Planning to cut your hair at home? Here are 6 tips for a DIY home haircut

Feeling bad about cancelling your hairdresser’s appointment a couple of weeks back? We understand, because nothing can be more horrifying than overgrown bangs, split ends and uneven growth of layers of your hair. While we’ve given you solutions to taking care of your hair with some home remedies during the isolation period, the one thing that you cannot control is the growth of your hair.

While we strongly suggest that you avoid taking matters (or your hair) into your own hands, we have come up with 6 things that you must keep in mind if you absolutely must cut your own hair at home while still managing to avoid a complete disaster:

Never rush into something you’ve never tried before, however exciting it might seem. It is important that you first accustom yourself with the correct methods, tricks and tips from the professionals who cut hair every day.

While you may have seen your hairstylist follow a certain process and how he/she cuts your hair at the salon, it might not be enough, because here, you’re on your own and worse, you do not have eyes on the back to look at your hair. So we’ve found three of the best DIY hair cutting videos from experts like Brad Mondo, Patry Jordan and Erin Elizabeth. Watch and learn, take notes if needed. Because you cannot afford to mess this up.

It is necessary that you prep your hair well before cutting them. While some kind of cuts can be done on dry hair, larger, sweeping cuts demand moist hair. While you might have seen your stylist always wet your hair before chopping off the locks, it is not easy to work on wet hair like they do. They are trained over time to make clean cuts that looks easy.

Wash your hair first and then give it a light blow dry. This is to ensure that there are no tangles in the locks and tresses. For best results, it is advised that you work on slightly damp hair. In case you hair dries out half way through, you can spray a few spritz of water on them.

It is necessary that you take this seriously, because even the slightest miss can cause embarrassing damage to your lovely tresses. Hence it is important that you think like a hair dresser when you start planning your hair cut. So you must acquire all the necessary products and tools for the haircut.

Take out a clean pair of haircutting scissors, a spray bottle with water (if you’re cutting with wet hair), a fine toothed comb, a fresh towel, a cape to put around your shoulders, and a few clips to hold your hair. Place all of them next to each other just like you see them at your hairstylist’s countertop at the salon. Keep a couple of strips or patches of Band-Aid handy too, just in case.

While cutting your hair at home, you’re clearly on your own. The chances of messing up with a stray cut and ending up with a crooked cut is very high. To avoid such disappointment, it is suggested that you always keep two mirrors, one large mirror on the front and a medium or small sized handheld mirror to keep looking at the backside.

AGAIN, we advise leaving the long cuts for the professionals and only going for small maintenance cuts, to keep overgrowth on the sides and on the back in check. If you have shoulder length hair, always face your back to the large mirror and make calculated, precise cuts while looking at the handheld mirror which shows the hidden parts of the hair from the larger mirror.

This is a rule of thumb everyone must follow whenever they’re cutting their own hair at home. Always cut less than what you think is needed, and needn’t tell you why. if you cut less, there is always room to cut a little bit extra. But if you chop off more than was needed, there’s no going back. And you don’t want that, do you?

This rule applies especially for curls, because when the locks begin to the dry, the start to shrink and curl up. So if you end up cutting deeper, then you have no choice but to wait this the locks grow over again.

Cutting your own hair is an activity you must partake in only if your overgrown hair is asking for it. Never try to cut your own hair to emulate some new or old hairstyle you want to flaunt. Let the experts at your salon do that bit for you. DIY haircuts should only be for maintenance of hair. We’ve shared some tips you can use to fix common issues you might face with your hair under isolation right now.

If you’re having split ends, take about two centimetres of your hair and twist it real tight. All those tiny strands sticking out are the split ends which you can now chop off using a scissor. And if you’re stuck some with overgrown bangs, it is advised that you cut them vertically to bring them to the levels. If you try to cut them horizontally, you’ll end up with a badly shaped or crooked cut. The idea is to take small snips into the bangs instead of a single sweeping cut.

And when all else fails, just tie your hair up, and wait for times to pass. Because in the end it always does!