Getting My Head Shaved For The First Time (The Big Chop) | I'Ve Never Tried | Allure

We'Re here for a special prayer to give me strength, because my hair will no longer be here. You saw a lot of things. I didn't want you to see. Hey. I'M me Anthony Barrington. I am an associate producer. I also am a television host and a model so firming. My hair was the first phase of my hair journey going natural was the second, and now the big chop is the third. They call it the big chop in the natural hair community because you were literally chopping all of your hair off. You are done with your perm hair. There'S two ways: you can go natural, you can do a big chop or you can slowly transition and so basically letting your hair grow out long enough and then just cutting off the perm to ends. So that's what I did. I was like a hair chef like I would be in the kitchen, with avocados and eggs and mayonnaise, using all these old recipes in the early 2000s 2010s. You couldn't just go to CVS or rite-aid walgreens. You couldn't just go to these stores and find hair products for you because they weren't in there now, thankfully, you'll find at least five natural hair companies that will be on the counter. Hair has always been a spiritual thing with black people, African people and a lot of people believe that, like these are our tentacles, these are some of the sensors. We have that allow us to connect to God so yeah. I'M scared, I'm a little nervous to shave. My head, but at the end of the day I feel like we're in a new era where women embrace their sexuality and their femininity and new and different ways, you can't classify a woman just because she has a shaved head anymore. I'M getting the big chop done by this amazing barber named Lisa. She is the owner of the cut gallery in Brooklyn. I'M really excited because she just does amazing design work. She does so many like dope colors like bright colors. I'M just really excited to meet her. Oh boy, I can't believe this is the last day of my hair. What am i doing? It'S my meals last day with here shaky-shaky. For me, let's get a 360 view. I can't believe I am only a few hours away from cutting off all my hair. I hope I like it, so you are chopping your hair off. Yes, I'm doing a big chop. Yeah! That'S awesome. I feel like a lot of women right now are kind of owning themselves, saying I am more than this idea, beauty behind here so yeah. I think that's awesome, I'm excited so these are the steps that I normally take with clients. The first step is consultation and then the bulk, the hair, a skin, fade bleach. The color then we'll just throw some designs in there in the consultation. What I'm looking for is your hair, texture, your hair density, and, if I can create the haircut that you want, can you just show me a reference as to what is the styles? Are you looking for all right, so this was the first one. I was thinking about okay, so you not only wants to cut your hair. You also want to color it. Yes, yes, okay, wanna color. I was thinking about maybe like some type of purple. I even brought a shade of lipstick, so it's like a purple pink like a raspberry, almost raspberry like something that wouldn't wash me out, but I also don't want it to be. Like a Barney verbal yeah, I know you will have to go blown first. It'S very important to show the haircut before the beach, because if you want a design or anything that may include a razor, it's gon na burn. If we do the razor first and then put the bleach on so I'm gon na do the haircut first. But I'm not gon na do any line work until after just to not risk any sensitivities or chemical burns, or anything like that. So the first machine is the pasta Octane's they cut through any texture of hair. Call it the lawnmower. It will just go straight through yeah. That'S intimidating, like I can see it cutting through all my hair. It'S like point of no return. I'M gon na put the cape on you and then we're gon na start, taking off majority of this haircut no time back. Okay, so the first thing I'm gon na do is: I am going to take our Oscars. I'M not gon na put this against your scalp, I'm going to just freehand it just to kind of debunk it take off the majority of what we know. We don't need. So that I can see your hair texture, how it lays and how it grows. Sahab is visible right now, almost okay, okay, good all right, so, where demons of the other, so we can start off with the longer cut and then, if you're still like. Let'S just keep going we'll take a shorter okay. We got majority of the hair off now we're halfway to the new you I mean this is the roughest part of it, so anything from here, oh yeah, and it's gon na get better. Okay. What I'm gon na do now is I'm going to take my fading machine and I'm gon na take a larger guard. The numbers vary, so it starts at one two, three, four up to eight. Well, what I know about clipper guards is lower number clipper guards leave less hair on the head, while higher number clipper guards leave more hair on the head. The number one clip regard leaves 1/8 length of hair on the head. The number two clipper guard leaves 1/4. The Clipper guard number three leaves 3/8 inches of length of hair on the head, so I'm gon na take my walls 13 by number three guard. I love this machine. It has short teeth and that's really good for fading. What is going through your mind as we get closer and closer? I don't know if hitting me that I'm really