I Got An "Invisible Haircut" — & This Is What It Looks Like

When I tell you I'm low maintenance about my hair, I'm not referring to the "model-off-duty" kind of low maintenance that includes ombré from Cutler and a cocktail of air-drying sprays. For me, my hair is really the last thing I think about. I get it cut twice a year by a student at a local beauty school for £10, pick up whatever cheap high street shampoo smells the best, and rarely touch hot tools unless the occasion calls for it.

I blame my hippie mother for this; she refused to take me for a cut for most of my life because of how much she loved my long, thick hair. When I was a kid, my hair flowed past my waist and strangers would often stop to admire it; some even asked to take pictures with it. But by the time I was 12, I was fully over the weight of my constantly tangled 16-inch ponytail. I used my babysitting money to chop it all off, and never looked back.

I soon realised that having shorter hair came with an entirely different set of issues. When it was long, the weight of my hair stretched my curls into easy waves. But when it was shorter, my strands took on a life of their own. Instead of learning how to enhance them with products or styling methods, I just pulled it half back — out of sight, out of mind.

Since then, I haven't given my hair much thought — that is, until Rossano Ferretti emailed me with an offer to try his famous "Method" haircut for free. The celebrity hairstylist, who reportedly counts Kate Middleton as a former client and rarely takes private appointments, has salons all over the world that specialise in his technique, which employs a custom set of scissors that texturise and remove extra weight from the hair. The catch? The service, also referred to as an "invisible cut," starts at $250 and has even been rumoured to run up to $1,500 (if Ferretti is doing it) — a subject he doesn't like to talk about. "My method haircut is to respect the hair and how it falls," he says, explaining that this makes the cut more bespoke and ultimately, "priceless."

Dollar amount aside, the Method cut did sound appealing to me — especially because it's meant to highlight your natural texture with little-to-no styling required. So, I decided to go for it. I showed up at Ferretti's salon, sat down for a consultation, and was quickly under the sink getting a scalp massage. He let my hair air dry slightly before starting on the cut, utilizing his patented scissors and adjusting the cut for both side parts. "When I cut hair, I always follow your hair in its movement," he explains. "It's very important to do both parts so you can decide in the morning where you want to part your hair." The final step: A blowout, some hair oil, and a whole new me.

Except, I didn't really feel like a whole new me. Truthfully, I barely noticed a difference — which is probably what I should have expected from an "invisible cut." When I got home, my husband shot me one glance and said, “It looks the same.” And it’s true: My hair looked pretty much untouched, just slightly shorter and more polished from the blowout.

The days after, however, I found myself doing something unusual: I began wearing my hair down without straightening it or pulling it into a half updo. Turns out, the unmanageable frizz I suffered from in the past stemmed from bad haircuts that thinned out and stripped my hair instead of texturising it. Now, in the days following my cut, my loose curls rested effortlessly on my shoulders, with fewer flyaways and smoother texture. I stopped dreading doing my hair every morning, and instead took my time and enjoyed it.

In fact, I’m starting to like my new cut so much that I actually care about my hair now. I get excited about trying different curl creams and leave-in conditioners, and find myself saving new style ideas on Instagram. For me, the biggest breakthrough Ferretti gave me was learning to appreciate my hair for what it is, rather than trying to force it to be something else. His cut might have been "invisible," but the shift in my attitude was clear. And maybe that is a little priceless.