Everywhere you look, choppy, shaggy cuts are dominating beauty trends. But what if you don’t want to hack away at your hair? That’s where ghost layers come in.
Thick-haired girls can go to town with layers, and still emerge with a full head of hair. However, if you have finer hair, things can start to look very flimsy, very quickly – so it makes sense to stay away from heavy layers.
On the other hand, one-length strands pretty much guarantee you’ll be left with flat, wilty hair, so, if you want any kind of movement, you’ll need some form of layers.
Ghost layers enable you to create the illusion of long, sleek, barely-layered hair whilst still offering some tactical volume and framing where you need it.
“This is one of my go-to techniques for creating movement and volume without sacrificing the thickness of the hair,” confirms pro hairstylist, Hollie Rose Clarke. “For someone like myself who has finer hair, a layered cut can fill you with dread,” she says. “In truth, I’ve never been a fan of overly visible layers, I think a little goes a long way when it comes to hair. Lots of us at some point will have sat in a stylists chair and shown a photo of our dream luscious, layered (thick) hairstyle, then left with quite the opposite,” she adds, “but remember, thin hair can look even thinner with layers. ”
So, what are ghost layers?
“This is a technique where only the very top horseshoe section of the hair is layered or sliced into, to create the perfect tailored-to-you movement,” says Hollie. The ends are left blunt to “give the illusion of even thicker hair and a soft, delicate movement on the surface,” she says. “Picture that effortless, Parisian-chic hair. ”
It means going easy with the scissors and opting for longer, lightweight layers woven skilfully through strands. You may want shorter pieces framing your face, but the rest should be able to blend into the lengths. Then, if you want, you can coax them out for extra texture and movement with texturising sprays and mussy waves.
“Regardless of the thickness of your hair, if your hair is feeling stringy towards the ends, it’s probably due to being over-layered,” explains Hollie.
