Layers.... (asking for how-to instructions)

[Shanarana]

Is there a way I can layer my own hair? I need simple instructions because I don't want to screw it up. Was thinking for going to a stylist, but I would rather save the money which is tight for me at this point.

[LisaJaney]

ShanaRana, when I put layers into my own hair, I did it thusly:

I bent at the waist (I wanted LONG layers, kinda the hairstyle that Ellen Pompeio has on Grey's Anatomy, right?) and gathered my hair into a ponytail that came diagonally "forward" (meaning I could LOOK down the length of the pony if I raised my eyes forehead-ward) and grabbed it with one hand. I brushed it this way so that all the hairs were angling straight up off the scalp. Then I just cut the ponytail off and I had layers that meant the bangs-area was the shortest layer, and it got progressively longer as you went back along my part to the nape, and the layers got longer as you went bangs-area to ears.

ANOTHER THING I DID, because it was important to me to still be able to do high-ponytails and FrenchTwists and buns: before I cut, I took bangs-hairs and pinched a clump of them where I was planning to cut, and then dragged them back to the back of my head to make sure they would be long-enough after-the-cut to get gathered into the bun/twist. I also wanted to be waistlength in the back, so I took nape-ish hairs at the same "potential-cutting-point" and dragged them down to measure how long they would be. Turns out that both criteria were met with that one single cut. I made sure that the nape-hairs as I brushed them into this forehead ponytail were coming up and over the occiput (the back bumpy-thing on the back of your head) and not sneaking around the side of my head near my ears.

OK, those're my instructions. That worked and gave me the hairstyle I wanted. With layers, my hair looks WAY fuller than it used to, and I love it. I hope you'll take pics to compare, and I hope you LOVE your layers like I do mine! :flowers:

[Shanarana]

Thanks so much for the instructions. I know I will be nervous to do it and am going to give a two week rule as you suggested in another thread. :)

[lapushka]

In the "Haircutting for dummies" book, there are 2 ways to layer hair in one cut, it's called "compact cuts" or compact layering techniques. There's the way that LisaJaney explained it (used to have it like that myself, when I had longer hair) but there's another way:

Long layers:
http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/Cutting-Hair-with-Lightning-Speed.id-1561,subcat-INDUSTRY.html

The way LJ explained it can be viewed here (if I understood her correctly), short layers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO1KtgPUTY4