Amy E: Hello and welcome to the Cutting Edge Hair Show. I'm Amy E and this is Stas and we're at his saloon in San Francisco called Metamorphosis which is when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. I've decided I'm ready to get my hair cut today. I heard that you do something called an Upside Down haircut here.

Stas Mikhailov: Yes, it's awesome. It grows out beautifully and it's very manageable. You'll really enjoy it.

Amy E: I need that. I'm on the go, I need manageability. So I'm going to go like this and you're going to cut it. Alright, let's go get started. Stas!

Stas Mikhailov: Oh! Yeah that's sexy. Alright, let's get started. So first we will determine the length, kind of. But not all the way because the contour line will be done always at the end of the haircut. So making sure that you grab all the hair is really important. So you're in the control, your hair does not control you and here we go. Combing the hair out really nice, having very strong tension, and depending on how much texture you would like to have that determines how strong you want to push on the razor.

Amy E: And how much texture do you want?

Stas Mikhailov: Plenty.

Amy E: Alright, I love texture. It will be great.

Stas Mikhailov: Plenty of texture. So this is what we'll call problem area where everybody wants little bit more height right here. So that could be pretty textured and shorter. That's what we're going to do right now, over directing it, that will create the length, because I do not want to cut this length. So over directing it all the way here will definitely give more stretch compared to this. So that will create really, really cool movement.

As we get here, that's really important area as well because it drags to the front and we want to make sure that all of this is going to stay way longer than this. So it has to gradually blend together and also I would like to leave some heavy bangs. I think they'll look wonderful on her. So I'll make sure that this won't get cut too much. You can use scissors; you can use anything you want with this particular technique. Everybody will choose their own technique. This is just an idea of flipping it upside down and creating slightly different shape. That gives you a lot more control over everything.

Amy E: It doesn't matter what tools you use as long as it's upside down, right?

Stas Mikhailov: Yes. So we're pretty much done with the whole shape. You can check over here. If you want a little bit more by moving it and seeing how it's going be pretty. Much treating it like this would the back of the hair and these are the bangs. This is how you pretty much cut it.

At the end this is pretty much the last thing we need to do is create a contour line. That will create a nice finished touch. Going lower, putting yourself all the way to the floor makes it look cool, and also shows you right there in front of your eyes where do you want to make the cut and how would you like to cut it. It's really important to keep the head in the same position throughout the whole haircut because that will create evenness throughout, unless you want it uneven.

And it's really important to make sure that the hair looks all the same direction. There are no tangles. So any products that anybody likes to use to give that smoothness will be very beneficial. Alrighty! So this is pretty much done. Here you go, you lift it up and you can start seeing the shapes already. You can always do a little bit more when the hair is dry. You can add more textures and see. I like to do that because each hair dries differently and it always looks different. I'm going to use really light moves just to give you enough hold and volume but not over --

Amy E: I really like it. It feels so much better.

Stas Mikhailov: See, just perked you up a little bit.

Amy E: Thank you, it's really cute.

Stas Mikhailov: And still left some length in there, because there was a little bit dragging it down. Now, it's definitely up. It opens up little bit of face. At this point, I would like to texturize it a little bit, give it little bit more durability and make sure everything is nice and organic together.

So everybody can use different texturizing techniques like point cutting, slicing. I prefer thinning shears, again a little bit of Edward Scissorhand kind of action or you just kind of grab and just play with the hair. The most important thing the hair is going to move regardless of how much hairspray end stuff you put in and that's a good thing. So working with the hair, cutting it while it constantly moves that's what is going to give it a really nice haircut, doesn't matter which direction it will look, doesn't matter which direction the wind will below towards it. Cool!

Amy E: Cool!

Stas Mikhailov: And this at the end already, that could be again very personal style. How would you like to wear it? You can wear it really nice and neat if you want to. You don't have to; you can make it really texturized and very messy. Another really good thing about these haircuts, you can clip them and have the different looks going on everywhere you go, mess this up, little cocktail dress.

Amy E: Yeah, I can't wait to experiment.

Stas Mikhailov: Shake hair.

Amy E : Let's see what it looks like on the boy. Okay, so I've just got my hair done Upside Down by Stas and now, he is going to do Josh's, so you can see what he looks like on the shorter hairstyle and on a boy, yeah.

Stas Mikhailov: Yup, so let's get started.