doing this, like I know I said I would do it well, the fact that I'm really doing it, I'm just like living the reality. Okay, the reason why I'm choosing to use a big guard is just because I'm still trying to see how your hair, ladies, I'm still trying to not commit to any specific length just yet, which I'm gon na continue to debug it. Just it's gon na be more scoped. It'S who your head! This is awesome, yeah, it's highlighting your jawline and your cheekbones a lot. So, even though your hair is not at a coil right now, on top, how do you feel about the link? Do you feel like you would want to go shorter? You feel more comfortable. I don't know like I kind of liked this week, but I kind of do want to see it. Maybe like a smidge yeah, we go shorter yeah. Oh my gosh, it's cool. I feel like I went a little too low way. It'S okay, like you'll, grow back like I'm, not stressing it yeah. So this is closer to the first haircut. As far as on the sides I feel like. Maybe a skin face is gon na just be a little more dramatic, a little more intense, it's gon na. Look very really good. Also lets me do the colors so yeah, so this right now, what is it's like a tube or like yeah? This is gon na, be like a one in and a half kind of a, and then it's in fade is just like a point five or something like that. Like skin, we could do and basically Matt yeah. It'S not one. Something in between okay would be good. Gotcha, so what I'm gon na do then, is I'm gon na? Do a number one, a number one. Is that always a good place to kind of start? So now I'm gon na just go down with the one. I don't want to go in too aggressive and we're gon na just kind of see the shades as we go around I'm going to start bringing some more of the lightness for me. A temple area up just to create that dimension that you want, without taking your hair all the way down to the skin. So there's different styles that women like to try when they want a hard line, they will get it coming across above the ear and kind of just like into the cheekbone. Would you want to try maybe a line, or is this something that may be too aggressive right now? Is there like a soft line like I don't want, like? I don't know if that makes it yeah yeah they come is so basically the trick was putting in any hard line or any part of the shape up before the haircut is done. Is that it kind of gives the eye a sharpness and you're able to kind of see the a little stronger? So now what I'm gon na do is fade out. The bottom half in the back, the hair around our hairline, is the first thing we notice when I hear it grows out, so I always like to take it a little extra tight. So, right now from cutting your hair, I see that a lot of it grows up and to the side. It just means that I'm gon na have to cut at different angles to actually get the hair to cut through the machine. Now I'm going to line up the edges to create definition, and then I will go back in blends a little more and then we can start the blondes okay. I like it like it was interesting in the beginning. I was very like when you did that. First cut I was like oh my gosh like it was like very nerve right. That was that, like my hardest part yeah, that was definitely the hardest part and then, like the shorter, you got the more I liked it and then this whole time I thought I'd have my mom's head shape and I'm like my dad's head shape too, and it's Just like, oh okay, so it started to know yourself yeah exactly like more and more throughout the process. Yeah, I'm excited to see what the colors gon na look like. Oh, that's gon na just change everything we measure, hair color and a light nerd who else's I'm gon na use, one scoop measure it and then I'm gon na match the same amount of ounces to the amount of developer. I'M gon na use. Okay. So this is like a consistency. That'S pretty good kind of like cake icing, so bleach is a very time sensitive process, so moving quickly is going to give us the most even result yeah. This brings me back a little bit to my days where I used to get purse the whole process putting the chemicals in your hair. So when I was little, I had probably the same amount of hair is. I have now my mom didn't even know what to do with it that led her to give me a perm when I was six years old like this, is how thick my hair was. She would have to get the firmed box that either had two of them in one or she would have to buy two box firms for my head you're supposed to use one to overtime. It doesn't hurt as much but that first perm is like awful and we would do my perms at home. She would do mine, I would do hers and I feel like that is the basic way of beauty at home for a lot of black families. I always ask if there's any kind of chemical history in your year, our hair is made up of bonds. One breaks with water. One breaks with chemical, I like to compare it kind of like to glass. Glass is moldable when it's hot, which is kind of the same thing as here's. What then, when it's dry it hardens, that's when you're able to mold hair, and so like really cool shapes, now, there's chemical bonds in your hair, relaxer or chemical services and color services. They attack the same bonds. You don't want to break all the bonds in your hair chemically because then that's when you get jelly hair, there's like nothing left, they do have synthetic bonds which they now add into the lightener. What these bonds do is as they're breaking they're, replacing