Do you have damaged hair? Did you get bored with your hair color and decided to experiment? Did you go a little overboard with bleaching once you discovered how fun it is? Did you try cut your hair at home? Whether you have fried hair and split ends or you’re just bored with your hair, then this article is for you. Rather than grabbing those kitchen scissors and giving yourself the worst haircut possible, try a more sophisticated approach. What do you know, it might even turn out better than a professional haircut. Let’s cut your hair at home!
To learn more, read our article about The Relationship Between Dyeing Your Hair and It’s Fall.
Preparation
Let’s start with the tools you will need. Firstly, hair clips are life savers. You won’t be wanting to deal with all of your hair at once. Four or five will be enough to separate you hair into sections. A couple of hair ties, a hair brush and hair cutting scissors are also necessities. If you like your hair, please use hair cutting scissors instead of craft scissors. Craft scissors are very harsh and can cause split ends. Before you start cutting, make sure you have all these tools laid out in front of you.
Wash and dry your hair before cutting. If your hair is wavy, make sure to straighten your hair. This ensures that your at-home haircut comes out as clean as possible. If you have curly hair, do NOT straighten it. With curly hair, it’s best to cut it as it is.
Make sure to brush out your hair perfectly. Once your hair is tangle-free, part your hair down the middle. Then, find the highest point of your head (the apex). Starting from the apex, section out to right behind the ear. Using the hair clips, pin these sections up. It’s always better to have some to help you because you may not be able to see the back of your head. If you can, grab a friend or a family member to check the back sections of your hair.
Click here to read our article about Split Ends.
How to Start?
Grab one of the front sections and undo the hair clip. Brush out the hair once again and let the hair fall into place. Place a mirror in front of you and stare directly ahead. Make sure that you aren’t tilting your head. Decide the length you want to go for and tie an elastic around that level. Once you’re done, move on to the next section over. After you’ve tied the elastics on each section, check that the elastics are laying all on the same level. We don’t want an uneven cut.
If you’ve ever cut your own hair at home before, you’ve probably gone for the cut-straight-across method. This gives a very blunt cut and it’s very hard to cut all your hair at the same length. We however, are going for a more professional, blended out kind of look. To achieve this, we will use the point-cut method. Instead of cutting straight across, we will be cutting upwards. Hold the scissors vertically and point the sharp edge upwards. Grab one of the sections and pull it from the bottom ever so slightly. While cutting, keep that tension to ensure the best outcome. Now, start cutting just below the elastic. Taking small pieces at a time, make small cuts and always make sure you are cutting in the upwards direction. This results in a very natural looking haircut. Once you’re done with one section, move onto the others.
After you’ve cut all the sections, remove the elastics and brush your hair out. By this point, you should have a pretty even cut all around your head. If you have a more rounded shape at the back, instead of a general V shape, you have succeeded!
Cleanup
This is the time to go back into your problem areas if you have any left. Brush out the hair once again and let’s check for mistakes. Some sections of the hair may be longer, some shorter. The most likely area for this scenario to happen is the front sections of your hair.
Brush your hair forward so that it lies on your face. Look at it in the mirror. It’s possible that this section of hair is longer than the rest. If so, grab your scissors once again but this time, we will take things very slowly. Look directly ahead and start cutting upwards, trying to match the length to the rest of your hair. Make sure you aren’t making any deep cuts since we took the elastics out. Continue until you’re satisfied with the front pieces.
If you prefer your ends to be really thick, this might be a good place for you to stop. But if you want a little style, a little excitement, we can do some layering.
Layering
Go back to the preparation step and pin your hair into 4 sections once again. Starting with one of the front sections, hold the hair up and away from your head and brush properly. Now, we will part the hair again. Starting from the temples and going back, split the hair into two halves. This way, we will have an upper and a lower section. Take the upper section, brush it up and tie an elastic two or three inches from the bottom. Once you’ve tied the elastics, let go of the hair and let it fall into place. Repeat throughout the head.
Now, you should have four pieces of elastic tied around couple of inches higher that the ends of your hair. It’s time to grab the scissors and go back to point-cutting. Starting from the ends, point-cut about an inch. Mostly, focus on the longer strands. This step doesn’t have to be perfect so you don’t have to measure each cut. Again, repeat with all the sections.
And, we’re done! Let out all the elastics, give your hair a comb through and examine the results. As opposed to the initial cut, you hair now has a lot of body and movement. Pat yourself on the back and go rest because your arms are probably sore at this point. Finally, you can cut your hair at home!
Click here to read our article about How Your Hair Grows and Can You Fasten It?.
Photo Sources
- pinterest.com
