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Considering cutting your own hair while your salon is closed due to coronavirus?
Maybe you need a trim to keep you sane during social distancing, maybe your bangs are looking shaggy, or maybe you just want to maintain a tidy appearance for video chats.
Most salon professionals advise against cutting your own hair at home, but they acknowledge that desperate times call for desperate measures. If you absolutely can’t hold off until your salon is open again, there are a few tips on how to cut your own hair that you should read.
You should stick to minor changes if your follicles are looking less than fresh these days, according to colorist and stylist Haley-May Block at The Wayward Hairdresser.
Block cautions clients against cutting their own hair, but admits trims and bang upkeep are fairly easy to do on your own — with the right technique and tools.
“The trick is don’t cut across,” Block told HuffPost Finds. “Cut up and in. We call this ‘point cutting.’ It allows for more control and automatic texturing.”
To trim your bangs between haircuts, Block recommends pulling back all your hair except for the bangs themselves and the hair that frames them on either side. Then use an alligator clip to pin back half the bangs so they are half as thick and you can start by trimming the hair closes to the forehead first. This allows you to make a guide cut, and it leaves extra hair to cover up that first layer if you accidentally cut too short.
“Start point cutting slightly angled left, then do it again slightly angled right,” Block said. “Bring down horizontal sections of bangs until there’s no more. Then blend with the same soft point cutting as needed into the ‘context corners’ [aka those face-framing pieces of hair] and boom! Home bang trim.”
Block mostly suggests using this time to take care of your hair and to give it a rest from tools like curling irons and hairdryers.
“Remember your stylist telling you not to shampoo so much? Take this time to get through that awkward phase while you’re inside and no one is seeing you.”
- Haley-May Block, stylist and color at The Wayward Hairdresser
She recommends brushing with a multibristle flat brush from root to ends to distribute your hair’s natural oils, doing a weekly hair mask and finally cutting back on your shampoo habit.
“Remember your stylist telling you not to shampoo so much? Take this time to get through that awkward phase while you’re inside and no one is seeing you,” Block said. “Consider this time to get your hair healthy, strong and less shampoo-dependent.”
In the meantime, there are few ways to support your local salon and stylist: Consider purchasing gift cards for future appointments and tipping your stylist in advance for that next cut or color. It’s also a good idea to contact your salon to see what inventive take-home options they’re providing right now. Block’s salon, for example, is offering personalized “no contact” single-process touch-up kits for roots and custom-mixed toners to use at home.
Still, if you absolutely must cut your hair, below we’ve rounded up some of the best products you’ll need to do it at home, from shears to clipper sets.
Take a look:
