Best tips for you to get your DIY hair trimmed at home
Your hair is getting long. Most barbers reopened when vaccines became available, but with a new variant spreading around, you may feel more cautious. Plus, you have been tempted to do a DIY haircut at home after watching so many TikTok Videos.
Gear You May Consider:
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Quality scissors: A sharp edge helps prevent your hair from fluffing out at the ends or moving around too much while you trim. Consider using precision scissors or placing an order for hair-cutting shears, which are razor-sharp and should be handled with care.
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Hair clippers for short hair: Hair clippers have been tricky to find ever since early 2020, but this is a good clipper kit if you can manage to snag it—and this is a good alternative. This beginner-friendly trimmer might be of assistance if you plan to fly solo.
Keep These Tips in Mind
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Get help: Cutting your own hair in the mirror can be tricky. If you can, get someone to help you trim evenly or decide when enough is enough. If you have to go it alone, use multiple mirrors and take breaks to check up on how you're looking.
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Consider texture and length: Mistakes may be easier to spot if your hair happens to be curly, short, dry, or especially textured, so use caution.
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Start small: Have you ever used a magnifying mirror to tweeze your eyebrows, only to step back and realize you've gone too far? The same principle applies to your hair. You can always take off more, but there's no going back once you've snipped away too much. It may help to step away for a few hours before you reassess where you’re at.
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Avoid horizontal lines: It might have looked badass when Disney's Mulan did it, but you don't want to hack your hair off in a big horizontal line. Hold your scissors straight up and down the length of your hair, rather than across it, and snip away just a little bit at a time. This is especially important if you're working on bangs. Horizontal lines are sometimes necessary for removing length, but snipping vertically keeps your hair from becoming too blunt—a tell-tale sign of at-home haircuts. If you've cut horizontally, make sure to follow it up with vertical snips to thin out the ends and make the cut look more natural. If you aren't feeling dextrous enough to cut vertically, try holding your scissors diagonally.
How to Trim Your Hair
Be conservative. Focus on trimming your hair—don't try to completely restyle it. Below is our best trimming advice, along with some links to tutorials that will help you with the basics.
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Wash and condition your hair, and then let it dry completely, because hair shrinks as it dries. This will help you avoid taking off too much. Work out any tangles using a brush before getting started. If your hair is unruly, you can mist it with water, but try to avoid getting it too saturated.
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Make sure you have your shears or clippers and a comb on hand. Use clips to help section your hair into manageable segments. Snip with the ends of the shears rather than with the full length of the blade.
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Drape a cape (or an old towel) over your shoulders.
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Follow the advice below that best applies to your hair.
For Long Hair
Divide your hair and clip it into sections. Bring one section forward at a time, and determine how much you want to take off—we suggest a quarter of an inch to half an inch. (Cut a little less than you think you should.) Trim off the length and then snip the ends to add texture and blend everything out.
For Short Hair
Short hair is an instance where having damp locks may help you out. We suggest having someone else do the job for you. Less is more. If you're using shears, have your assistant start at the sides and work around your head. They can use a comb to help guide the shears and determine where to cut. Be extra careful when trimming around the ears.
If you're using clippers, consider using a special self cut kit to make the process a little easier.
For Curly Hair
The type of trim you'll want depends on your curl type. For looser 2A to 3B curls, you can work with dry hair and trim curl by curl at an angle to ensure voluminous results.
For tighter curl types ranging from 3C to 4C, try sectioning your hair, gently detangling, and using firm pressure to keep it from moving too much as you trim.
Depending on your curl pattern and your hair shape, you may want to find a video more tailored to your desired end result. YouTube is your friend. Remember that curly hair has a mind of its own, so be patient and work in small sections.
For Kids' Hair
If you can get kids to stay still, a haircut isn't too hard. When in doubt, you can always use a mixing bowl (or a headband). Just don't use this method when they're older. By high school, a bowl cut is not going to help their social standing. The nineties might be back in style, but not to that extent.
That's for today, see you next time!
The BarberBoss Team
