Cutting out the hair salon – how to cut your own hair

For smooth edges and consistent lengths, you need a sharp blade. Blunt tools are never much use, but when every millimetre counts they’re hopeless. If you want to be able to show your face in public afterwards, it pays to follow a few pointers first and check your hair trimmer.

A guide with insider tips – how do I cut my own hair?

There are lots of good reasons to cut your own hair. Saving time and money are among the most common. The higher your expectations are, the more care you’ll need to take. While many men are content with a normal short cut, most ladies prefer to follow trends, which soon puts their requirements into a different league entirely. Then it’s a case of: cut long hair yourself, cut medium length yourself, cut your own bob or, in the simplest case, trim your own ends.

Let’s start with the more sophisticated gender. For women, the best way to cut their own hair depends to a certain extent on how talented they are. For women with curly hair, there’s usually no alternative to a hair stylist. Here are the other usual methods in brief:

1. Ponytail method:

Start by bunching your slightly damp hair into a really tight ponytail, high on the back of your head. Starting at the top, slip hair bobbles over the ponytail until only the tips you want to cut are still visible. It’s really easy to vary the haircut – and to either cut just the tips, or the length yourself. With one hand, press the ponytail flat; with the other, cut with a sharp pair of hair cutting scissors. Since the hair lower down the back of your head has further to go to reach the ponytail, it will stay longer than the hair higher up. That gives you a gently stepped look.

2. ‘From the hip’ and freestyle:

Rub your hair dry towel-dry. Hold your head downwards and shake your hair out straight until your natural parting appears. Alternatively, use a centre parting as your starting point. Part the hair on the back of your head in the middle, then drape it forwards over your shoulders. Comb your hair downwards and fix it just above the length you want. Using your visual judgement, trim the tips, holding the scissors loosely and vertically. This creates a gentle fringe effect that conceals any little slips.

3. Twirl method:

This technique is particularly good for frizzy hair and is easy to do. Part your entire hair into strands of 2-3 cm. Next, twirl each strand separately until the split ends stand out. Then cut them off.

For men and women – DIY Undercut & Co.

Short hair can turn heads on women too – providing it’s well cut and suits their type. Here are a few gender-neutral tips for short haircuts.

As with any haircut, your hair needs to be dry first. This helps you get an even length, and stops your hair trimmer going rusty too. Before you begin, select the hair length you want using the comb attachments supplied with your hair trimmer. Comb attachments stand all the hairs up straight before your trimmer cuts them to the desired length. To make sure you catch all the hairs, always move the hair trimmer against the direction of hair growth. While practised hands can work with different hair lengths in a single cut, we advise you to get help; even with a mirror, there’s still a blind spot on the back of your head where it’s easy to shave an ugly step or edge. It all grows back of course, but it still looks underwhelming for a while.

Power on – and always work upstream

Start at the nape of your neck. Slowly, and ideally with a steady hand, move your hair trimmer upwards. When you reach the top vertebra, leave your top hair untouched for now – we’ll get to that in Step 2. After you’ve done the back of your head, repeat on the sides. Once everything is short except your top hair, move the hair trimmer to your forehead and work backwards from the hairline. You can use a different setting on the comb attachment if you want your top hair to stay longer than the back and sides.
To get a clear view of the results, hold your head under water briefly to remove the hair you cut off. If there’s still too much hair anywhere, just go back over it with the right attachment and setting. Now for the fine-tuning! This is trickier because you have to remove the comb attachment first. The contours are key. On the nape of the neck and behind the ears, use the hair trimmer with no attachment. If you find this difficult, just use your normal shaver or a small cosmetic trimmer instead.

After you’re done, wash your head well – and remember to give your hair trimmer a thorough clean too. The accessories it comes with should include the cleaning and care products you’ll require. Speaking of care, a moisturizing cream is visibly good for your scalp and all other shaved areas. Natural aloe vera is a good choice: it provides moisture without being oily, and is available almost everywhere.

So much for the theory – now it’s time for action. Good preparation is the key to success. So get shopping, for instance at www.carrera.de, and start your engines!