14.2 Work Area Setup, Mannequin Preparation and the Haircutting Procedure

Work Area Setup, Mannequin Preparation and the Haircutting Procedure

Exam Focus: The haircut is the longest single procedure at fifty minutes, and it constrains everything after it: cut too short and the perm rods, rollers, foils and relaxer sections will not work. Learn the six-to-seven-inch remaining-length rule, the four or five allowable sections, and the prohibition on point cutting.

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1. Preparation of Work Area and Client (10 minutes)

Begin immediately on assignment to your work area, without waiting to be told.

Step 1 — Sanitise the work surface. Remove the pre-mixed surface sanitising solution and related supplies from your kit and sanitise your assigned work surface following required procedures. Attach a plastic bag for disposables to your workstation at this time.

Step 2 — Set out supplies. Set out the general supplies you will use throughout the examination, plus the items needed for the haircutting procedure. Set out your container for blood contamination at this time. This satisfies 19 NYCRR § 160.19(c), which requires plastic bags and sealable rigid containers to be available at all times when services are performed, and whose absence is presumptive evidence of non-compliance.

Step 3 — Sanitise hands, clamp and drape. Sanitise your hands. Secure the mannequin to the workstation with a counter-top clamp. Drape the mannequin and wait for further instructions.

After the examiner has checked your workstation, you begin each procedure only when directed to do so.

What is being assessed here

• Professional appearance — smock, closed-toe shoes covering the top of the foot, no bulky jewellery.
• Correct hand sanitising with a product containing 60% or more alcohol.
• Correct draping — the neck-strip-before-cape rule from 19 NYCRR § 160.20(d) applies to the mannequin as it would to a client.
• A properly separated waste stream: plastic bag for disposables, rigid container for blood contamination.
• Organised supply layout — implements accessible, sharp implements stored so as not to be exposed, per § 160.20(f).
• Simulated products handled as if they were the actual product. DOS states this explicitly; treat gel standing in for relaxer with the same care as relaxer.

2. Hair Cutting Techniques (50 minutes)

You will use scissors to demonstrate ninety-degree layered haircutting techniques.

The specification

The nine steps

1. Set up all supplies and implements needed if not already done. Wait until instructed before moving forward.
2. Part the hair into sections — four or five.
3. Establish the perimeter using a zero-elevation guideline, starting at the nape and continuing in either direction.
4. Establish layered length using the guideline from the perimeter. You may cut from the crown down or from the nape up.
5. Establish a ninety-degree elevation using vertical partings.
6. When prompted, and in the examiner's direct presence, use a razor to continue the ninety-degree layered cut.
7. Demonstrate the removal of excess bulk — thinning shears, razor or scissors — in the examiner's direct presence.
8. Remove hair clippings from skin, cape and work area; sweep the floor surrounding your work area; re-sanitise your hands after cleanup.
9. Remove supplies and implements no longer needed from the work surface and set out supplies for blow-drying.

Where candidates lose marks

Practising to the specification

Practise on a mannequin identical to the one you will bring — uncut, unprocessed, solid-colour human hair, minimum eight inches from the nape — and time yourself. Fifty minutes is generous for the cut itself and tight once the setup, the two direct-presence demonstrations, the clean-up and the transition to blow-dry supplies are included. Rehearse the whole sequence, not just the cutting.