Evening Standard - 24th July

Can you cut it?

Going for the new 'undercut' takes nerve.
Kara Dolman joins the hip young things who are happy to be missing some hair.

The subtle buzzing of the clippers aside, this could have been any other haircut. In fact, it wasn't until  1 spotted the pile of matted hair on my knee that it hit me: I was getting an undercut.

The familiar Tm getting a new do" mix of excitement and nerves quickly geared up to full nuclear panic as a glance in the mirror revealed my duck wavy hair was now missing a large section above die left ear.

An area two by three inches had been shorn away, leaving me with a-partially - shaved head but a sty le more sought after than this season's Chanel clogs.

Originally hinted at on the A/W 09 and S/S10 catwalks (Issa and William Tempest models were styled with clever hair trickery to appear staved), it men gained momentum, thanks to a dedicated celebrity following.

First was model Alice Dellal. Her now trademark half-shaved head set off a domino effect, keeling over the likes of  a Rihanna, a contender for the undercut crown, Amelle Berrabah of the Sugababes and even Sarah Harding, the only Girls Aloud member you could call trendy.  And now you can barely swing a satchel in east London without knocking over a hip young thing who's missing some hair.

"The reason it has become so popular is because an undercut feels individual and makes you believe you've got something different," explains Jason Cocking, director of Lisa Shepherd London and the man I've entrusted my head to. "The current fashion trends - much influenced by the late Eighties and early Nineties - have made what was originally a more indie, underground look I commercially popular." Jason says he's shaving off the hair of about 10 girls a week, ranging "from the subtle  to the extreme", and he expects most top salons across the city will be doing the same numbers. HOB salons, home to Akin Konizi, British Hairdresser of the Year, says around a quarter of its clients are leaving the salon with some form of the undercut.

But forget the horrors you might remember from the early Nineties (notably schoolboys with severely shaved scalps topped by "curtains"): the new undercut is softer, chicer and very much for the girls.

"It's not the undercut we saw in the Eighties on David Bowie when it was an aggressive, punky look. Now it's looser and longer with graduated layers," says Jason's boss, Ten Years Younger's Lisa Shepherd. "By razoring the edges you can create a more frayed, softer finish and tailor it to suit you. It can be a very beautiful cut, if done well." As Lisa explains, rather than just shaving large areas right down to the skin, the modern take on the look plays with partial sections, which can be much more subtle and glamorous.

I'd decided that if I was actually going to do die undercut, I was going to do an Amelle. However, with a face less lovely and a job more demanding of a respectable style, Jason steered me towards singer Ellie Goulding's version.

"Kllie has a very subtle undercut. As she's got lots of hair - with a bed-head"