Biggest self-cutting mishaps?

[TheLuckyLurker]

Tell me the biggest mistakes you've ever made while cutting you own hair. I'll start: I was once giving myself bangs. I wanted proper side bangs, rather than overgrown blunt bangs I swept aside. So I watched a S$^&ton of tutorials, and followed the instructions exactly. Nope. It's a good thing I started them off way longer than I wanted them to be, because the only way to salvage my terrible mistake was to cut them back into blunt bangs. Never again.

[Jo Ann]

Aren't bangs the WORST?

I tried to trim about 1/2" off the front of APL hair...by the time I put the scissors down, my front hair (in front of my ears only--I was trying for tendrils when I wore a ponytail) were just above my cheek bone on one side, and just below my cheek bone on the other side. The next day, when I went to school, I pinned my hair so that it looked like the front pieces were tucked behind my ears.

Wouldn't you know it? My luck, my Dear Grandmother picked me up from school that day :( Off to her hairstylist to get a pixie, so my hair would look *ahem!* presentable... :justy:

[school of fish]

I think I may have admitted this somewhere previously on the board - but I once, in my impetuous youth, got it in my head to trim my bangs at a party, several drinks in.

Not recommended.

[TwilightMermaid]

I tried to layer my curls and ended up with pieces in the front shorter than the sides. Also, before that, I had cut my curls to chin length to get rid of damage, which ended up being a nasty blunt Bob which had pieces on the top longer than some bottom pieces. Yuck!

[cjk]

Some of my earliest self-cut flattops were definitely not sculpted well. And I took the fade line up way too high, right before christmas, so I ended up with with a flattop that looked most like a paseudo-Mohawk.

The key isn't getting it perfect. The key is making it look like what you did was intentional. And developing the skills needed for that to happen.

Happily, precision clipper work has prepared me for the end of the year when I'll do some minor shaping if needed.

[poli]

I once cut part of my eyebrow while trimming my bangs. The face framing wispies I should just leave alone but I cut them way too short and I have to wait over a year to be able to put them up (they are still not even).

[leayellena]

I was 3 when I cut it in a "pixie" myself. since then on my mom kept it in bobs but I actually found other hobbies and I forgot about my hair. then I had a lot of stress at school and a lot of medication so my hair was thin. they kept it in a wannabe long pixie that in 3 months already reached the akward stage. now I know about faye´s trim but I´d never try u and v shapes.

[Joules]

July 2013.

I loved my V-shaped hemline, but I wanted some face framing layers. So I watched all the videos on youtube of how to do it, sectioned off almost half of my hair, aaaaand...

Instead of gliding scissors down the lendth to achieve the feathery layered look I just snipped. At above APL. Yay. My beautiful fresh waist-length V hemline, I just cut it in a couple of weeks before that and loved it so much. It was gone. Well, there was a slight thin V in the bottom, and then just two thick chopped pieces around my shoulders.

There was no way it could be fixed without cutting all of my hair to APL, I wasn't ready for it at all, so I decided to wait until it grows to a more comfortable length, I wasn't wearing my hair down anyway so no one saw this disaster. I waited for about 5 months, did a course of a very questionable hair growth treatment that dried out my length a lot, and by November of that same year I had about 7.5 - 9 cm (3 - 3.5") of new growth. I chopped off 17cm (6,7"), evened it all out and never experimented with fancy haircuts again, only simple general trims.

[Obsidian]

As a teen, I tried to "feather" my own hair. Ended up chopping a huge chunk almost to the scalp. I've also had my share of bang mishaps over the years.

[YvetteVarie]

Not intentional... I was taking down crotchet braids and I cut a chunk of my front hair to 1". The rest was way longer. I had to style my hair in ways to hide that bit otherwise I would have had to cut my APL hair back to 1"

[lapushka]

When I was 15 I just followed instructions my mom had from this insert from a magazine (80s cuts). They were technical drawings of how to cut. Some turned out better than others, but mistakes? No. Not really. Sometimes I didn't like my results as much, but it wasn't a mistake really.

[enting]

Not really a mishap, more of a learning curve.
I first tried my hand at cutting my own hair in college. I understood some of the principles but not quite all of them. I wanted a V hemline. I parted my hair in the middle, combed my hair down in front of me, and cut straight across. I got a V all right, but it was a very deep V and the sides were a lot shorter than I had wanted. I could still ponytail my hair though, and while I wanted longer and longer hair, I wasn't super committed to gaining length right then so I shrugged it off. I did ask my best friend to trim my hair from that point on though until I learned Feye's method!

