The Design Labs
Create with clarity. Compose with artistry.
Why This Matters
Most education stops at how: how to cut, how to color, how to style.
But artistry lives in the why and the feeling behind it.
In art school, painters don’t just learn how to hold a brush. They study proportion, balance, and composition. Those principles are what make their work timeless.
Hair Stylists deserve the same.
The Design Labs were created to give you those foundations of design. You won’t depend on someone else’s method. You will create from your own eye, your own choices, and your own artistic vision.
Lab #1: Shape Shift
Shape Shift → train your sense of composition in cutting using shape and balance
Haircutting is sculpture in motion. In this lab, we break down the visual art elements & principles behind shape & balance to translate them directly into your cutting work. This foundational lab moves beyond memorizing techniques to give you the vocabulary and vision for the cutting decisions you’re already instinctively making. Understand how different shape creates visual effects, how balance creates stability or tension in your compositions, and how these two fundamental concepts work together to create cuts that feel intentional and complete. We move through four traditional cutting techniques to observe how the head, partings, elevation, and patterns influence the final shape of our cuts.
What Makes This Different
This isn’t another technical class.
The Design Labs are practice-based and art-informed. They are built to help you:
See hair as shape, form, and movement
Understand why certain choices work and when they don’t
Move beyond methods and copycat techniques
Create work that feels intentional, personal, and unmistakably yours
Each Lab pairs study with practice so the principles you learn translate directly to the salon.
Two Ways to Step In
Start With A Single Lab
Dive deep into a single design concept.
Each lab gives you practical study and practice you can apply immediately behind the chair. Perfect if you want to focus on one area of growth at a time.:
Lab#1 Shape Shift → train your sense of composition in cutting using shape and balance (Out Now)
Lab #2 Chroma & Contrast → learn to make your colors whisper, talk, or scream using color theory and the principle of contrast (coming November 2025)
Lab #3 The Space Between → design evocative cuts & colors using positive & negative space (coming January 2026)
What you’ll get:
✔ 5 digital chapters with lessons + 4-6 technical demonstrations
✔ Design practices you can bring directly into your salon work
✔ 18 months of access to return, repeat, and deepen your practice
💸 Investment: $225
Join the Fellowship
Commit to the full design journey.
The Fellowship includes all three Labs, sequenced together so each builds on the last. You’ll develop not just skills, but a design practice that sharpens your artistry and helps your work stand out — the kind of artistry that keeps clients loyal, even when they’re more selective.
What you’ll get:
✔ Access to all three Design Labs (releasing September 2025 through June 2026)
✔ Space to evolve your own artistic approach without methods or formulas
✔ A digital atelier for support and accountability
✔ Optional in-person 1-day Intensive to bring it all together (+$275)
💸 Investment: $800
(save $100 vs. joining Labs individually + additional technical & artistic support)
Lab Descriptions
Shape Shift → train your sense of composition in cutting using shape and balance
Haircutting is sculpture in motion. In this lab, we break down the visual art elements & principles behind shape & balance to translate them directly into your cutting work. This foundational lab moves beyond memorizing techniques to give you the vocabulary and vision for the cutting decisions you’re already instinctively making. Understand how different shape creates visual effects, how balance creates stability or tension in your compositions, and how these two fundamental concepts work together to create cuts that feel intentional and complete.
Chroma & Contrast → learn to make your colors whisper, talk, or scream using color theory and the principle of contrast (November 2025)
Color is communication. In this Lab, you’ll explore how color theory and the principle of contrast can create statements from subtle whispers to bold proclamations. Understand how contrast works not just between different colors, but between saturation levels, values, and placement to guide attention, create visual interest, and illustrate your clients personality. You'll develop the vocabulary to make deliberate formulating choices, giving you conscious control over the emotional impact of your color work.
The Space Between → design evocative cuts & colors using positive & negative space (January 2026)
Great design, and haircuts, are about what you leave on, not what you take off. In this Lab, you’ll explore positive and negative space as active design elements in both cutting and color. You’ll practice designing with the “in-between, learning to see the spaces between sections and the areas you don't cut or color as conscious compositional choices. We’ll diverge from formulaic color patterns and trends, because while clients may not understand the exact technique, they do see & feel the difference when a design is elevated, intentional, and one-of-a-kind.
The Design Fellowship
Artistry that keeps you booked.
Each Lab is powerful on its own, but taken together, they create a foundational journey in design for hair. The Fellowship weaves all three Labs into a connected progression, giving you the foundations, the practice, and the language to cut and color with clarity, confidence, and artistry.
By joining the Fellowship, you’ll get:
✔ Access to all 3 Design Labs (Sept 2025 – Jan 2026)
✔ A structured sequence that builds week by week and Lab by Lab
✔ 18 months of access to study, revisit, and integrate your learning
✔ Guidance on connecting concepts across Labs to create truly original work
✔ Fellowship community spaces for reflection, accountability, and support
Investment: $800
Why The Design Fellowship matters:
In times when clients are more selective, stylists who stand out aren’t the ones chasing trends or copying methods. They’re the ones whose work feels intentional, personal, and one-of-a-kind. Artistry is what makes your cuts and colors feel different from anyone else’s, and that’s what keeps clients loyal, even in a tough fiscal climate.
The Fellowship is your chance to build that kind of artistry. Not just inspiration, but a design practice that sharpens your eye, strengthens your choices, and makes your work unforgettable.