the bonds synthetically now, your hair can go further and you're less likely to have broken hair, but unless you're using those specific products, you have to tell your stylist okay, I have relaxer or previous color or anything Like that, so I like to line it up at the front hairline first and bring it all the way around so outside the ears just want to make sure that every part of your hairline is inside, which is going to just kind of like incubate it. The heat off of your scalp is gon na. Allow the bleach to keep working and processing it's gon na open up the pores in your hair, so make it easier to penetrate okay. So we'll just leave this for about 15 minutes and then we'll just go in and check our progress. I did the big top. I cut it all off, I'm about to get it bleach, yeah, I'm getting a raspberry color. How are you feeling good, okay, good? Let'S check and see where we are at, you are already blind. Okay, what I'm gon na do is just check through and make sure there's no spots, because this is our time to catch them, so I'm just parting the hair and opening it up so that I could make sure it's thoroughly covered all the way through. I think that blonde itself is gon na suit you and then all the other colors are just gon na, be so much fun. I feel like misty, I'm just going to smooth over the openings we just created with the column just to make sure that the product is pushed back down into the hair. What we're gon na do now we're gon na put a cap back on and then we're just gon na. Let it sit longer and continue to process. Is it the first half of the color? Are you ready to see it? Yes, oh my gosh wow. This looks really good, like I didn't think I would look good with blonde hair like honestly, but this, like, I actually like this, these colors are direct colors. That means that you don't have to mix it with any developer. So it's literally like just straight out the to you, you can just apply it. I love it already. I feel like a rock star like I've, never done anything like this before so to preserve the color. I recommend co-washing in between shampoos, another trick that some people do if they really like a color is they'll mix some of the color into their conditioner. So then it could just give them like a fresh pigment when they wash their hair. So I'm going to put this half on you we're gon na. Let it process for about 15-20 minutes and then we will review your beautiful new colors. Okay. So now I'm going to give you your design and then we will do the big reveal here, final haircut. So I'm going to take my tea outliners. This machine is really really good. It cuts through everything, very clean, very strong. What side would you like to do your part on the right side? Oh yeah, three partings right yeah, I mean you can kind of flow with it, yeah gotcha. So if you ever want to get a design, that's like more into the length of your hair, you're gon na have to understand that the girl back you're gon na always kind of have yeah it's kind of like dent. So that's just to keep in mind whenever you're picking designs, so I'm gon na go in with the razor which will give it the most definition. Not everybody can use the razor in their skin because they get razor bumps. So this is something that you would always want to ask the client if they have any kind of history with not being able to use razors or straightedge. Are you ready to see your final look? Oh, my goodness, Wow like a new person, I know what new person's it was really good. I like it a lot here. Let me show you yeah, I like the raspberry like vibe. It'S still, oh my gosh. Oh thank you. I really like this a lot hey. I'M back and it's been about two weeks since I did the big chop, there's no more hair. You guys. I have like not even half an inch of hair, it's crazy, but I really love it. I'Ve been getting a lot of great feedback. People love the color. They love the cut. I love the color and it's just been a really cool experience. I think it was a bit of a surprise for me when Lisa cut off all my hair, and I saw like the texture of my hair when it was like this low and how it wasn't as like curly as I thought it would be. It was like a lot more straight than I thought it would be, even though I do have some like kinkiness to it, but it really reminded me of my dad's hair, which, like I don't know how to explain it, but my mom would explain it as like. It was like velvet like it just like stood up a little thick. It was soft. That was a really touching experience for me just because my dad has been gone for seven years now, and so you know anything that makes me like, remember him and feel like I'm connected to him. A little more is always a plus oh yeah. People definitely stare and give me different reactions when I'm on the train and the buses, the kids look at me. It'S a bright color like it just draws your eye to it, so I try not to get it added to like what they looking at look like. I try not to have that thought when I see people like staring at me if I have my hair out, but I'm so thankful. I had this experience one because I met Lisa. I think she's so dope, like her haircut and her short hair and her confidence alone really like helped me so want to go through with it, and I got to have an amazing experience that I will definitely remember for the rest of my life and grew my Confidence and allows me to walk in this Meno world a little more fearless leave. You