Alexey Osipchuk, a hair stylist, winner of various hairdressing championships in Russia and Europe, founder of PARK BY OSIPCHUK hair studio and author of a unique hair cutting method, speaks about how one creative technique started a new trend in hairdressing.
So, how did a technique help create a movement?
Having been working in the industry for over 15 years and scoring not a small number of prizes and awards, I came to a clear understanding that in order to implement the design I was striving for, I first had to change my approach to the creative process itself. Looking for an answer to the question of “what needs to be done?”, we often forget about also answering the question of “how are you going to do it?”. Yet it is exactly this question that deals with the technological side of the process and, for the most part, determines the final result. I had to completely rethink the conventional approach to creating a haircut, make several discoveries, overcome a lot of challenges and break a whole bunch of rules to establish my own, eventually.
The first thing I got rid of was unnecessary moves. When cutting the hair, a stylist often makes so many of them that it becomes impossible to achieve the desired result. My patent technique called PARK BY OSIPCHUK grants much more precision and sense of purpose to the stylist’s movements. As a result, the whole process takes less time, simultaneously making each step of the haircut much more significant, sometimes even crucial. Hair health is another major factor in choosing a technique for the haircut. It’s common knowledge that split and thinned hair poses one of the biggest concerns for both the customer and the stylist, yet at the same time everyone uses feathering and tampering techniques to do just that – thin out the hair or create a “torn” effect. So I had to fix this discrepancy too. At some point in solving these two major issues, I came up with a technique that would help create any hairstyle using only blunt cuts.
The technique I developed rules out any tampering completely, at the same time allowing to create any silhouette, accent or detail by a blunt cut. With time, this underlying principle became a keystone for a whole new approach to creating a hair shape; it reinvented traditional silhouettes, prioritized hair protection and became a dear favorite of so many of our clients, students and followers. In PARK BY OSIPCHUK, we adopt the method of making extremely accurate partings to divide all of the hair into separate sections, with each section playing its own role in the haircut. Hair sectioning largely depends on the shape and bone structure of a head and is performed by strictly following our guiding rules. Every strand has to be combed and elevated with an adequate and consistent level of tension, so that each of the following precise cuts, which are made in accordance with the direction of the partings, embodies the exact image the stylist envisioned during the initial inspection. All in all, PARK BY OSIPCHUK is a technique that employs a set of precise and detailed actions guaranteeing complete realization of the envisioned project.
Having redefined my basic approach to haircutting, it was time for me to revise the way we were working with photography. Simply making nice shots of interesting designs or well-executed details seemed bland and unimaginative. Looking for inspiration and deeper understanding of fashion photography, I incessantly studied design and fashion history, watching thousands of fashion shows and immersing myself in various subcultures and art genres. And now I believe that only something worth saying is worth being photographed, it is the way we tell our story to the public. Working on editorial shooting for many years, I came to see photography in hairdressing not just as an inspiration for others, but as a self-expression of the creator.
Today at PARK BY OSIPCHUK Studio, we use our patent technique to fulfill and perfect any intended design. We also managed to engage and unite many like-minded people by this new approach and philosophy. So when I look at our achievements, I feel confidence in saying that we have successfully learned how to inspire and tell stories through hair design. That can even give you a dopamine rush from time to time.
Sidebar: PARK BY OSIPCHUK is the only team on the market that has completely excluded thinning methods from their work routine and develops any design using only blunt cuts.
