How to cut your own hair

Learning how to cut my own hair is not a story that I ever thought I would write – or a skill I ever wanted to have. Beyond the occasional late-night fringe trim, I left it to the experts. But times change, and needs must, so when my long hair just became lanky, I made a tentative call to Belle Cannan, my hairdresser and co-founder of Salon Sloane. Three days later we are waving to each other on Zoom, and I’m ready for my first home haircut since I was seven years old.

To be honest, I was expecting a tutorial in the intricacies of pro-level hair cutting. What I got was the sort of down-to-earth and eminently practical advice that women love to share with each other. Belle is certainly an incredible hairdresser, but with her salon closed she is also a woman who has had to trim her own hair. “First things first,” she firmly tells me. “This is about giving the hair a refresh, sorting out dry ends and getting more shape back around your face. We are not doing a proper cut or taking anything noticeable off the ends – that is for professionals in the salon. You’re lucky you don’t have a blunt cut, because you shouldn’t try to cut anything yourself that has a definite shape to it.”

This is about maintenance, trimming your fringe and the bits that frame your face but have grown out, and now unflatteringly pull your features down. However, while the cutter may be amateur, your tools should not be; on Belle’s advice I invested in professional scissors and – one of my best beauty online buys – thinning scissors, the blades of which only cut half the hair and so give a softer, more forgiving finish to the hair lengths.

“Always cut your hair when it’s clean and dry,” instructs Belle. “Then run a parting from ear to ear, over the top of your head, as this separates the front section of hair that needs trimming from the rest that you can tie back out of the way.” We start with the fringe: the trick here is to cut it in sections, not in one big chunk as I usually do. Using a tail comb, run a parting a little back from your hair line (depending on how deep your fringe is), running level with the end of one eyebrow across to the end of the other. This should section off your fringe, allowing you to trim the under section first, while the rest is pinned back – it also means any initial mistakes will be hidden by the sections you then trim on top.

“You need to have a plan,” says Belle. “Look in the mirror to see if your fringe looks best cut level to accentuate the eyes, or the cheekbones or, for the longer side lengths, your mouth or jawline. If in doubt, it’s always flattering when you cut to the cheekbones. Then take a small section and hold it down on your face, placing the index and middle fingers almost like scissors on the hair as a guide to the length you want. “Then – and this is very important – keep holding the hair but lift your hand up so it’s just below eye level – never cut your hair against your face, as the ends will be too blunt.” You should hold the scissors so that the scissor tip is about a 45-degree angle to the ends of the hair (not horizontal) so you can snip in and up into the ends. Work across the fringe, taking just small sections at a time. “Go slowly, give yourself time and just snip the very ends,” says Belle. “And keep checking – you can always trim a bit more, but just do a little at a time.”

My finished fringe has that ’70s feel but is slightly more reminiscent of the blonde girl in Abba than a cool French girl-fringe. However, the rest is a resounding success as Belle shows me the easiest trick to trim the long, lanky sides of my hair back into a more face-flattering shape. With the lengths tied back (and out of temptation’s way), you take small sections of hair and twist them before using the thinning scissors to cut no more than half a centimeter off the ends. The final result is brilliant, if I say so myself. “This gives you that fresh, textured look and it works on any hair that’s longer than shoulder length and not cut blunt,” says Belle. This twist technique is definitely what I will use on my fringe in future (it gives a lighter texture) and now I have the know-how – and the scissors – I will use both to do mini trims as needed between hair appointments. “It doesn’t have to be perfect,” assures Belle. “I’ve cut hair for years but after trimming my own last week, I still found bits I had missed – so I just went back in and trimmed them over the next few days.”

While this is ideal for layered and relatively straight or wavy hair, cutting curly or textured hair takes different expertise. With 30 years’ experience in cutting curly and afro hair, Charlotte Mensah takes a similar approach to home hair cutting. “Be gentle, work slowly and just do a trim – not a haircut. If your hair is very short – around two or three inches long – and is very kinky and coiled, just run your hands through it and use nail scissors to cut any knots off; using smaller scissors makes you less likely to make mistakes. You want to snip off the knots to stop the hair breaking off.” On longer, looser curls, Charlotte recommends blowing the hair out so it’s straighter and you can see the shape more. Neatly section it and – again, holding your scissors at a 45-degree angle – just snip up and into the ends. “Cutting this way is much more forgiving and gives a more natural fall. Plus, when you get rid of the dry ends the curl looks more hydrated,” says Charlotte. “If you just do the bits around the face then you can follow the outline of your hair; but if you start chopping into it, any repair later will mean taking it a lot shorter. It’s about tiding you over, not a restyle.” Post-trim, she recommends using a deep-conditioning mask or, “even better, an overnight oil treatment.”

As Charlotte says, it is about tiding us over for the present, but also giving us the confidence to do a little trim if needed – on a too-long fringe or grown-out sides that lie flat rather than flatter the face. Just follow the rules – use proper scissors; do less, not more; take it slowly; keep checking; work in small sections; and, most importantly of all, as Charlotte and Belle both say, know when to stop.

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