In this soft undercut tutorial short hair look we use three tools to create the final style: clippers, a Feather Plier Razor and Jatai Kyoto Scissors by BMAC. All three tools have their important purposes and contribute to the final look in different ways. Follow along with the video tutorial and the transcript below.

Pixie Soft Undercut Tutorial:

Welcome to the Jatai Academy. I’m Russell Mayes, Director of Content. Today we’re going to be doing a study on an undercut, but we’re going to do a short undercut, a pixie undercut. Keep it from being so full on thick hair, still make sure it’s got some movement some style and some grace. So check it out.

Let’s get started. Diving right in because I forgot to hit record on the underneath part but luckily it’s an easy part to explain.

The Undercut

So I took from the center of the recession straight back to the quarter part, quarter part down to the nape area and I rounded that out a little bit on both sides so I don’t end up with a fat little point in the middle.

From there I took my clipper with a number five attachment, hit on and just cut everything underneath off and very short. It’s all the same length. Everything off underneath here, just buzz it short to get it out of the way.

So after we’ve cut everything underneath short and clean, I’ll take the guard attachment off. I’ll take my comb and now I’m just going to go through and around the edges of the hairline fit that in.

So I’ll put the comb in angle it out a little bit so it’s really short around the edges of the hairline and I work that up and out and blend. I’m not going to recut everything up to here. I’m just fitting it in a little closer near the hairline.

So this is just tapering that in just a little bit closer. You can certainly go through and use smaller guards to fit that in a little cleaner as well but we’re just going to show you options.

So after I’ve got that fitted in we’re going to come here into the nape and do the same sort of motion where I’m just tapering that in just right around the hairline.

And I think when you go through and you do a little bit of tapering, even though it’s not necessarily a massive amount, I think it does add a little more elegance to the haircut overall as opposed to it just being all the same length underneath.

So it differentiates me from other people or for someone doing it at home. So it also adds a little style, a little bit of elegance, a little bit of fine tuning and sometimes it’s just that extra 10% that really makes a haircut pop and look truly professional.

The Pixie Portion

So when I go and cut the top I’m going to use my Feather Plier Razor. Now the Feather Plier Razor is a guardless razor. It doesn’t have a guard. It has a super sharp blade so be a little careful, but it gives me the most control over how much hair I remove, where I remove it from and how precise the shape is that I apply to it. So this is my weapon of choice for cutting the top.

Alright so now we’ve sectioned off the top. I’ve sectioned from where the quarter part would be right at the crown. I’ve sectioned out the front from the back of the head. We’re going to start right in the middle and I’m going to take me a little pie section and make sure it’s not too thick. And I’m going to hold this out at an angle.

I want this top part of the section to be held at that elevation so I can graduate it. Make sure everything comes out. I know I’m going short here so I’m going to take my Feather Plier Razor and start with a very very broad stroke and cut that up and out.

And I think that that length once it bounces up is probably going to be pretty good. Now once I put a little bit more texture into this internally it will make it feel a little shorter as well.

So before texture I leave it a little longer. After texture it will make it feel a little shorter. Close my razor. Take the next part.

I’m going to pivot out of the center and add the next section in. Again, not too thick. If the sections get too thick then the razor has to push through it and I end up with a line that’s not very clean or consistent.

Open my guard again, there’s my guide underneath, take that up and out. And I’m taking a pretty broad stroke to make sure I maintain that soft kind of texture to it. If I need to put layering in it then we’ll do that a little bit later.

And I’m just going to continue this pivoting right here in the crown and walking my guide around the head. And I think we’re looking pretty good so far.

Check that out, see how that’s looking. I think that’s looking pretty good. Now going through and taking a vertical section will force it to separate into vertical pieces.

If I was to go through and take this horizontally then it would build up a much more solid line. So after I’ve done this side I’m going to go through and do the same thing on the other side. Okay now we’re coming to the last section on the opposite side and I’m still continuing to cut up from the bottom to the top.

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Make sure we got everything dialed in there lengthwise around the perimeter. Now let’s check the other side.

