A hairstylist who works with media stars from different countries explains why Instagram trends don’t suit most people and how an architectural approach to haircuts restores individuality.
Every day, thousands of people walk into hair salons with an Instagram photo but leave disappointed. A style that looks striking on a screen doesn’t “sit right,” throws off facial proportions, and requires complicated styling every morning. When a stylist tries to reproduce someone else’s look exactly, the result often feels like the hairstyle exists separately from the person. Specialists encounter this problem in salons worldwide.
Stylist Andrii Gerashchenko, who has worked with clients from different countries for 17 years, concluded that many stylists rely on templates and overlook the client’s individual features. He sees this as the main mistake.
While working in beauty salons in Ukraine, he often faced situations where clients asked him to recreate a look they liked, even though their facial anatomy and hair structure did not allow for an exact copy. He began exploring ways to adapt popular styles to each person’s individual features and lifestyle, and he developed his own approach to creating a haircut.
“The beauty industry faces an ‘epidemic of templates,’ where trends have pushed the individual out of focus. But a haircut is architecture, not copying posts from social media,” the expert explains.
The practice of this architectural approach led Geraaschenko to develop the proprietary Authentic Shape method, reflecting an interdisciplinary approach. The method relies on principles of composition, working with balance, hair growth direction, and the dynamics of form. At the same time, practicality serves as the main criterion for evaluating the result. A haircut should be easy to wear in everyday life, not turn into a complex project that requires constant styling.
The approach has proven effective across different professional settings and demands. The stylist has prepared looks for photo shoots, music videos, and live performances for Ukrainian rock musicians from “Druha Rika” and “Numer 482,” Hollywood dancer Gleb Savchenko, and rapper Jagger Spacy – artists whose styles often become trends that many people try to emulate.
“Artists often live under the constant focus of cameras, so they need to show their individuality more than anyone else. A stylist’s responsibility is to understand that individuality and integrate it naturally into current trends,” the stylist explains.
Colleagues have also shown interest in his perspective on haircuts. Last November, a master class in Pasadena featured a segment led by Andrii Gerashchenko as a central part of the program. His demonstration focused on “smart” haircuts tailored to the individual.
While master classes remain a common way to exchange experience in creative industries, relatively few academic works focus on hairdressing. This makes Andrii Gerashchenko’s research articles, which summarize his practical experience, especially valuable for professionals. In these publications, he analyzes ways to adapt haircut shapes, explores the characteristics of curly hair, and examines approaches to communication between stylist and client. His research has appeared, among other outlets, in the international journal Vestnik Nauki, indexed in the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI).
Interest from the professional community and academic analysis of practice point to a broader industry demand: fatigue with copying trends and a search for meaningful personalization. As a result, the architectural approach offers a way to restore purpose to form, with every cut following the unique architecture of the human face.
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Image provided by Andrii Gerashchenko
