Our Cut

Cutting Fine Figures


Having cut his teeth at a London's top salon during his apprenticeship under his mentor Antoinette Beenders - the winner of the British Hairdresser of the Year in 2004 - and having gained a full expert training at the Vidal Sassoon Academy London - MBA of haircutting, our artistic director Eiki holds a strong streak of British haircut, which is precise and practical, in his cutting DNA. During years of travelling and educating hairdressers worldwide for precision cutting and creative techniques within the official artistic team of Aveda, his expertise saw him on photo shoots, film sets and catwalk shows. And the types of hair that Eiki has been working for from the beginning of his career - wherever in salon or behind scenes - are the textures from the whole spectrum in every possible style. Keeping minimalism in his mind, the British hairstylist simplifies today's cuts and styles as fuss-free and uncomplicated. With our regard for timeless chic, mood of the time and the narrative of individual style, we craft our cuts for the best hair that you deserve.



Bespoke Cutting


Our quality cutting appointments include bespoke consultation, shampooing, conditioning, cutting, styling and finishing.  Some small cuts such as fringe trims, child haircuts and quick cut services do not include shampoos and tailored blow-dry or styling, however, the essential components such as consultation and cutting are conducted with our best available quality. 


In our renowned style consultation, we pay careful attention to your hair, face and individual features as well as trying to learn what you look for from your appointment. This is a diagnostic step held in relaxing atmosphere before the haircut. During the consultation we will discuss your preference and concerns - what you like about and what you want to change in your hair, your daily maintenance, styling knowledge/experience, and your lifestyle. We will try to suggest what we think will look best on your face and in balance within your physical allocation. We would like to hear your questions about our proposal and any small points or words you feel uncertain about. We will be honest and we want you to be as direct as possible. Please bring images for the ideas for your cut or finished look if you have. Our experts are happy to discuss the visuals and the ideas you bring in. This always helps both of us to see the same goal. A good consultation is the key to a happy result and we enjoy this process working together with you. 


The way we design hair is simple and sturdy in its principle yet sensitive to details. We ensure to deliver a cut that has true suitability and versatility to your features and lifestyle. In our design process, we consider your 

 - Face shape

 - Hair texture + density + length

 - Hair condition

 - Main styling/ regular ways of wearing your hair

 - Fashion, personal style

 - Lifestyle, beauty routine, commitments

as principal elements to find the haircut that complement you most. Our design process goes through above analyses, harnessing Eiki's creative prowess. His aesthetic was initially forged and underpinned at London College of Fashion, the internationally renowned academic institution of University of the Arts London, then refined through working with creative minds in the industry and responsibilities at fashion shows, editorial projects, advertisements, and Aveda Japan's creative direction. This visionary reservoir has now become our cachet that links our cuts with your style narrative in our multi-dimensional culture. Because the creative process used in fashion - collecting information/inspiration, developing it and proposing an answer to the theme you're given - is directly adaptable to the hair design and personalisation in salon, and is a fairly logical and measured process. And putting abstraction into practice is perhaps the most important part; he has accumulated a vast amount of working experience with real clients, opposed to working for conceptual themes and fashion models. We believe that knowledge and experience in hair, technical excellence, attention to details and the total picture, and again, the dialogue with you are all integral parts of the cut that you are truly able to own. 


Face Shapes and Our Cut


Among all the designing elements, we believe that the face shape is arguably one of the most important ones. All hairdressers would learn the theory of face shapes in their initial training stages as if it's one of check points. It would take place like learning a mantra and many of us forget it soon. This was not the case with us; our cuts are crafted by closely following the features of your face and profile, and tailoring the outline of our cuts for perfection. We follow the most authentic rule of six face shapes:

 - Oval: Has more length than its width. The forehead is wider than the jawline. Often symmetrical and harmonious.

 - Round: The width and the length are the same. Round contours through the jaw and hairline. Brighter and fuller than the oval or square shape.

 - Square: The forehead, cheekbones and jawline are the equal dimensions. Tends to have a defined jawline and a stronger impression.

