Hair Care and Haircutting: Shaping, Styling, Chemical Services, and Color
What this domain tests
This domain tests haircutting geometry, styling fundamentals, chemical texture services, and color formulation. Questions often ask you to choose an elevation, section, developer, or test based on a client goal and scalp condition.
Cutting and styling geometry
- Elevation controls graduation: 0° is blunt or one-length, 45° builds graduation, 90° creates uniform layers, and 180° produces long-layered shapes.
- Distribution is the angle at which hair falls from the section: natural, perpendicular, or shifted. Overdirection moves hair away from its natural fall and builds length or weight in a design line.
- Tension must be consistent; uneven tension creates uneven lines. Check balance by cross-checking sections.
Color and chemical texture
The level system runs 1 (black) to 10 (lightest blond). Developer strength controls lift: 10 volume deposits, 20 volume lifts about 1–2 levels, 30 volume lifts about 2–3 levels, and 40 volume is high lift with greater scalp risk. A patch test checks allergy; a strand test checks timing and outcome. Permanent color lifts and deposits; demi-permanent deposits with low lift. Relaxers are strongly alkaline and require neutralization; thio relaxers and hydroxide relaxers are not interchangeable.
Worked example
A client at level 4 wants level 6, a two-level lift. Choose a permanent color with 20 or 30 volume, depending on the line’s lift chart, and do a strand test. Reason: the target needs lift plus deposit, and 40 volume adds scalp risk without a clear need.
Traps
Using 40 volume on a sensitive scalp; overlapping color; skipping the patch or strand test; confusing elevation with distribution; assuming all relaxers neutralize the same way.