Why Everyone’s Talking About The Dry Haircut Right Now

“Know anywhere I can get a good dry cut?” my friend asked over WhatsApp, apparently hoping she could turn to a longtime beauty editor for a sound hair recommendation. I confessed I didn’t really know what it was—other than, I guessed, a haircut done on dry hair—and asked her why she wanted one. “I want to get a good fringe cut in,” she wrote, “and I heard that it was the best way to get the shape right.” When I saw her later that week, she was the proud owner of an impressive set of ’70s-style bangs, achieved with a dry cut. 

It just so happened that I also had an appointment booked in with hairstylist Luke Hersheson on the same day as my friend. “Yeah, it’s definitely a thing,” he confirmed when I asked him about it. “I do a lot of dry cutting at the moment. I tend to do a base cut when the hair is wet, and then I’ll dry the hair off and recut the whole thing. But recently, I haven’t been washing the hair in the first place, and instead, cut it straight from dry.” 

The dry-cutting technique has been around for a while, but it is experiencing a resurgence because it delivers a style that’s perfect for the wash-and-go trend that is so popular right now. “If you’re someone who doesn’t really want to use a hairdryer or do anything to your hair, a dry cut might be for you,” says Hersheson. “When hair is freshly washed, it behaves differently. Cutting it dry means you can see how the hair reacts, how it waves and curls, and you can see its shape instantly.”