How to do your own hair cut

I have longer, layered hair so it is pretty easy to do my own hair. I am also a qualified hairdresser, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t try doing your own hair.

Here is a how to guide to doing the style I have, with a few tips at the end of the post. Some of the pictures are a little blurry because my husband is not used to taking pictures at all, but he tried so I am grateful. I will redo the blurry ones later for you, but hopefully you get the idea. There are a lot of pictures!

You will need a decent pair of scissors. Hairdressers usually pay a couple of hundred dollars for scissors but there are brands such as Samurai which are good and you can pick them up on eBay for under $50.

This is what my hair looks like dry

Start with freshly washed, wet hair. This will ensure your hair is even when you are cutting it.

For a layered cut like mine, comb all the hair back off your face. Find your part, I actually just use a middle part as I like my hair slightly shorter on one side than the other.

Next select a section, about 1cm wide next to the part to create another part which is also as long as the top of your head. So there is 1cm between these 2 parts. Comb that section straight up and trim the ends.

Repeat this with another 1cm wide section of hair next to that part, always pulling the hair straight up, then do it with a third section. Do it on both sides of the part. Essentially you will have trimmed 6 small sections of hair at the top of your head.

Next, using this same top section of hair you will be cross checking it. This means you will be taking 1cm sections again but instead of the parts going front to back, you will be doing them from side to side, but only with the section of hair you have already cut. This is to ensure you have trimmed your hair evenly and not missed any bits. Take a 1cm section at a time working from the front of your head to the back of the top of your head like the picture below (in this picture I have not pulled my hair straight up because my husband was having issues with fitting it all in photo apparently, but always pull your hair straight so you cut it evenly!)

Once you have cross checked the top section of hair you can move onto cutting the sides. So find your part again

(I really do not mean to look less than impressed in these photos, sorry!)

Now form a part on the side of your head as well from the part on the top of your head to the top of your ear like the picture below

Now you will be taking small sections if hair, about 1cm wide from the top of the part to the top of your ear, working from the original part at the side of your head to the front of your face. This step is really important. The angle you hold your hair at will determine how shot the sides of your hair is. If you comb each section up to the top of your hair and cut it evenly with the top section you created you will have long layers.

You can choose to hold it straight out from your head to create less layers

Or if you hold the hair on more a downwards angle from your head you will have minimal layers. The image above shows the angle I hold my hair at for my layers. Once you have trimmed both sides of your head we move on to the back.

Part your hair down the middle at the back of your head like so

Next take a 1cm section to create another part next to the part you have going from the top of your head to your neck. When doing this make sure you take a little of the hair that you cut in the top section in the first steps. This will be your guide as to how much to trim. The way I do the back section of my head is do a middle strip like I do the very top section of the head in the first stage. So holding your hair straight, take 1cm sections and trim the ends. Again with the back the angle you hold it at, like on the sides, will determine how layered your hair is.

Once you have done a middle section using the straight up and down parts, move to the side sections at the back of the head. Obviously these sections are not that large. My preference for this section is to work on an angle going across.

Create a part from the front of your head to the back, then another part from top of your head to top of your ear so you have split your hair into 4 sections. Starting at on of the back sections take small parts going across. So instead of going from the top of the head to the neck, take the hair on a slight angle going across from the part at the top of the ear to the part at the back of the head, almost forming a triangle. Again work in 1cm sections as you go down the back of your head.

As you can see in the image above it doesn’t matter if you don’t get the whole middle section of your hair in each section you trim. You are just using a small section from the side of your head and the middle of the back of your head to show you the small amount of hair in between these sections that needs to be trimmed. I bring my hair straight up when doing the back section as I find this easiest.

Work from the top of the head to the neck on both sides as shown above.

Once you have done this you can come your hair down straight and if you have a friend they can check the back to see if it is straight for you.

Next you will be tidying up the front. So find your part. This time it has to be the part you want or that your hair does naturally. As you can see I part my hair on the side.

The sides can be done a couple of different ways. The way I prefer is to open your scissors and glide them down the hair, so you never actually close them to cut the hair. The following pictures should hopefully explain what I mean. You need to ensure the hair has been combed smooth and is held tight.

As you can see the fingers on the bottom are holding the hair tight while the scissors in your other hand glide down the hair trimming off the excess and creating layers around your face.

Alternatively you could comb your hair

Then get your scissors and cut the layers in, but this way tends to be not as smooth in the layering process as gliding. As you can see in the image below it is really easy to cut as the wrong angle and mess up the feathering/layers around the face.

The more you angle your scissors the better the layers will be. From the picture above to the picture below I have made the scissors glide a little and as you can see the angle is slightly different. The downwards angle creates a better line than going straight across.

Then lastly if you need trim the very ends of the side to level it with the back like so

Once you are done, dry your hair and see how it looks.

(as a side note, isn’t it amazing the difference make-up and properly dried and coloured hair makes!)

Have you ever attempted to DIY haircut? How did you go? I will be doing a video demo next time I need to trim my hair, so in about 2 months.