Hairstylist's Tips on Trimming Your Hair at Home
If You're in Desperate Need of a Hair Trim During Self-Isolation, Here Are 5 Easy Steps to Follow
Normally, it's our best advice to go to a professional for any kind of haircut or hair-colour services, but when push comes to shove and you absolutely need to DIY, there are a few steps you can take to make the process a little easier (and less terrifying) to do at home.
Hairstylist Sunnie Brook (who often works with Nicole Scherzinger and Elisabeth Moss) is proving it doesn't have to require a lot of resources, either. (Although she reiterates how tricky this is to do, admitting that, "I'm a professional and it's hard to do it on yourself.") You need a towel, a comb with both wide and fine teeth, scissors, a scrunchie, and fine mist spray. Once you've gathered those, check out her very helpful play-by-play of trimming your own hair at home.
Step 1: Gather the Right Tools
Lay a towel on the surface you'll be cutting over to make the cleanup super quick and easy. Pick up your comb with wide and fine teeth. Brook says the wide-tooth side gives less tension, which is great for wavy or curly textures. You'll also need a good pair of scissors, so it glides through and doesn't chew your ends to pieces. The main goal is to open up your hair around your face, add some movement, and remove dry ends while keeping the length.
Step 2: Create a Guide on Dry Hair
You'll need to cut on dry hair that's been left to air dry so you can see the shape. Wet hair isn't the best indicator as is stretches, Brook said. To start, make a centre part and take two supertiny pieces of hair on either side of the part (as if you were going to try the '90s-era tendril trend), tucking the rest of your hair behind your ears to keep it out of the way.
Bring the two pieces of hair together in front of your face, twist the bottom half of the section (where you want to cut it), take the scissors, and cut downward. "That gives the hair more of a tapered end instead of a blunt one," she said. Remember, if you have wavy or curly hair, less is more because your hair will bounce up.
Step 3: Cut in Small Sections
Continue to trim the front sections by taking a tiny bit more hair from out behind each ear, securing the rest of your hair in a ponytail. "Go little by little — you don't want to cut off too much," she said.
Continue to cut the front pieces in the same way you did in the previous step, by pointing the scissors toward the floor and cutting downward. Don't forget to check along the way that the sides are even by bringing both ends side by side in front of your face.
Step 4: Move On to the Ends
Once you are done with the front, take out your ponytail. Bring all of your hair forward (so in front of your shoulders) and again, going section by section, take your ends between your fingers and snip into them vertically with the tips of the scissors. This not only breaks up and softens the bluntness, but it also removes split ends.
Step 5: Check Your Work
You're done! Use a facial spray or fine hair mist to revive the hair and see the shape.
