Dare to Cut Your Own Hair

Busy lives and scant time often tempt us to skip the complimentary bang trims between cuts that many salons offer. Ready to try your hand at a little home styling? If you’re thinking about cutting your bangs at home, take advice from the experts. Use the right tools, have a plan and go slow. Hair always grows back, but only time will heal if you chop your way to bang disaster. Before you take the plunge, take a minute to investigate the right way to trim your own bangs.

If you’re going to try this at home, first Invest in the right tools. The basic toolkit should include a pair of stylist scissors, a comb, a couple of clips and a blow dryer. The teeny tiny scissors you use for a nail manicure simply will not do.

Ask your stylist for advice on the comb that will work best for you. Proper spacing on the comb’s teeth is important. Teeth that are set too wide apart won’t allow for a natural fall pattern, while teeth spaced too close together will exaggerate mistakes if you cut too much hair.

Cut hair when it’s dry.

You should always trim bangs when the hair is dry. That’s when hair is in its natural state and the trim will look the least disrupted. You risk cutting bangs too short when hair is wet because wet hair both expands and stretches.

Take your hair’s texture into account. If you wear your hair straight, make sure to straighten bangs before you cut. If you wear your hair curly, dry the hair so that it’s curly when you trim. Cutting bangs as you will wear them can spare you unpleasant surprises.
Apply a small amount of lightweight product to hold all the hair in place before you trim.

Plan before you cut.

Remember that your bangs are an expression of your personal style. Hair fashions aren’t dictating a one-size-fits-all ideal length for bangs. Feel free to experiment with the shortest blunt micro bangs and the longest grown out styles.

While micro bangs particularly suit petite faces, a long fringe and textured bang looks great on round faces. Full bangs or side-swept deep parts look great on long faces.

Follow these four key steps for a game plan that will make you happy with the end result.

Section out the front.

Use a comb to create a front section, then divide out a triangular section in the center. Create the triangle so that the base corners come just above the arches of the eyebrows. The peak of the triangle should hit at the spot where your head begins to naturally round forward.

Comb the triangular section forward and out.

Hold bangs straight out and place your fingers where you want to trim.

Slightly arch the bang section up.

You want the line where you’re cutting to face slightly upwards. When you start cutting, hold the scissors vertically and use the tips or points to snip instead of the axis. This point-cutting technique will create a softer effect and more diffused finish. If you want a hard line and a more severe bang, you can cut it all at one time straight across.

View the result.

Let the bangs fall and see how you did. Now’s the time to make any corrections to pieces you might have missed. After cutting, style your bangs with a lightweight spray or oil or texture paste.

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