If you don’t know what pageboy hair is, it was a popular hairstyle in the 60’s and 70s which looked kind of like a mushroom. It was often worn by both men and women. The look back then consisted of blunt short hair that framed the front of the face with bangs. It didn’t have much volume. In fact, the hair laid straight down but curved at the ends. It was often short in length and didn’t go below the neckline. In this video, we share the art of achieving a softer razor cut version of the timeless page boy haircut. With a modern approach to the cut, the style gets a makeover that’s appropriate for today’s looks and haircuts.

In this video Jatai’s Director of Content, Russell Mayes, shows a step-by-step instruction, emphasizing precision and technique to create a modern and flattering interpretation of this classic style. You’ll learn the fundamentals of razor cutting, exploring the nuances that give the page boy haircut its distinctive softness. He uses the Feather Styling Razor, Feather Plier Razor, Jatai Tokyo Scissors and some JATAI Blade Glide to achieve this iconic look. The tutorial offers a straightforward and informative approach to achieving the perfect soft razor cut pageboy hairstyle. To make it even more modern, change up the color or style it in a unique way.

Watch the video tutorial or follow along with the transcript below:

Welcome back to the Jatai Academy. Today we’re going to be doing a modern softer pretty version of pageboy hair. So let’s get started. Pageboy to me is one of these classic haircuts that was very popular in the the late 60s early 70s and it’s very very blunt and very very solid. And to me I never thought that it looked good. I never thought it was very appealing but that’s just my own aesthetic. No I should take that back. The only people that I think the pageboy looked good on were the Ramones. I thought the Ramones wore it very very well and so my challenge today is how do I take this haircut that I don’t necessarily have an affinity for because I feel like it’s just this blunt kind of mass mushroom of a shape and how do I make that pretty?

So I think the way that I modernize it and make it pretty and is to make it softer because the the classic pageboy is very very blunt all the way around. Everything’s cut at zero elevation. It’s very very solid kind of halo bowl cut mushroom shape. So I’m going to try to soften it up using my Feather Styling Razor and also my Feather Plier Razor to create some internal texture.

The Back

So the way I’m going to start is I’m going to comb a center section straight down. I’m going to judge where I want my overall length to be and I want something a little longer than the hairline but not so much that it’s starting to hit the shoulders and flip out. And then I’m going to hold everything down and I’ll take a fairly short stroke and just go straight across and cut that all one length. Here I don’t want to pull this back. I’m going to keep her head kind of straight forward. I’m going to comb this straight down and natural fall. Work that line all the way around trying to use the same razor stroke that I was using earlier.

To make this a little bit more solid through here I’m going to use my Tokyo Scissors. These are the 5 and 1/2 inch ones. I’m going to come underneath, comb that down, zero elevation and just go through and blunt that line up just a little bit. Cut some of that graduation off underneath on the bottom.

Okay now I’m going to go through and separate the front of the head from the back of the head. I’ll find the high point of the head bring that straight down to the top of the ear. And now I’ll go through and take my next section, keep that parallel to my previously cut section. Follow my previously cut guide and cut that all blunt one length. Everything’s getting combed straight down to the floor. And just continue this until I run out of hair.

The Sides

Alright, so we got the whole back finished. Now we’re going to work into the sides. Take my first little flat section where the comb lays flat against the head and I’m going to angle that all the way back into the mastoid and the reason I’m going back to the mastoid is so that I pick up a little bit of this hair that I cut in the back so now I have a guide to cut two. So I’ll cut the front short and it’ll be easy for me to know where I’m cutting two from. Does that make sense? Yeah two from.

Going to hit this with a little bit of Blade Glide to make sure I keep everything an even saturation. I’m going to start right in the center, right between the eyes straight down. Now when I comb this you’ll notice that the comb is away from me. As I get up to the root I flip the comb. That’s the only tension that I’m going to use. I’ll lay my hand right where I want to cut the section. I’m going to leave these a little longer. I don’t create any tension at all and then I’ll go through with my razor and cut that straight across.

Now here when I comb down the sides, this is my short piece. This is my long piece. So I need to determine what that angle is going to look like and most of the time most people will take this section and pull it forward and then go through and cut their angle. By me pulling this forward what I’m doing is I’m introducing movement into the hair. It’s going to start to shift back. So instead of it being straight down in pageboy I’m going to end up with kind of a Dorothy Hamill feather kind of look because I’m pulling it forward. So when I pull it forward it’s going to be shorter in the front longer and the back. So it’s going to shift back.

So what I’m going to do to counter that is I’m going to comb everything straight down. It’s going to be a little challenging. I’m going to go through comb everything straight down, I’m going to angle my fingers, the angle that I think I need to go to get here, comb that straight down. There is my short piece. My long piece is there. Now combing this straight down I’m going to cut my shape through it. Now we’re starting to get that kind of curve that’s very reminiscent of a pageboy. Continuing this as I go to the sides.

There’s my line. There’s my angle I’m cutting to. Cut that down and through. Next piece. Fight the urge to pull forward. I want to comb straight down, angle my fingers and then cut that line. Take my next section. Same angle that I took before. Take a little bit more hair. Pin this out of the way and continue combing everything straight down in natural fall, angle my fingers the line that I want to cut. There’s my line. The razor will match that line. I’m combing everything straight down. There’s the line. The razor matches the line. Cut that off and through. If I have anything that doesn’t quite match clean that up a little bit. Take your time.

And now we’re beginning to get a nice little shape through there. So continue on till I run out of hair.

Modern Texture

So now let’s go through and I think putting some internal texture so we can get a little bit more softness and flicking going on instead of it just being a mushroom. I’m going go through and take an angle similar to what we were working with before. And now I’m going to go through and use my Feather Plier Razor. That way I can make internal texture and make that separation with much more dexterity and control than I can with my regular Feather Styling Razor. If you’re looking to get into using a no guard razor, this is a good way to start because this is the easiest way to use it with the least amount of fear of cutting yourself. We got that. Same thing here in the back.

I will probably do less in the back than I will on the sides and on the top because I still want to maintain that heavy moppy shape. Now I’m going to go through and do a little bit more weight removal as methodically as I can be for the rest of the hair.

Now if you’re working on somebody that maybe doesn’t have as thick a hair as my doll head does maybe you don’t do as much texturizing internally and you keep it just on the very edges and on the very ends and that will get you that separation to it without thinning it and make it feel any finer or thinner.

Bangs

So we’ve saved the very best for last which is the bang section and the reason I saved that for last is so I’m already warmed up with my razor action. I have a good feel for how the hair is reacting to it so when I’m dealing with something as vital as around the front I can be more judicious about application of how much that I’m going to take out, how much hair I’m going to remove. So I’m going to start. I may start with half of this section, pin that out of the way, come in and just very gently go through and remove a little bit right in the front. I would rather remove too little than to remove too much. And I think that’s looking good. And then the very last section is this hair that may hang over it. I’ll take a little deeper but a little bit further apart with my internal razor stroke so I can get some separation and weight removal without taking too much out. And I think that that’s a good place to stop with the wet cut. So let’s blow it dry, take a look and fine tune it when it’s dry.

Final Look

Here’s our end result and uh I think it’s a nice soft version of classic page boy hair. I think it looks a little bit more modern. It’s a not quite a Ramone but it certainly has some texture and some movement to it, some softness. And I think that this shape would work really well on some curly hair that had a little bit more puff to it. I think that would be really really pretty. Check out the Jatai Academy. There’s all kinds of great information on there to make you a better hairdresser or barber. Also let us know what you’d like to see in the future and thank you so much for watching. We’ll see you next time. I appreciate it.