Curly hair has its own rules, and the trend is no longer to wage war against it. The problem is that most of the advice in circulation is about products, while the essence lies elsewhere: in the cut. Well-cut curly hair controls the frizz and the excess volume by itself - the volume that makes many women give up and reach for the straightener.

A straight line makes a triangle

Here is the part least understood. On straight hair, blunt cuts give density and that quiet luxury aesthetic that lasts several seasons. On curly hair, the story is the opposite.

"Curly hair has texture, which means it lets you create far more volume and more silhouettes far more easily than when we work with straight hair," says Alberto Sangino, hairdresser and head of education at a hairdressing school.

Working with layers is what makes that possible. "They always work much better because they let you build silhouettes around the face," he explains. "However, with straight hair, kept entirely one length, the silhouette we create is a triangular volume. That is, a lot of volume at the ends, but at the crown it will always stay much flatter."

That is the bell effect anyone with curly hair knows by heart, even without knowing its name.

Length does not matter

The good news is that layers work at any length. "It does not matter whether it is short or medium length. Short curly hair is always very comfortable, because you have it with just a little product. But it will always be easy to maintain, if it has graduation or layers," Sangino says.

At home, the advice is a strict post-shower protocol, according to your curl type: a leave-in product, curl definition, and then air drying or a little diffuser. Not a towel, no rubbing.

Cutting on dry hair, not wet

This is the technique worth asking about in the salon before you sit down in the chair. Rosi Fernandez from one salon is categorical: "One of the techniques I use most in the salon is cutting curly hair dry. That way you see the hair's original fall and the texture of the curl, which is never the same when it is wet."

The logic is undeniable. "You can predict the hair's real behaviour once it has been combed out, with no surprises. It is an honest cut, made to measure for each person."

Wet curly hair is longer, heavier and straighter than it will be in half an hour. Whoever cuts it that way has tailored something that does not exist. And that is the reason so many people leave the salon happy and, the next morning, are not.