The Jagged Edge

Wanted: Hair that moves. Must be layered, light and loose but must also be textured and have volume.

Not a tall order at all, at least not for Donald Wilkins.

According to the International Hair Instructor for Dudley’s International Hair Products, it’s a cinch.

He recommends the razor-cutting technique, which is the technique of choice for the most-wanted hair this season – The Jagged Edge, or, to a lesser extent, the Disconnected Bob, derived from the Universal Layered Bob.

The sharp, layered, movement-oriented look of the chopped haircuts that are totally en vogue is made possible by one tool – the razor.

Sure, he says a shear or a clipper can be used too, but one has to be extremely talented in handling those tools to achieve the trendy looks.

“Razor allows more texture, volume and versatility,” Wilkins says, while demonstrating the cutting technique at the MASS Distributors seminar entitled ‘Trendy Cutting 2005’, held last Tuesday at the Courtleigh Hotel, in Kingston.

Cutting hair is not exactly a breeze. One needs to master the technique while also updating oneself on the types of haircuts that are up-to-the-minute to keep customers totally satisfied.

And these are reasons enough for the wide cross-section of hairdressers, from all over the island, that came to learn about what the Texan-born hairstylist had to impart.

“Technique is paramount,” says the hair guru, a point that could not be argued, as his students later found out.

“Modify your sides so that you can blend!” Wilkins’ voice bellowed throughout the Somerset Suite of the hotel as if he was still in the military. His military-type drill classes, he says, speak directly to his 20 years in the American Army before becoming a hairstylist/cosmetologist.

“My friend’s wife told me to quit my job and go to beauty school when she saw how well I was doing,” Wilkins quips.

While popular in the 1950s, razors are back – but the cutting technique is quite different.

After a brief disappearance in the early ’70s, which traces back to London’s Vidal Sassoon, whose precision-cutting techniques favoured only scissors, the razor, again, started gaining popularity for the feathered hairdos of the ’80s and the soft, Jennifer Aniston-inspired layers of ’90s. But, Dudley’s seems to have brought back the nimble styling tool into the millennium and to hairdressers around the world.

(Wilkins travels world-wide and has just returned from Asia, where he taught the mechanics of how to maintain Black hair).

“Understanding your tools and how to use them results in someone getting a good blended haircut. When they see their hair flowing with lots of movement and body, they will love it!” advises the father of one child who also operates the Virginia-based Sensational U Salon and Spa.

Those registered for the course were delighted that they’re now armed with something new that they’re sure their clients will love.

“The Jagged Edge is a four- dimensional cut. It is all about texture and having the hair look and feel looser,” says Eugent Dawes, stylist of En Harmonie, a hair salon on Red Hills Road. He participated in the advanced session of seminar. “The razor is used to create cuts that add texture, volume and freshness.”

For Portia Green, stylist of Shades of Elegance, Old Harbour, St Catherine “it was exciting because I learned a lot of new things”.

“In fact, things that I thought I knew, I wasn’t even close to knowing. I’m going back to my mannequin one more time, then I’ll hit my clients with the new look,” she told all woman.