 - Heart: The hairline is the widest and has an angular jawline. Within the face frame, the chin and jaw look less wide, and can be recognisable for its prominent cheekbones.

 - Diamond: Characterised by prominent cheekbones. The forehead and jawline can be the same width, or with a pointy chin. 

 - Long: Has more length than the width with an impression of a vertical, slimmer face shape. The jawline can be rectangular or angular and pointed. 

Each face shape has its strength and weakness. Of course, not all face shapes fall into these six types and in fact, the face shape of most people shares multiple characteristics from several of these shapes. These are only guidelines and not meant to be strictly obeyed, however, we have been benefitted from understanding these basics and using them with other factors when we craft our cuts. The type of fringe, parting, the texture (feathery, smooth, wavy, etc), the height at the top, where to bring the volume of the cut, where to crop the length and where needs to be softened, and so on. These elements are some of many design factors that we make decisions during the cut. They are small but important points and there will be not a small difference in the outcome whether they are picked up or missed out. These efforts will be translated into the exceptional result that you feel absolutely comfortable with.

Three Controls in Our Cuts

Shape control - Our signature precision cut creates the framework for the haircut which leads to the seamless body of hair. This is British legacy we have been honing. In many hairstyles we all see today, there is a basic theory in each of them on how to create. These ideas serve as if templates and they stood the test of time since many of us always return to those basic ideas and make changes as the trend moves, or for personalisation. Quite some of these modern-day, basic haircuts are in fact attributed to British haircutters. Now being able to cut shapes is the core part of any haircut; this is the skill that makes the cut itself and that we have been committed to. Imagine your favourite cotton shirt or Charmeuse dress. The soft fabric can skim your body perfectly whatever the direction you move as long as it has a good pattern cutting. The same is a haircut. A haircut with a good shape can hold its style by its nature without awkward movements that demand us extra work for controlling them. We combine classic techniques such as blunt cuts, round layers, graduations, basic fringes etc with modern shaping techniques such as slicing, dry cutting, disconnections, square layers, long fringes, face framing shapes, et cetera to create a wearable, low maintenance look. For a versatile, all-round shape, we normally cut with a centre parting for bottom outlines and without a parting for layers, however, we also often work with the natural parting on either side for your bottom lines and layers depending on the relation to how you wear your hair every day, your comfortable parting and how deep and flexible the parting is. A stunning haircut will make your everyday styling a cinch whether it's blow-dried, air-dried, set, tousled, tucked, dishevelled or without. 


Texture control - We slice sharp lines for bobs and clean outlines. We add bounce and sway to curls and waves with strategically placed layers. We lift airy texture for undone nonchalance by combining wet cuts and dry cuts. Our cleanest cuts do both add smart polish to brittle ends and reanimate the length by creating a healthy, youthful surface. 'Texture smart cut', as we call, is about appreciating the person's natural hair texture and enhancing it with best-suited scissor works for the desired nuance. Having started out as a precision cutter, Eiki has developed softer cutting techniques over the past decades. Women's short cuts look ravishing without harsh lines in the gamine length. Timeless mid-lengths will look sophisticated and touchable with precise texturising cuts that appear imprecise and you can easily tousle and tame back with no stiffness. Long hair with a little help of layering or nice, piecey strands can turn the otherwise lifeless length into confident locks with upbeat vibes. The important point we always pay utmost attention is what way and how much we put the texture for the outline and the internal length. Hair's texture can be changed significantly by the styling and products you use, however, there are cutting fashions that crucially prime the texture. It is the cut that makes the style, and styling techniques and hair products activate what the hair has, not the other way round. 


