A Cut Back to a Distant Decade

Hairstylist Phillip Wilson got fed up hearing that women couldn’t manage their hairstyles. “I’ll never be able make it look like this,” they complained about their perfect salon ‘dos. The problem wasn’t with the women, it was with the haircuts, determined Wilson, the international artistic director of L’Anza, an Irwindale-based hair-care products firm.

The obvious solution, he says, is to cut hair the way it grows rather than trying to force it into a style--what he refers to as “the no-tension cut.”

It’s not a new technique. It was popular in France from about 1918 to 1924. But it fell out of fashion and Wilson has found that many hairdressers have forgotten it.

Many stylists now rely exclusively on the straight-edged, geometric cut, he finds. “Since 1966 when Vidal Sassoon introduced the geometric cut, we’ve been cutting style into hair, rather than letting the hair itself determine its best style,” he explains.

For a geometric cut, the usual technique is to hold hair straight and taut, and snip it into the desired shape. But for his no-tension cut, Wilson lets the hair hang naturally and he cuts by following the natural growth patterns. A complete cut takes only about 10 minutes. To take hair from long to short, he uses masking tape to secure the hair in position, and the tape is his guide as he cuts. Once the tape is removed, he makes minor adjustments and the haircut is complete.

“When hair is cut the way it grows, it always falls into place,” the 37-year-old stylist says. “I’ve tested the look with women who swim, who run, who work at a hectic pace. The hair always springs back.”

Other stylists have started to try out the cut at their salons. Robert Sanchez of Moda Salon in Escondido says: “The cut works by itself. You don’t need to use a lot of styling products with it and clients like that.” Gill Brookes-Jones of Taboo in Los Angeles says clients like the soft, natural look the cut achieves. In the past year, Wilson has taught the method to more than 100,000 stylists at seminars in the United States, Europe and Asia.