Scissors and advice?

[JiggyMcJig]

Hello lovely ladies and gents of the forum! Thanks for having me. I have a few questions I need some assistance with if you don't mind.

1. What are a good brand of scissors to buy to trim my own hair and do maintenance on split ends? I've read an old thread on here from 2010 suggesting a few brands from Sally's, but I'm wondering if there are any new suggestions since it's been quite a few years since the posts were made.

2. Any videos around for tips on cutting your own hair if you don't have anyone to help? My hair is just below my shoulders but longer when wet (I have curly hair).

3. What can I do to prevent "straw" dried out hair when exposed to the sun? I went out in the sun more than normal this summer and my hair became lighter on top, but also became more brittle with lots of split ends.

Any other advice or tips regarding these topics would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[Anje]

My "good" hair scissors are Cricket brand from Sally. Honestly, though, I've got some that are Goody or Conair or something like that which are quite sharp too (once accidentally took out a fingernail with one side of it because my hand slipped a little) and seem like they work just as well. They probably wouldn't hold an edge as long if you were trimming hair with them for a living, but for occasional trims on one head of hair, I'm sure they're perfectly adequate. (If you've got thick hair and are doing a compact cut that would effectively mean "sawing" through the hair, you might need better quality ones, or to divide the bunch of hair into several pieces and attack each separately. I've got medium-thickness hair that's tapered enough at the ends that a trim is pretty much just a quick snip.)

There are a couple good ways to cut your own hair, most of which are forms of what stylists call "compact cuts" because they involve gathering the bulk of the hair into one big clump and then cutting the whole thing together, rather than taking the hair in small sections. Feye's Self Trim (http://feyeselftrim.livejournal.com/) methods are always popular here. For a more layered slight U, gathering the hair under your chin and then cutting is pretty good. Deeper layering can be achieved if you gather the hair in a ponytail at your forehead instead. Spidermom has made the cool suggestion of shutting your ends in a book (works better with longer hair) to spread them out a little and give yourself a good straight line to cut along. For stronger curls, it seems like a lot of curlies I've seen have been happiest simply grabbing one curled section at a time and snipping it, then moving to the next. It takes a while, but curls aren't likely to hang in the same straight line from one day to the next anyway.

Best thing for sun, really, is to cover your hair. Wearing it bunned with the ends tucked in helps protect the ends a bit, but a hat or bandana is probably the best thing to keep the whole top part protected. If you're like me and prone to burning your scalp, this almost isn't optional anyway.

[JiggyMcJig]

Thank you for all of your help, Anje. I will go to Sally's sometime this week and check out th Cricket brand. Feye's website was very informative; I think I'll try the V-cut method.

Is there anything to put on my hair to undo the brittleness the sin damage has caused? I know it can't save split ends-- they need to be trimmed (two inches above the break?...). But is there something to save the rest of the shaft?

Thanks again!

[Anje]

Sun damage, I'm not sure of... it's probably a matter of testing a few things and seeing what helps.

Things to try: coconut oil (just a dab of something you'd cook with or eat, and expect it to look oily so start off doing it a few hours before a wash), SMT (link in my signature, good for moisture), protein treatments (gelatin works well, but I don't have a link at the moment. I've heard decent things about mixing it in with the SMT), maybe other oils like sunflower. Protein typically makes hair a bit stiffer and voluminous but potentially tangly; the easiest solution if you experience too much of this is to follow with a moisture treatment like an SMT.


I know it can't save split ends-- they need to be trimmed (two inches above the break?...).
Don't need to trim that far up. Maybe 1/4" above the highest splitty spot. Make sure you use sharp scissors that are specifically for hair, and don't use them for other things. Dull scissors tend to leave a surface that's prone to splitting again.

[JiggyMcJig]

Thanks again for all of the info!