Here I’m going to talk about how to part your hair. I will answer the question does what side you part your hair on actually matter.
And if so, are you parting your hair on the correct side?
First off I’m going to talk about the different kinds of partings and some pros and cons to them and some things you need to be aware of, depending on your face shape.
And then at the end, I’m going to go through some tips about parts that you’re going to want to know, because it’s going to help you determine what parting would be the best for you.
I’ll tell you there are some things that you probably didn’t know.
So let’s dive into the tips!
Table of Contents
Center Parting
First of all, let’s talk about parting your hair down the center.
Center parts can be fantastic, but there are some things that you want to pay attention to.
The first thing to think about is center parts work really well if your face is super symmetrical. If your face isn’t symmetrical, it’s going to draw attention to what’s not symmetrical.
That may or may not be an issue for you, but if you feel like something’s bothering you, maybe one eye is set lower than the other eye, or maybe your smile is off or whatever it may be, you do want to pay attention to the fact that that center part is going to draw more emphasis to that.
You also want to think that if you have a fuller face, many times a center part doesn’t allow for a lot of volume on the top, because it sits in the center and it can create the illusion of more volume on the sides.
If you’ve got a fuller face, it could draw the illusion of more fullness to the face and accentuate what you’re not trying to accentuate.
Side Parts
Let’s talk about side parts.
First of all, there are two main types of side parts.
First one is a dramatic side part where it’s parted from one side and the front straight to the back.
Then there’s the more diagonal side parting, where you’re parting it from the front and you’re taking that parting diagonally back, more towards the center of the crown.
There are pros and cons to both of those, but you definitely want to pay attention to the difference
between them and why you might choose one over another.
Here’s a couple things that you want to pay attention to.
The side part in general, regardless of which way you decide to go, is going to be beneficial to masking any sort of asymmetry.
If you feel like your face is a little asymmetrical and it bothers you, a side part may be the way to go for you, because it will hide that asymmetry, it won’t draw emphasis to it, like a center part will.
Another thing you want to think about is, let’s say you have an eyebrow that you like more than the other eyebrow, or maybe there’s a side of your face that you like more, if you part your hair on that side, it’s going to draw more emphasis to that. That may be a good choice for you.
One thing you want to pay attention to is if you’re doing the extreme side part, where it’s parted straight back and not diagonally towards the crown, you want to recognize that that is going to create the illusion of a lot more hair on whatever side you’re parting it to.
So if you part to one of the sides, you’re going to see a lot more volume and hair on that side. That may be what you want and in that scenario, fantastic. But if it’s not what you’re looking for, you definitely want to pay attention to it, so that you don’t make that mistake.
The other option would be parting it from the front all the way back to diagonally back to the back of the crown. That’s going to give you the side part and help with the asymmetry, but also create roughly the same amount of hair on both sides. It’s going to look a little bit more even in terms of volume.
The other thing you want to pay attention to on side parts is, many times side parts will create or can create, a little bit more volume right in the middle and that means that if you’ve got a fuller face, this can help to offset that fullness and create a little bit more elongation.
However, if you’ve got an extremely long face and that bothers you and you’re trying to create a little more fullness, this may, depending on how it’s layered, take some of that away because of that volume that it could potentially add right in the front.
You definitely want to be aware of that as well.
Important Tips
Now I’m going to walk you through some things that you’re going to want to know, regardless of what side you part, so that you can make the best decision for yourself.
I want to give you a couple real quick tips and I’m going to share some more really important tips that I guarantee you didn’t know.
One thing you want to pay attention to is the fact that if you flip it back and forth, you’re likely to find, because you’re going against natural hair growth or the way that your hair has been trained over time, if you’ve been parting it to one side for a long time, you’ll find that you’re going to get more volume.
Where that’s beneficial would be if you are in a situation where you have a little bit of a wider face shape and you want to create a little bit of extra volume on top, that’s an easy way to create a little bit of volume and help to elongate the face.
Another scenario though is if you have a harder time controlling your bangs and you want them to come off of your face, a little bit of volume, especially at the root, will help to actually create a little bit of that control, which can help you get them off the face. That might be something you want to pay attention to.
Another thing you want to think about is color.
If your color is done a certain way, then you won’t see a variation in color, regardless of which side you part it to. However, if you are parting your hair one side all the time and you go in and you get it colored, and they color it for that part, then you flip it to the other side, you might see a variation in color and you may or may not like that.
What I would recommend is making sure that when you go to your stylist, let them know are you parting your hair on one side all the time, do you flip it back and forth. Because if you’re doing highlights, depending on how they place those highlights, that could be affected.
My last tip that I almost guarantee you didn’t know.
Have you ever got your hair cut, went home, styled it and felt like it was really uneven on one side. There’s more layers on one side than the other side.
That could be because of the way you part your hair and the way your stylist cut your hair.
I always tell clients if you’re parting your hair on either side, meaning you flip it back and forth, then I want to cut your hair down the middle when we layer it, especially layers in the front.
That means that, when you put it in the middle, all of those layers are going to be even.
When you bring it to one side, it’s going to be a minimal difference. It will be a little bit uneven, but it shouldn’t be too dramatic.
If you put your hair on one side all the time, and your stylist cuts it to that side, and then you flip it to the other side, what will happen is it can look like you’ve got a lot more layers on that one side, because that hair has so much farther to travel over the head.
Another thing is when you part your hair on one dramatic side or the other, what you’ll find is those hairs on the top, while they’re straight across, when you pull it straight up, when they fall down, again because one side has farther to travel, it’s going to look like you’ve got more layers on one side than the other.
So what I like to do in the salon is actually cut the other side a little bit shorter, so when you pull it up, it looks very uneven, but when you lay them down how you’re going to wear it most of the time (unless you stick your finger in a socket and you get your hair to stand straight up) it’s going to be even.
That is something that you can tell your stylist. If you feel like you’re constantly getting your hair layered and it just seems to be a little bit uneven on the sides and there’s just more layers on one side, that very well could be where that’s coming from and if they cut that one side a little bit shorter, you’ll find it even, even when you wear it down.
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Samantha is a hairstylist with over 12 years of color and stylist experience. She enjoys using her knowledge to create what her clients really want when they sit down in her chair. Her passion is creating unique looks that her clients feel great in.