A good cut is invisible until it is dry. A great cut is invisible after that, too. The fifteen minutes between those two states is where the work is done.
Most heads of hair leave the chair somewhere in the middle. The shape is correct, the length is right, the colour is fresh. But the surface is unresolved. The ends are sitting awkwardly, the parting is a little defensive, the polish is dry rather than fed. You notice it on the train home, in the shop window. You did not pay for that.
Where the time goes
Sectioning, twice. A drying pattern that follows the cut, not the head. The right brush for the texture, not the brush nearest the dryer. A pause to let the hair settle before the iron. A look around the back, properly. A walk to the front, properly.
It is not glamour, and it is not new. It is the discipline of not stopping at "good enough" because the appointment is over.
The chair you only leave when the work is right.
A finish that lasts is a finish that has been shaped twice. The same patience runs through the way a colour grow-out is planned. We will not send a head out otherwise.