So we’re going to start here with the center part on top. We’re going to separate it left and half sides. Then I’m going to go through and take a vertical section off of the center part using the guide in the back and I’m going to hold this vertically and continue my angle of graduation that I had from underneath, still taking a nice broad razor stroke working from the back into the front.

If I want the front to get longer, then once I hit the ear I’ll start to pull everything back to that. If I want to maintain everything kind of being equal, I can certainly continue to walk my guide. Next section, holding it out vertically, there’s my guide that’s falling out, taking vertical sections continuing that through.

Now I’ve noticed that the razor starts to catch in the hair a little bit and I’m drying out so I’m going to use a little bit of Jatai Blade Glide to help smooth the hair out and make it easier for my razor to cut.

Continuing my vertical sections, not taking sections that are too thick. There’s my guide falling out. That’s much better. Slides much better through the hair. Comb that down. I want that hitting right about the middle of the ear which is going to be right at the nose. Doesn’t have to be perfect you know. I just want to make sure I get in the general vicinity of the proper length that I’m going for.

Next section, pull to the ear so I leave a little bit of extra length in the front that I may cut off but at least I’ll leave it there just in case I want to do something with that.

Yeah I think a little more length is going to work out well. Take the last section, bring that back to the ear as well. Not much is going to reach from her previous layers that she had around the front. Now we’ve got that. There we go.

Now we can start to see some separation popping in because we’ve been taking vertical sections. After I’ve cut both sides it’s going to leave me a little bit of a point in the front. Now I don’t want this much of a point because I think it’s going to become too exaggerated so I’m going to round this out a little bit more and take a little bit of the weight out.

So I’ll take the entire thing, pull that forward and go through and do a deep channel cut as I’m cutting the length right here at the very front at the same time. It’s going to not only remove the thickness and the weight of it, but it’s also going to cut some of that length off.

I’ll go through and do my initial pass. I’ll go through and do what I think needs to be done and then I’ll go back and look at it and see if I need to take any more out or take any more length off.

This haircut has a lot of visual elements to it and I have to determine that those visual elements if they fit as I go. I can’t just hit it once and move on. I have to fine-tune the shape with each pass and with each cut according to her hair texture, their thickness, their growth pattern, their waves and what my end result what I think looks good to my eye.

I think that’s looking pretty good. So let’s blow it dry take a look and see what we got.

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Reducing Fluff

Alright. So we finished blowing dry and I think the basic shape looks pretty good. It’s very pixie like. It’s nice and short underneath so it keeps it from really bulking out, but I think it needs a little bit more pop to it. I think it’s still a little bit too fluffy.

So what I’m going to go through and do is I’m going to take my Jatai Kyoto Scissors. This is the sharpest blade I got and I’m going to go through and do some really deep channel cutting and be very very aggressive with this to get this hair to separate more in pieces so it becomes less product dependent and I can still get that aggressive separation.

So I’m not going to take any sections. I’m just going to comb the hair straight down put the blade in about halfway and just go through and chew some big separations between this.

So not only will this remove a little bit of weight, but it’s also going to give me a much more aggressive separation and I think make it look a little bit edgier and have a little bit more pop to it.

There we go. I’m liking that better. Be careful. Don’t go through and get too aggressive in areas that you don’t want. Just pay attention. Gently apply.

You can always add more but you can’t take it out once you put it in. So be mindful of that and I think that right through there a little bit. Right through there. I like that better.

Final Look of this Pixie Soft Undercut Tutorial

Here’s our end result. I think we’re looking pretty good. We got a lot of texture to it and for as thick as this mannequin head is for it to not be so bulbous and full and still have some separation and movement to it, it is quite showing of the technique of undercutting it and then having enough hair to lay over it and putting a lot of texture to it.

So let us know what you think. Please check out the Jatai Academy. There’s all kinds of fantastic information on there that will make you a better hairstylist and barber. Also let us know what you’d like to see in the future. Thank you so much for watching. We’ll see you next time.