This month, Phillip Brooks (@vagabondbarber) shows us how to achieve a polished scissor cut pompadour.
Check out his cut in action by watching his reel here, and follow the steps below:
How To Perfect a Scissor Cut Pompadour:
- The first step of every haircut is a consultation. What kind of shape do they like? How do they want their hair to sit when it’s styled and when it’s un-styled? Do they want the neck tapered or beyond the hairline? Then you can plan your cut. In this case that means sectioning the hair, so start by separating the top into four.
- Now take a section from the bottom of the vertical bar to the top of the ear and cut this to your desired side length.
- Take a parallel section that runs about 1cm above your previous and run in an arch, just above the ear and down towards the hairline. (Imagine the sections taken across both sides of the head, meeting and creating a curved V in the back of the head).
- Starting at the front of the head, pull out your second section over the boundary between your first and second section and cut, using your first as a guide, then follow this length over the ear and across the section.
- Follow with your third and fourth sections, each running parallel to the last – each time holding the sections directly above their base, and cutting using the previous section as a guide.
- You should have one more section left to cut at the top of the sides. To start to create weight in the sides you can over direct this section to the one below it when you cut – repeat on opposite side.
- Now you can unclip the back triangular section; following the shape of the triangle, take sections across this area and match them to section five of the sides, elevating your sections very slightly each time, and repeat on opposite side.
- Unclip one of the top side sections – you can now cut this by splitting it into four sections from front to back, and cutting each of those to match the one previous, pulling them all out to be horizontal with their bases.
- Take a central section and starting with a small piece of the top of what was the triangular section, follow that length over the top of the head, usually with the section elevating towards the front. Use this as a guide to cut the left and right sides of the top of the head, making sure to cut across horizontally, rather than following round the shape of the head.
- It is now simply a case of finishing touches. First off, split the hair into its natural centre parting and use a feather razor to refine the shape and length of the curtains. At this point you can also choose to either feather the neck with a razor (to create a light feel to the neck) or take some chunky slices out, by channel cutting (to create a choppy but heavy feel). I recommend doing some while it’s wet, but leave the real refinement for when you have dried the hair. You could also finish off your scissor cut pompadour by adding a taper at either the temples or the nape, or both.