much length around the face, this is the perfect time I would say front layers are very important. This is why I feel they are such a benefit.

If you have all this length around your face, what it’ll tend to do is draw your face out more and when it draws your face out more, it’s going to make it look longer and that’s usually what you’re trying to work against. You’re trying to add a little bit more fullness to your face to offset that length.

Same thing goes with actual lengths into your chin.

In your scenario that wouldn’t be a terrible idea because it will again add some more of that width that you’re trying to add. Front layers just help to break things up, give it more softness, lighten things up if you want to get some volume around the face, it’s a very easy way to do it.

People think a lot of times bangs are the way to get volume in the front. Not necessarily, because many times you don’t want a lot of volume in, you want them to lay a little bit smoother, a little bit flatter.

So they’re not necessarily going to create a lot more volume in the front. Where that volume comes from is having bangs that connect into layering in the front, that lightness in the layers, that’s how you get the volume.

Now What?

You want to know how do you take this information and actually do something with it, how do you put it together and use it to get your next perfect haircut.

All you’re going to do is now take the information that you’ve gotten from the first three steps.

Let’s say for instance that you’ve determined what length you want and now you’ve determined that you do want front layers and maybe you do want internal layers.

Take that and head to the Google and search long layered haircut or long haircut with front layers, long hair cut with bangs.

Start throwing in some of those terms into Google and start finding some photos.

What you’re looking for is not just a specific photo of exactly what you want. You want to find photos of stuff that you like and stuff that you don’t like.

Maybe you like the bangs but you don’t like the way that the front is not layered and you want that to be connected to the bangs.

Maybe you like the bangs but you don’t like the length, it’s too short. Maybe you like the fact that there are layers in the back, but there are not bangs and you want bangs.

You can either use those photos to create what you want on your own hair at home or that you can take those photos to your
stylist and explain this is visually what I want and what I don’t want.

If I give you specific terms such as front layering, internal layering, beveling, whatever, those terms might be true for me, but when you go to another stylist they might be different.

Rather than try to speak in stylish terms, use photos to explain what you want. It’s a visual reference that you both will be on the same page with. It’s a much safer way to get what you’re trying to get and stay away from what you’re trying to stay away from.

But that is what you do.

Figure out the three steps, what you want, find the photos, find things you like and things you don’t like, and either use those to create what you want on your own hair or use those to take your stylist and and the two of you can determine how to make that work for you.

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