After thirty years behind the chair, I have come to believe that the smallest cut is often the one that matters most. A haircut gets the attention. A trim - often just a few millimetres - is where the craft lives.
There is an art to the cut itself. Anyone can take length off. Knowing what to leave - where the hair falls, how it moves, how it frames your face - that is the craft, and it takes years of looking and learning. A good trim should be almost invisible: the aim is that nobody sees that anything was cut, only that your hair looks healthy and falls the way it should.
Here is why. Hair grows from the root, but it wears at the ends. The ends are the oldest part of your hair - they have lived through every blow-dry, every colour, every summer holiday. Once an end starts to split, it does not repair itself, and left alone the damage can work further up the strand. Taking a little off the ends early means less to take off later.
So does trimming make your hair grow faster? No - growth happens at the scalp, and no trim can change that. What a trim can do is remove the damaged ends before the damage spreads, so less of your length is lost to breakage. That is the real power of a trim.
So what is a trim? It is a light cut - how light depends on the condition of your hair and what you want from it. Sometimes it is a few millimetres off the very tips, what we call a dusting, to remove damaged ends. Sometimes it is a little more, to keep a shape sitting the way it should. Before I pick up the scissors, we agree together how much comes off.
For some people, a trim is more than hair. Some people choose to trim their hair around the phases of the moon because the ritual feels meaningful - a moment of letting go and starting fresh. That is a belief, not science: there is no evidence the moon changes how hair grows. I respect it all the same - if the timing matters to you, choose the moment that feels right. What I can promise is simpler: an honest cut and honest advice.
How often should you trim? There is no single right answer - it depends on your hair, how you style it and what it has been through. When you are in my chair, I will tell you honestly what yours needs, and we decide together. If you wear your hair short and sharp, you already know: a shape only stays sharp with regular visits.
Between trims, be kind to your ends. Heat that is too high, rough brushing on wet hair, sleeping with it tied tight - this is what wears them down. Conditioners and masks help keep the lengths in good condition, and some products can temporarily smooth the look of split ends - but no product fixes a split permanently, and the only lasting answer is to cut it off. In the salon we use the George Vallossian Repair Hair Mask to keep the lengths nourished, soft and smooth. The two work together: care for the hair you keep, and remove what cannot be saved.
If you are growing your hair and you feel nervous about the scissors, come and sit with us. A coffee, an honest look at your ends, and a plan we agree together before anything is cut. That is how we do things at my salons, 16 Beauchamp Place and Jumeirah Hotel.
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