Hairs & How I Cut My Own

My hopes were to share with you a finished laundry room cabinet this week but no-go because, as it turns out, finding wood to make shelves for the thing is turning into a longer process than we wanted it to be.  Hopefully that saga will come to a close soon and I’ll have an ‘after’ and tutorial but until then, here’s a sneak peek:
 

Today though, it’s a DIY haircut and layer tutorial.  It’s not the best hair-cutting tutorial out there and while I was going through the grainy phone pictures I took of myself in-process, I realized it might be the worst and a video might’ve been better.  But either way, I promised a step-by-step so here ‘tis.

  I’ve been cutting my own hair for 10+ years but only in the past six or so have relied on myself as my sole barbette minus one professional cut I got three years ago (unless my sister’s visiting because then I make her cut it).  Cutting my hair, and Anthony’s hair as well, is one of the ways we save money in this house.  It’s worked really well for us and probably saves us a good $250+ a year. 

So…

Trimming

If I’m just trimming my hair, I usually just cut it wet right after a shower.  If I’m trimming and layering, I blow-dry it as straight as I can get it, which is a beauteous sight considering my naturally curly hair doesn’t blow-dry stick straight:

[I mean, it makes you wonder why I don’t make this my reg ‘do, doesn’t it?  Frizz is inn.]

After blow-drying it, I straighten it with a straightening iron to get it as straight as possible.  It’s hard to tell how well I’ve cut when my hair is wet (and I’ve heard that wet hair stretches leading to a not-so-good cut when it dries and my most favoritist pro hairstyler ever used to cut dry because he said it gave a better cut) so when I layer, I cut it dry.

Back to just the regular trim though, I like a rounded V vs. a straight-across cut along the bottom of my hair when it’s behind my shoulders so to get that, I part my hair as best as I can down the middle, pull both sides forward, and cut straight across the bottom on both sides, like so:
 
I learned how to trim my hair this way by following Feye’s self-trimming method and it’s worked like a charm.  I usually have Anthony check for stragglers when I’m done just in case though.  :)

    
Layering

Trimming can be explained pretty well using pictures and words but layering is a little more difficult.  To layer, I grab thin sections of hair, sort of like pie pieces, sectioning it from top to bottom.  Then I pull each section out and cut a diagonal line at the end, starting where hair from the bottom of my hair ends, up.  So, I end up cutting more length off the higher I go.  This picture doesn’t explain very well but it’s what I took at the time (and it’s actually after I cut):
 
I slide my fingers out to the ends of the hairs from the bottom of my head and holding my fingers straight up and down, cut along them. 

And then I made this crazy-looking graphic to help explain:
 
If the yellow circle were my head and the yellow lines, my hair, I’d pull them out like the picture above and cut along the black line.  Doing so gives me a bunch of layers.  The lower you hold your hair out, the longer your layers will be and the higher, the shorter they’ll be. 

And that’s how I layer my hair!  (Any and all beauticians reading this right now are probably cringing…sorry.)  I’ve tried a few different ways besides this (like this time when I wanted a deep V cut and butchered my hair and had to cut off six inches to fix it) but have found the best layering cut happens using this process.  Oh and btw, I didn’t come up with this myself, I learned it from being very observant while getting my hair professionally cut and playing around with different techniques with my sisters.  (Just a side note:  I respect hairstylists and know they have to make a living too so in no way am I trying to say that what they do is not important or can always be done at home.  We choose this route because we’re on a really tight budget and can’t afford salons where we’re at right now but I say support them if you can!) 

Here’s the aftermath of my scissoring the other night whence I trimmed and layered and took pictures doing it:

(Quick photo courtesy of the husband who was caring for Sebastian after bedtime so I could give myself a quick cut.)

Another thing worth sharing is the way my sister layers her hair(s).  Her way is much easier and I have yet to try it but all she does is put her hair up into a high pony at the tippity-top of her head.  The best way to do this is to flip your head over and brush your hair up into the pony so that each and every hair leads from it’s root, straight up into the pony and out.  Then she holds that pony up and cuts a line straight across.  Of course, I faked what it’d be like for explanatory purposes:
 

And then I let go of my hair and this happened:


And I had to document my new ‘do.  Lady Gaga would be proud, I think.  ;)