In this video Russell Mayes, Director of Content for Jatai, demonstrates how to do a 1970 shag haircut. It’s a popular hairstyle that has stood the test of time. It’s effortlessly cool with volume, layers, and natural style. In this tutorial, the 70s shag hair is cut with a heavy fringe and created with a modern twist. The beauty of this style has kept up with trends and has shown that years later, it’s a flattering haircut in any generation.

The curly shag of the 70s was also popular. The shag style complimented the natural curls and gave it nice volume. In this video, the 70s shag is demonstrated with straight hair, but it works nicely on curly hair too.

1970 Shag Haircut with Bangs Tutorial

Welcome to the Jatai Academy. Today we’re going to be doing a shag with bangs, something that’s going to be solid and really full. Kind of uh 60s 70s inspired, that Stevie Nicks, Bridget Bardot kind of look. So let’s get started.

Taking a Center Section

So we’re going to start in the center. We’re going to take a flat section right at the front of the hairline and then we’re going to take that all the way back to the nape. Same thing on both sides so I have a nice mohawk section going from the front hairline all the way to the back.

As you see here, I’ll take my first section around the front hairline hold that up and determine how short I want my shortest layering to be and then using my Feather Styling Razor I’ll go through and cut my length off.

I’m cutting it shorter around the front and longer as I go towards the back. Now one thing I want to tell you about the Feather Styling Razor is I’m using the R-Type Blade the R-Type Blade covers less of the razor and exposes more of the blade so it’s actually easier to cut.

The Standard Blade actually covers more of the blade so it gives you more protection, but it’s not going to allow you to cut as thick a section of hair as the R-Type Blade.

So continuing working my layering from short at the front, longer in the back, I’m going to go through and hold each section of my mohawk section at 90° until I reach the crown. After the drop crown, I’ll pull everything up to that section.

So that’s going to give me an increase of length as I go down towards the nape, checking out my layering making sure everything looks even and smooth. Now we’re going to continue a parallel section to my first mohawk section and then I’m going to comb it into the center.

So I’m not going to walk my guide from the middle of the head towards the perimeter. I’m pulling all the hair into the center. So what this is going to do is it not only is it going to be shorter in the front it’s also going to be shorter in the center of the head and longer as it works towards the ears and longer as it works towards the nape in the back.

So I’ll continue to hold everything up at 90° from the head into the center of the head following my previously cut guide. And an important thing when you’re cutting with the razor is I want to make sure I maintain an even broad razor stroke.

If I use a broad razor stroke it’s going to keep all my ends very nice and light and airy. If I take a real tight stroke where I don’t take it and move the razor a lot, I’m going to end up with a more solid shape. So I’m using a soft broad stroke here.

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Now I’m continuing to work my layering going towards the back following the exact same guide that I was using before. Now we’ll continue on. I’m going to take a parallel section and sometimes this section can be a little difficult to take because you’re working a curved section on a flat part of the head which is the side.

Pulling everything again directly into the center of my head. So that first mohawk section that I held everything in this haircut as far as the layering goes is being held up in that mohawk section. Holding everything up, the same broad razor stroke that I was taking and just follow through.

If you approach something very very methodical it becomes easier to follow through on the pattern and you can move very very quickly. Once you get the hang of using a razor you can move through this very very quickly and get the length and the texture you want at the same time.

Now we’re going to take our last section here on this side of the head. Comb everything up. Anything that hangs over I’ll cut off as you can see right there. And as I work towards the back I’m going to pivot around the ear. There we go right through there and continue to work from front to back.

There’s our line. Now as we get to the back we’re not going to have a whole lot of hair to cut off. So this last section here that we’re going to work on there’s not going to be a whole lot of hair. So I’ve been cutting on the inside of my fingers the whole tim, but there’s not a lot there.

So I’m just going to glide the razor across the outside of my finger and cut any of those long little pieces off that hang over.

