People often wonder if you should cut your curly hair when it’s dry or wet. Well, even though I don’t have the credentials of a professionally trained hairstylist, when it comes to knowing how to cut and manage my own kinky, curly hair, I might as well have a Ph.D. on the subject.

After all, I’ve been living with curly hair and the associated traumas all my life. So, is it better to cut hair dry or wet? For me, the answer is definitely: cut it dry.

Should I Cut Curly Hair Dry or Wet?

Always cut curly hair when it’s dry, avoid cutting hair when it’s wet.

When the curly hair is dry, It allows the stylist to better assess the shape of your hair’s coils because the ringlets are in their true, permanent form. She can see how the curls fall naturally, instead of having to imagine how they’ll look when they’re dry. It’s also easier to envision the shape and the springiness of each individual curl.

Curl Traumas

I’m not referring to trauma caused by having curly hair (although I have a few stories that could make a grown man weep). I’m talking about the trauma caused by a few trained hairstylists and a couple of stylist wannabe’s (aka mom and sis) who decided to cut my already-short curly hair while it was wet.

Sure, it always looked fantastic in the moment of snipping, but as soon as it dried, I looked like a little boy because the hair was way too short. (Not a look I appreciated in my pre-teen years!)

In all fairness, I can’t blame my childhood haircut disasters on the kind-hearted cutters who were trying to help. Back when I was growing up, the only place to find information about managing and cutting curly hair was in the hairstyle magazines in the salon waiting area. The Internet was barely on the scene, and the word ‘google’ described a lovey-dovey expression in the eyes.