Difference Between Styled and Shaped Hair

Hairdresser who is styling freshly cut short hair
Photo: Zapylaiev Kostiantyn/Shutterstock
Q: What is the difference between having your hair styled and having it shaped?
 
A: Having your hair styled can mean any number of things, and none of them necessarily refer to cutting the hair.
 
There's blow dry styling for a long straight style, blow dry styling for creating a feathered look, there's roller sets, flat iron or curling iron styling, finger waves, pin curls, etc. The key is to remember that styling means you are trying to make the hair conform to a certain arrangement. This may or may not involve cutting the hair.
 
Shaping the hair almost always refers to cutting the hair. In shaping the goal is to create a specific "silhouette" or texture in the hair. It also generally refers to generating a look in the hair that is natural to the shape of your face and head. It may be as simple as using a razor or thinning shears to remove hair from areas that are too bulky or which are blunted.
 
Hair shaping may involve creating a whole new hairstyle that better fits with the person's face and head shape. It's usually the former, but could be the latter in cases where a more dramatic change is called for.
 
A common form of shaping involves taking hair that is all one-length and cutting layers into it to create a style that has more volume in desired areas and less in others. This might be done for a woman with long very curly hair that is all shoulder length. Shaping this hair by adding layers will allow the upper layers of the hair to curl more adding volume higher up on the head
 
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See also:
 
How to style hair
 
How to cut hair