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How To Cut Your Own Hair Without Absolutely Ruining It, According To A Pro Hair Stylist
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How To Cut Your Own Hair Without Absolutely Ruining It, According To A Pro Hair Stylist

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April 21, 2020
How To Cut Your Own Hair At Home, According To A Pro Hairdresser

Alana is the staff writer on AWOL who thinks the…

At this point, time has lost all meaning and the only way I’m keeping track of the days is by how long my hair’s grown. If you’re anything like me, you’ve also started to wonder how to cut your own hair without absolutely ruining your bangs or giving yourself a mullet.

Either you’ve given yourself an at-home haircut that needed professional help ASAP or you’ve seen the disastrous results of somebody else’s attempts. There is no in-between.

But with hair salons temporarily closed, learning how to cut our own hair is pretty much all we’ve got. Unless you have a housemate you trust with a pair of scissors or you’re letting it grow out, we’re all going to have to cut our hair in the near future.

So that we don’t mess it up, we spoke to Rhiannon Dimaria, who’s worked as a hair stylist for thirteen years and is Revlon Professional’s Blonde Ambassador. She spilled the tea about everything from how to take care of split ends and trim your own bangs, what equipment you’ll need and how to fix a bad at-home haircut.

Here’s how to cut your own hair at home, according to an expert:

How do you trim your own bangs?

“You try your hardest not to give in to temptation to chop,” Rhiannon cautioned. “However, they are probably the easiest thing to fix as you can just pin it down or back if you really screw it up.”

If you’re determined to learn how to cut your own hair, the best way is to use your existing fringe as a guide, section your hair off in triangles, and take it slowly.

“Comb the section down (not at an angle or pushed to the side) and hold it down lightly. Find your ideal length and ‘chip in’ to it with your scissors on a slight diagonal for a softer finish. Take off very small amounts each time until you get the perfect length!”

And always cut your bangs when your hair is dry. Your hair shrinks as it dries, so if you cut it wet you’ll end up with a shorter fringe than you intended. Yikes.

How do you get rid of split ends?

To find your split ends, Rhiannon told us to section your hair in four parts — down the middle from your forehead to your neck and then from ear to ear.

Then, take one of the sections and twist it tightly. “You’ll see all the split ends pop out and you can trim them off.”

What about maintaining a fade?

You might decide that maintaining a fade at home is overkill right now. But if you need to look fresh, make sure you have a good pair of clippers and pay attention to the back of your neck.

“Hold your clippers with your thumb sitting on top and your other fingers underneath so you can ‘flick’ your wrist softly at the end of each movement,” Rhiannon advised.

Here’s a great tutorial for how to cut your own hair if you’ve got a short do. All you need to follow along is clippers, a sharp pair of scissors and a comb.

[media_embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ewJDxnYkNU[/media_embed]

What equipment do you need to cut your own hair?

“You definitely need a good pair of sharp scissors!” Rhiannon said, warning that blunt scissors can make split ends worse or even create more.

“You can pick up a decent pair for personal use for around $70 (look for a professional brand such as WAHL). Use them for hair only, not for cutting paper or anything else, and they’ll last a lot longer.

“You’ll also need a straight comb, preferably one with a wide side for making sections and a fine side to give you more control. And you’ll need some clips to section off parts of the hair so they don’t accidentally get the chop.”

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Are there any hair care products you should use when you’re cutting your hair?

“For shorter hair, I like to add a salt or texture spray like the Revlon Professional Style Masters Memory Creator Spray to help control the hair and make it easier to section.”

For longer hair, Rhiannon advises using a serum after you’ve finished cutting to protect the fresh ends. She recommends the Revlon Eksperience Hydro Nutritive serum.

No matter what length your hair is (or is about to be), a secret about how to cut your own hair is to use a leave-in treatment to add moisture and soften your hair during the process.

What are some ways to fix your hair if you accidentally mess it up?

Besides covering it up with a cute hat, Rhiannon told us one of the best ways to hide a bad haircut is to style it a different way. That should hide any mistakes beneath hair you didn’t just destroy.

Take good care of your hair to make sure it grows back as healthy as possible, and only cut the very ends if you’re desperate to avoid any disasters.

If you’ve read through this guide and still end up ruining your bangs, don’t stress! Even Rhiannon has given herself a bad haircut in the past.

“I did have one time when I decided I wanted to ‘trim’ my hair in my teens. My hair was down to my waist so I put it in a high ponytail and chopped off the bottom. The result was less than impressive and I had to get a heap chopped off to fix it up.”

(Lead image: Girls / HBO)

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Alana is the staff writer on AWOL who thinks the best way to travel is by taking spontaneous detours and stopping at every local bakery to try the cakes. She writes a lot about Australian TV, Big Things, cursed food, and theme parks. You can follow her on Instagram @alana.dotcom. It’s mostly dogs she meets along the way.

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