Continuing education—especially in the salon and beauty industry—is such a gift. The people you meet, the educators you learn from, and the time with your co-workers out of the salon is all amazing. Last month, Liz Blaze from the Burnsville salon and I attended an Oribe Journey to Mastery Class in New York City—all about the modern shag. And yes, it was all amazing!
The Modern Shag
The modern shag is characterized by long layers, often paired with feathered ends for a piecey finish (versus the classic cut, which has more blunt ends) and bangs. Adaptable to personal style, the look can span from soft and feminine to strong and bold. I love the modern shag because there’s so much movement and effortless layers. And based on the look you want, there is versatility in keeping lines strong or soft and it’s equally stunning blown out smooth or hand dried with natural texture.
What We Learned
We started with a demo from Coby Alcantar, salon owner, stylist and Oribe educator. After watching Coby work her magic and explaining her step-by-step process is great detail, I felt such confidence and was excited to learn how to recreate the look. Oribe provided amazing models and let us do what we needed to in order to learn the cut. We both tackled our cuts using a straight-edge razor, and having prior experience with this tool we paid close attention to every edge of that blade.
We had time to create two looks on two different models—and even walked through our discoveries and challenges after our first. I love being able to do that before our second model. Our second models were even better, having a second chance to lock in the system and clean up our questions is amazing!
What We Created
We each created two fun looks—check out our finished products (and what they looked like before) below!
My looks:
Liz’s looks:
What We’re Bringing Back to Cole’s
Liz and I are both coming home knowing the system and process for this look, and can’t wait to share what we learned with our team members. Who is ready for this fall trend?! We are!
Julie Norstedt is an Advanced Designer at Cole’s Salon Burnsville.