Now we’re going to go back and take my original mohawk section and the first section on the left side of the head. Finish the same thing on the other side and now we have our layering done. And I think it looks pretty nice and even all over.

Removing Weight from the Top

So now we’re going to section out around the front because I feel like the layering on top is too heavy. So we’re going to take some Jatai Blade Glide, spray that vigorously across the entire section of the hair that we’re about to cut because the Blade Glide makes the razor slide across the hair much more smoothly and evenly and gives me a much cleaner cut without the razor trying to snag any hair.

Now we’re going to go through and channel some weight out of each section of hair that we started with in the beginning. So we’re going to channel it out. Where it’s thinner we’re not going to take a whole lot.

Where it’s thicker you’re going to see me take more hair out because I felt like this mannequin head it was thicker on the top and thinner underneath which most of these are. And sometimes you have clients that are like that as well or thicker in one area of the head maybe in the nape, less in the front.

So I’m going to apply my channel texturizing exactly where it needs to be applied. So I’m really paying attention to how much hair I take out with each section. It’s not just some haphazardly just willy-nilly throw the razor through the hair. I want to apply it with forethought and with technique so I can make sure that the shape flows exactly like I want.

After I got the first section done I’m going to go through and continue working all the way towards the back. So each section I’ll take out as much hair as need be so that I get a nice even amount of weight distributed all the way across the top.

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Now we’re continuing on. Now you’ll see right there that piece of hair did not have a whole lot of weight in it so I just completely removed it. Thin out the hair on top of it. Texturize it so I have a nice even amount of weight distribution. Cut anything that hangs over around the front off that I don’t like.

Now here’s my last section right in the nape and I’m going to use the exact same methodology I was using around the front, removing as much hair as I feel is needed. After we do that we’ve got everything smooth.

Addressing the 1970 Shag Haircut Bangs

Now let’s section out our bang section. Let’s section out our bang. We’re going to take that triangle right in the front and I’m going to cut it in half.

Now after I’ve cut it in half I’m going to take my center section right there in front of her eyes and I want to cut this longer than I think it needs to be. And I’m going to take a broad razor stroke and cut that off and then look at it and see where it’s hitting, seeing how it’s flowing.

And now I’m going to cut everything evenly across the front. So I’m not building up any length towards the edges. I want everything evenly across the front so that way I have a little bit of bang that hangs underneath.

I’ll cut it a little shorter in the middle but I don’t want to cut an angle into it. I want the texturizing to be what allows me to push the hair out of the eyes. So on this section I’m not cutting an angle into it. I may cut it a little shorter right on the nose, but I want to keep that fairly even across and the texture was what’s going to give me movement to it.

Now as I finish this I get this even on both sides I like that straight across no problem. Now this section I am going to cut shorter in the middle, longer towards the edges. So I have that hair underneath that’s going to be disconnected from this section right here.

You see how it’s getting longer towards the edges so that underneath hair allows the longer hair to be pushed up out of the way and gives me an illusion of the hair being longer than it really is because I have that top layer that’s a little longer and the underneath layer keeps it out of the eyes so it has that that movement to it without me having to curtain the entire front.

So it’s a schizophrenic bag. Underneath is hanging straight and the top is hanging over to the side. And then I’ll just fine-tune it to where I get everything exactly like I want.

I like it. I think the bangs look really good. I think we really hit the bangs perfectly today and we got a lot of layering throughout the whole shape which I think is important for this type of shag but still not overly stringy or overly wispy.

It still has a solid shape and I think that that works well especially when you want to get some fullness and some height on the top and have a heavy bang. I think if it’s not full all around in a solid shape with a heavy bang it doesn’t really fit but that’s just my personal opinion and she’s ready to go to a Hollywood bungalow. She looks good. She’s ready to go.

Check out Jatai Academy. There’s all kinds of great information on there that will make you a better hairstylist and barber. Let us know what you’d like to see in the future and we will see you next time. Thank you so much!

Final Look of the 1970 Shag Haircut