Cutting your own hair, tips please?

Katharine

I've always cut the OH's hair as he wisely refuses to pay to have it done. Got quite good at it too luckily for him!

But I have real trouble trying to do mine, I can trim the ends OK usually do it wet. I have it long and never tie it back normally but for work I have to tie my hair back and I hate it, it looks so harsh all pulled back. I would like to know if anyone has any tips on cutting some softening tassley face framing bits in, I have tried in the past and it always look uneven. I'm not keen in fringes so thats not an option.

Many thanks old stylers.

spud30

I'm not sure I would let my OH touch my hair, even though i cut his and my DS's hair.

If you have a browse over on the shopping boards, you can often get a free haircut at a top salon just by buying shampoo or certain magazines.

Katharine

They always make a worse job of it than I do, I'm terrified of hairdressers!

Bogof_Babe

Katharine, is it difficult to cut your OH's hair, and did you have any training for it or was it trial and error at first?

I'm asking because my 88 year old dad is desperate for a haircut, but is now too frail to cope with a barbers shop even if we drove him to the door. His hair is about 2-3 inches long all over, and sticks upright. He has a wonderful head of hair for his age, but it is well out of control now. We got him to the barber about last November but it was a struggle then, and his health has gone further downhill since.

I've been toying with the idea of having a go. I believe you can get a type of trimming device that is less risky than scissors, but I'd still need to know what I was doing!

Does anyone know of an online guide to simple haircutting for total amateurs?

:eek: (wrong colour but you get the idea!)

Rikki

One way to layer long hair is to make a ponytail from the crown, pull hair up taught and cut.
If you don't want layers all over just a whispy fringe, make a parting up from the ear up to a center parting. pull the section of hair forward and cut softly at an angle to join the bottom of the finge to the bottom length of hair. The greater the angle the more whispy the outcome.

Jay-Jay_4

Bogoff Babe, I cut my OH's hair and both my daughters hair, my OH cuts mine :eek:

It's not as if we have really bad hairdos either, we're both youngish (30), he has his all spiky and waxed and I wear mine quite long and GHD'd. I certainly don't look out of place with my friends and although my hair is literally just cut straight at the bottom, it looks decent when it's been straightened, certainly no worse than I've had at a hairdressers.

I started off my buying some cheap clippers from Boots for £19.99. I would clipper up the back and sides with a number 3 guard on, rolling the clippers away from the head as I got to the crown. Then I put a longer guard on (number 6) and did the top. The only problem is blending the two together around the crown of the head.

After some practice I bought some hairdressing scissors and began cutting the top myself. The trick for blending is to comb the clippered hair and the long hair so that you have a strip inside your fingers, then cut it off. You go around the entire head blending the top of the clippered hair with the long hairs on top.

After that you take the guards off and shave the straggly hairs up the back of the neck, taking care to keep to the natural hairline. I then trim around the ears with my scissors

I've cut my Dad's hair by giving him a number 3 all over, he looked like a hooligan but it saved him £6


Sorry OP Got waylaid there

You could comb your hair down and just shape the front, taking a little off at a time. I've done this before and even if it isn't perfect, once you run your fingers through it, it won't look dodgy.

se999

We had horrible experiences once with barber's where our two sons were cut every time they went. We bought a men's haircutting thing from Argos, the ones we had you select the 'head' to the trimmer depending on how long you want the hair to be. Afterwards you need to shape and also do the neck shave bit separately if necessary. It does get easier each time you do it.

This is a link to current Argos pages:

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=4501&langId=-1&searchTerms=hair+cutting&go.x=12&go.y=10

You can use just sharp hairdressing scissors and you use a comb plus fingers as a length guide, but it takes a lot longer.

WelshWoofer

BOGOF Babe,
I'm pretty sure that social services will provide access to a visiting hairdresser at minimal cost. For a gent it should only be a few pounds. Try calling them and seeing what they can help with.
We got my ancient old uncle spruced up this way - they also look so much younger and fitter when their hair is tidy and it makes them feel a little bit better too.

CHeers
R xx

Bogof_Babe

Never thought of that Rachelmk - I know I've pressed "thanks", but I also wanted to thank you personally for that excellent suggestion.

Miss_Cinnabon

Why are you terrified of hairdressers, did you have a bad experience? you could try going to your local college and getting the students to do your hair, i wouldn't be brave enough to do my own hair! what if i did it wrong:eek:

I cut my oh hair with a trimmer as he likes it really short, as where he works it gets very hot so needs it short.

Tried cutting lo's hair couple of months back as his hair was getting wild! lots of cute curls at the back, thought he was too young for the hairdressers so had a go at it in the bath! what a nightmare, it was so uneven - just as well he had thick hair i could hide the uneven hair a bit.

Grew a bit more so we took him to the hairdressers he was fine, he loved it, all his cute curls are gone though

Kyle

Swan_2

Rikki wrote:

One way to layer long hair is to make a ponytail from the crown, pull hair up taught and cut

I saw that done on telly by one of those top 'name' hairdressers, & it really works! he had the 'guinea pig' lean over put her head forward, drew all the hair up into a pony tail on the crown, twisted round it & then just chopped it off straight across at the desired length. when she sat up again it was all nicely layered