Weight control - We think this as a hybrid tool of shape controlling and texture controlling combined, which tries to fine-tune to the ideal balance of thickness and lightness. For thick, heavier-looking hair types, our cut can give a lighter, joyful feeling without thinning-cuts but letting the hair use its own texture with natural movement. For hair that tends to flare out (often accelerated by humid air) and pose extra work for its control, we can adjust the needle for the cut's distribution and weight as well as propping up the hair's natural strength by clean cuts.These techniques are the art of the balancing between the shape, length and natural movement of the hair instead of relying on contrived control on hair's weight and density. Every international top stylist masters the regular scissors and Eiki didn't own a pair of thinning scissors for the first ten years of his career. He seldom uses them even today. On the other hand, our cuts can make fine hair look twice as full: it's about maximising hair's fullness and fluidity by giving/leaving with it the right density. Incorporating layers, graduations, crisp cuts and texture cuts can give the fine hair a result that feels both weightless and lush. We do not believe building in too much products for volume. We believe in the cut. We strive for the arresting balance somewhere between lightness and depth for the incredible result. 

Textured Hair


From soft waves to wiry spirals to springy coils to gravity-defying tight curls, every texture finds its perfect shape in our texture-specific cuts and styling. Our expertise for textured hair has not been obtained in mere recent years. Eiki quickly abandoned ideas such as 'best curly hair styling' or 'perfect cut for curly hair' dating far back in London when he was a junior as he learnt that an ideal cut for one hair texture could be a total irrelevance for another. Instead, we work meticulously with cuts, snips, the shape, angles, natural distributions and shrinkage, in both dry and wet to reach the best for our client's hair. Our understanding for texture is the fruit of our commitment and love towards hair. No person's hair is without the uniqueness of its own texture, and when your hair is looked after well, not only you enjoy its texture and movement, but it causes other people to look at and admire it. Anecdotally, Eiki was mesmerised by the beauty of Mariah Carey's hair on her first album jacket and he had to buy it on the spot although he felt like it was a king's ransom for a high school boy - he didn't forget to check the tracks at the shop before purchasing, incidentally. Later he went to London and he's been working for every hair texture with unrelenting passion from the day one of his hairdressing. 


Before working on your hair, we will look at your unique hair texture and listen to your thoughts at the consultation. We analyse your hair's texture, natural movements and partial/zonal texture differences as well as moisture level, elasticity, porosity, how you regularly wear and treat your hair, and your hair's reaction to the elements. Our texture-specific cuts are dedicated to strengthen and reenergise your curls and waves by letting its natural texture reassert itself and bringing its inner strength forward. By having a quality cut, you'll have good control to define and optimise your hair's healthy movements. This enables you to style your hair more freely up to the mood of your day and how your hair goes day by day between your washes.


Our care-styling leads your waves and curls to the healthiest condition with the help of premier care products that are filtered out through our specialist knowledge. We're also able to detail during your appointment how you can look after your hair between your salon visits with some great styling tips, so that you will leave the salon with a great cut and confidence. 

More specifically about Curly Hair​

We sometimes use words such as 1A to 4C to describe your hair texture. 1A is the straightest and 4C is the tightest curl. Although the curly code is a useful way of describing the hair texture, it is never be perfectly accurate because one person's hair usually have several different patterns of texture in different parts of the hair. For example, you might have 3A hair in many parts but including some areas with 2B and the hairlines with 3B or C. We use the numbering system just to make a simplified reference to your hair texture, but when we look at your hair and plan the cut, we make detailed analyses and capture the small differences in textures and conditions from part to part and roots to the ends of the hair.


Our three-control principle - shape, texture, weight - is still applied to our curly hair cuts but the way the idea is utilised is significantly different from the way it is applied to straighter textures. Because of the nature of the curly hair, the length jumps from the stretched point of cutting to the level at which it falls naturally without tension, and it achieves the full contraction when it's dry. Since the shrinkage proportions to the curliness and the length of the hair, there's greater shrinking portion as the length of the hair gets longer. And there are also other factors to be considered such as damage, for example. When the hair is weakened, it becomes wimpy and doesn't spring back as it did when it was healthy. Or some areas the hair has difficulty in growing its length from the beginning, and damaging caused by styling or chemical can make the hair to have an even more length discrepancy from other hairs because of breakage. Furthermore, the length and the shape of your haircut significantly affect the styling when you put the hair down or put it in a ponytail in relation to the shrinkage and volume of the hair. This is why we would first like to look at your hair, know what styles you're looking for and how you like to wear your hair daily and occasionally. From there, considering the hair's texture, condition and its colour, we are able to propose the ideas for your cut that will fall into your desired style when the hair is dried naturally, or that are versatile when the hair is styled otherwise. 


