Lifestyle

Is it time for a micro trim?



As tans fade and the steady supply of Aperol drains from our bloodstreams, the sun-bleached locks you’ve been carefully tending all summer starts to feel decidedly tired in the cold light of September. The solution? A new season haircut. Specifically, a micro trim.

According to market research by Statista, the frequency of salon appointments for women in the UK has dropped, with the average time between haircuts increasing from 5.8 weeks to 7.3. A mere snip, you might think, but high-street salon Headmasters has reported seeing a significant change in the condition of women’s hair as a direct response to those extra 10-and-a-half days of blow-drying, air con and sun exposure. So, in an effort to cater to our increasingly low-maintenance lifestyles, Headmasters is launching the Healthy Hair Micro Trim — a minimal maintenance cut which promises to keep hair looking tip-top for longer. 

As its name suggests, the micro trim involves taking very little off the length. Instead, your stylist will twist freshly washed dry hair into sections to reveal split ends through the mid-lengths, which are then snipped off for smooth, strong and naturally healthier-looking locks. Think of it as the ultimate no-haircut haircut. It’s also ideal for those on the quest to gain a few extra inches or who detest the look of a manicured, fresh-out-of-the-salon ’do.

“A lot of my clients don’t want to feel like they’ve had a haircut,” agrees George Northwood, the man entrusted with the capital’s most envied manes, spanning models to royals. “But I find that often when someone says they don’t want a haircut, they mean they don’t want to lose the length. So I do what I call an invisible trim, which involves simply dusting off any split ends. I’ll give every single strand of hair a trim, but it will literally be the tiniest trim ever.” Among his regular invisible trim fans are Alicia Vikander, who discovered the technique while growing out a bob into her current timeless, textured mid-lengths, and a clutch of Vogue’s discerning beauty editors. 

Alicia Vikander is a fan of the invisible trim  (Rex Features)

If you’re among those gunning for growth, Northwood recommends leaving at least three months between appointments, making it ideal for those who find regular trips to the salon are far down the priority list. It’s good news for your bank balance too. Headmasters’s service starts at just £49, while Northwood says that it’s common for his regulars to opt to see one of his salon’s more junior stylists for an invisible trim between longer appointments.

Crucially, he believes that anyone can benefit from a micro trim, particularly as a post-summer refresh. “I would say if you’ve been on the beach for a lot of August, go and have an invisible trim,” he advises. “It can make a big difference to the top layer of hair, which sees the sun the most and so gets the most damaged.”

At Bleach, Dalston’s leading authority on technicolour tresses, the secret trim, as founder Alex Brownsell has coined it, has long provided a subtle yet effective way of dealing with brittle, overprocessed hair. 

“When cutting hair we don’t always want to take away length, just what is damaged, especially on colour-treated or bleached hair,” she says. “The split hair is not always just at the ends.” In fact, by just skimming off broken flyaways, Brownsell finds it’s often not necessary to touch the ends at all. “It’s like a hippie cut,” she says, adding that it’s better suited to those with a shaggy, layered cut than those with a blunt, short bob or tightly curled hair. “You could even do it at home with a sharp pair of scissors and a steady hand, if you are confident enough!”



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