How to Cut Your Own Hair

So today I did something I've never done - I cut my hair myself. I've done minor trims of split ends before using the twist-and-snip method, but I've never actually cut my own hair any further than that. I've never trusted myself to do it, but lately my hair stylist hasn't been really fulfilling my needs. My stylist is actually the opposite of most stylists - she takes too little off. I liked this a lot at first, since I have fairly long hair, but after a while my dead ends started getting a little out of control, even though I don't style my hair with heat on a regular basis (maybe once or twice a week.) 

I don't have another appointment scheduled for a while, and then I came across a post from one of my favorite bloggers, the Pintester, about cutting her own hair: (see this post here: "I cut my hair and I liked it"). I thought, "Hmmm....if the Pintester can do it, I can do it!" 

I already had hair-cutting scissors from doing my own split ends, so I didn't have to go buy any, and I looked at several videos on YouTube before determining what was the best way to do my hair. My hair isn't all one length - I have three layers. The shortest goes to my shoulders, the second layer is a little longer - down to my collarbones - and the third layer is my longest hair, which was to my mid-back (before I cut it today.) 

I started by flat-ironing my hair so I didn't have to deal with my natural waves. I cut my hair dry, as well, since I had never done this before and I didn't want to take too much off by cutting it wet and then seeing it dry even shorter than I'd realized. Cutting it dry also meant that I could see exactly where the dead hair began and cut it off there, instead of having it disguised by being wet.

I first started by using this method below for a U-shape cut, which is incredibly simple to follow:

She doesn't explain anything, but essentially this is what you do:

1. Part your hair the way you like. I always part my hair in the middle, since I feel this lends itself to more style options and I can change the part whenever I feel like it. 
2. Pull your hair forward on each side of your neck, ensuring that it is smooth, and tie it as close to the roots and as tightly as you can.
3. Simultaneously pull the hair ties down on each side, making sure they are even with one another, until you are at the section of hair you'd like to cut. Using the hair ties as a guide, cut off the dead hair on each side. Make sure you're checking yourself so that your cuts are even.
4. After this step, I cut vertically into the hair to soften the blunt edges. The video doesn't show this, but I added it in to make the cut look nicer and more professional.
5. Pull both sides of your hair back behind you in a ponytail at the nape of the neck. I left my front part in and didn't brush it out. 
6. Pull the hair tie down until you are 2-3 inches from the bottom; pull it around your neck toward you and cut it evenly to make sure you get the remaining dead parts of your hair. Vertical cut to soften the blunt edges.
7. Part your hair again and pull forward as you did in step 2. Using your fingers, pull your hair forward and cut so that the ends are all even. Vertically snip as before to soften the edges.

If you're happy, you can stop here. I kept going, since this cut for long hair didn't address my dead ends on my other two layers. I then used this video as inspiration for my upper layers:

I sectioned off each layer one at a time (bottom, middle, then top), and specifically used the twist-and-snip she demonstrates in this video to get rid of my split ends (which I have done before and have experience with). I then lightly cut down the twisted 1-inch sections of hair at the bottom to remove about half an inch  of the dead ends. The end results - amazing! All total I removed 1/2" - 1" of hair and my dead ends are all gone. My boyfriend is stunned - he keeps saying what a big difference it has made and how great my hair looks. 

Here are pictures of the front and back (I'm not wearing makeup, so forgive the appearance) - if parts of my hair look uneven, it's because I flipped my hair to my usual part on the left, so the hair fell differently. I also didn't take the back picture, so I had no idea that it hadn't fallen correctly down my back. BUT - when I measure it out, it's totally even across the board. 

I'm so pleased! It was so easy and it saved me $60+ getting it cut at a salon. No more dead ends and it is so soft and silky and super healthy!

 Front

Back

Let me know if you guys try this out and if you like it!