Unlike cutting straighter hair, we generally like to maintain the haircut less texturised for curls, so that the cut can keep your hair look healthier and stay in a better shape for a longer time. This said, however, we want to avoid giving you one blunt ball of curly hair, too. There's an intricate balance between your hair texture - curliness, fineness, movements - and the execution of the cut regarding its texture. This is why we take appropriate time for crafting your haircut whether it's wet cut or dry cut, and blunt cut or piece by piece. In respect of the weight of the cut, we may try to keep richer weight for your curly strands for the more styling options. But again, this depends on your hair texture and the vibe in the look you opt for. As to the weight, volume and density of the haircut, the hair's volume is highly influenced by the care and styling products you apply, and therefore conceiving the plan for the weight and shape of the hair, with not the haircut alone, but together with your styling repertory is important for us. There're always plenty of ways to incorporate nuances and make changes into your visual image especially for curly and wavy textures. We are passionate about discovering and livening your hair's fascinating curls and waves for head-turning, outstanding results.

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Dry Cuts, Wet Cuts​

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​We are visual workers who like to maximise your hair's healthy appearance and beauty. Strong basics such as creating a good shape and imparting the right texture in cuts are always important for us, but what we do not want is being too technical to lose the overall sight. Sometimes walking away from methodical thinking and opening the way for visualisation can yield a pleasant result when it comes to a human haircut. We look at the pattern of your curls and how your strands spring up. In a person's hair, not all curls bounce up at the same ratio, or grow out at the same speed. When the hair is dry, you see where the curls sit, how the strands fall naturally, and it's easy to see different curl patterns across your head and which ends need more tidying than the others. This is why a wet cut alone isn't always the best answer for curly hair. Our house signature curly cut goes two ways; dry and wet, often both are used in one appointment and conducted in curl by curl. 


Among all aspects of textured hair cuts, we keep in mind these three elements in particular when we cut your waves and curls: 

The length is the length of your hair you see from the top of your head to the bottom of your hair. Establishing the bottom line decides your hair length and we carefully take the shrinkage into calculation for the finished length. Although we don't always cut textured hair dry, dry cuts can avoid springing surprises! The length also determines the extent of layers you can put in your hair. By controlling layers, your hair can restore volume and movements in your hair. By lifting internal pieces to the right portions, you hair will achieve an improved shape and have bouncy pieces with attractive movements, which can also look variedly when you part or push your hair in different ways. These pieces are special gifts given to your hair and the work of finding these pieces is what we put our heart and soul into. Face-framing pieces - connected or disconnected from the other pieces - they are always pretty strands and can have an important roll of complementing the features around your face. We try to look at the ambience and subtlety of them, as well as the balance between these front pieces and the layers and shape of the entire haircut. Working for these details is the fun part of the haircut and we never have enough of. 


​Curly Hair Styling​ 


Although we have accumulated experience in curly hair, we are certain that you have your experience in your own hair. Some of you may have a love and hate relationship with your locks and you may be confident in your knowledge about what makes your hair happy or grumpy. We have decided to marry your experience and our expertise to form something beautiful. Even for simple everyday styling, items and how to use them change radically from one person to another when it comes to the wavy and curly hair demographic. We would always love to hear how you get on with your hair and how our previous proposal worked for your tress. This will lead to better personalised solutions and refined styling ideas that we can put forward, some of them can possibly be contributed to your haircut as well. During our conversation for your hair care and styling, the focus is made on these step by step points: 

There are many more aspects we can discuss and work together individually, but we find that above features are the core elements of curly hair's styling and maintenance routine. We believe that offering essential information as much as possible is our responsibility, so that you can guide yourself on the bright track of curly hair. And we hope that we step up the level of care and the quality of our service as we exchange more conversations and receive further feedbacks. We hope that our work will be your great comfort and we can build up happy curly dialogues every time you visit us.