Provide a variety of relaxing services — City & Guilds Limited End-Point Assessment Service Industries Revision
This topic covers providing relaxing services in barbering, including health and safety, factors influencing services, science of relaxing hair, and tools,
Topic Synopsis
This topic covers providing relaxing services in barbering, including health and safety, factors influencing services, science of relaxing hair, and tools, equipment, products, and techniques used.
Key Concepts & Core Principles
- Precision cutting techniques: scissor-over-comb, clipper-over-comb, and freehand texturising for creating tailored shapes and seamless blends.
- Beard and moustache design: sculpting, shaping, and maintaining facial hair using clippers, scissors, and razors to achieve symmetrical, client-specific styles.
- Hot towel shave: a traditional service involving skin preparation, lather application, and straight razor shaving, followed by post-shave care to minimise irritation.
- Client consultation: assessing hair type, face shape, and lifestyle to recommend suitable styles and services, while managing expectations and gaining consent.
- Salon health and safety: sterilising tools, maintaining hygiene, and complying with COSHH regulations to prevent cross-infection and ensure client safety.
Exam Tips & Revision Strategies
- Know the pH scale and how relaxers work.
- Always follow manufacturer instructions for timing.
- Practice consultation to assess client's hair condition.
- When evidencing competence, ensure observation records clearly note how health and safety procedures were followed—e.g., wearing gloves, using protective base cream, and ventilating the area.
- In written questioning, explain the pH scale relevance: how relaxers use alkaline agents to open the cuticle and break bonds, and why neutralising shampoos restore a normal pH to lock in the new shape.
Common Misconceptions & Mistakes to Avoid
- Not performing a patch test before chemical service.
- Over-processing hair, causing damage.
- Using incorrect product for hair type.
- Applying relaxer to the entire hair shaft instead of just the new growth during retouch services, leading to hair breakage and over-processing.
- Neglecting to perform a preliminary strand test or incompatibility test, resulting in severe damage or allergic reactions.
- Over-manipulating the hair during the smoothing step, which can cause excessive stretching and weaken the disulphide bonds before they are reformed.
Examiner Marking Points
- Understands health and safety policies affecting relaxing services.
- Identifies factors influencing relaxing services (e.g., hair type, condition).
- Explains the science of relaxing hair (e.g., chemical process).
- Selects appropriate tools, equipment, and products for the service.
- Performs relaxing service safely and effectively.
- Award credit for demonstrating a thorough client consultation that includes scalp analysis, hair porosity and elasticity tests, and recording contraindications (e.g., cuts, abrasions, recent chemical services).
- Expect precise sectioning and application technique, ensuring even product distribution with no overlapping onto previously relaxed hair, and maintaining appropriate processing time based on hair texture and manufacturer guidelines.
- Assess correct post-relaxing neutralisation and conditioning procedures, including thorough rinsing, application of a normalising solution or stabiliser, and final moisture-protein balance restoration.