[littlestarface]

Oh my gosh I have so many times where I effed up my own hair. My most recent one involved bangs that I cut too much hair and now I have short hair on the top of my head and it doesn't blend at all *smacks forehead* I also really effed them up this time as I didn't get my bangs to blend well so instead of side bangs they are real boxy looking even tho their longish its so ugly I regret it.

When I was doing feyes method I always effed up my hair and I mean always. I had one side longer or one side was a half a V and the other side was _ \_| so like that. Ugh it was so embarrassing. One time it came out like this, ⅄ like a snake tongue, I was trying for her deep U but I ended up messing it up to that.

[MusicalSpoons]

Not a mishap exactly, but a mistake. I really wanted not an entirely straight across cut, but something shaped, à la Jennifer Aniston but with a foot more of hair, and a very angled side fringe, and the hairdresser didn't do enough shaping in my entirely ignorant opinion. I'd seen how angles were cut, and feathering, so I took it upon myself to try to shape the sides of my hemline and cut in some face framing bits ... using baby nail scissors. And then using paper scissors, so I could cut more at once :doh: :doh: :doh: :brickwall: :justy:

I'm still trying to grow those out, a few years later - fortunately it wasn't a large proportion of my hair, but unfortunately most of what got cut with split-inducing blades was sun-bleached. The split ends are now moderately under control, but pieces still snap off occasionally because the straggly bits don't wrap neatly with the rest of the hair into buns for protection unless I'm very careful. (Contrary to popular belief, and contrary to how it feels 80% of the year, we *do* get sunshine, and enough to burn. I loved the highlights my incidental sun exposure gave my hair, not realising how damaging it was!)

In summary, It's not a particularly noticeable self-cutting mistake, but I still feel silly when my hair reminds me of it. I also now know a U hemline gives the shaping I desire, for when I next take scissors to my hair!

[Lady Stardust]

When I was 15 I just followed instructions my mom had from this insert from a magazine (80s cuts). They were technical drawings of how to cut. Some turned out better than others, but mistakes? No. Not really. Sometimes I didn't like my results as much, but it wasn't a mistake really.

I would love to see those instructions:) 80s haircuts have a special ridiculous place in my heart, memories of some...interesting...cuts when I was at school :)

[lapushka]

I would love to see those instructions:) 80s haircuts have a special ridiculous place in my heart, memories of some...interesting...cuts when I was at school :)

I have been looking for them here (maybe I put them into a haircutting book). I have asked my mom. My mom either doesn't have them anymore or they are around somewhere. She always kept them in her bedside drawer, but they don't seem to be there anymore.

[Jas]

Oh a fringe (which you guys call bangs) were the worst decision I had ever made. The night before first day of secondary school I had a whim that a fringe would look good - so I got my mum to cut one. Nope. Instant regret! They just don't suit me - the cut itself wasn't terrible but it was pinned back the rest of the school year lol.

Second one was when I was a kid - I was playing barbies and cut their hair, found it fun and cut one of my pigtails off. Happily showed it to my mum then asked her to put it back on.
Cue devastation at the realisation it couldn't be put back on lol.

[Lady Stardust]

I have been looking for them here (maybe I put them into a haircutting book). I have asked my mom. My mom either doesn't have them anymore or they are around somewhere. She always kept them in her bedside drawer, but they don't seem to be there anymore.

Ah at least you have the memory of them, 80s haircuts were so vivid :) I’d love to start an 80s haircuts thread but there’s no way I’m going public with my photos :)

[MusicalSpoons]

Second one was when I was a kid - I was playing barbies and cut their hair, found it fun and cut one of my pigtails off. Happily showed it to my mum then asked her to put it back on.
Cue devastation at the realisation it couldn't be put back on lol.

Aww! That made me genuinely LOL, sorry!

[Lady Stardust]

Oh a fringe (which you guys call bangs) were the worst decision I had ever made. The night before first day of secondary school I had a whim that a fringe would look good - so I got my mum to cut one. Nope. Instant regret! They just don't suit me - the cut itself wasn't terrible but it was pinned back the rest of the school year lol.

Second one was when I was a kid - I was playing barbies and cut their hair, found it fun and cut one of my pigtails off. Happily showed it to my mum then asked her to put it back on.
Cue devastation at the realisation it couldn't be put back on lol.

Oh what timing to try a fringe out! Nightmare :)

And the pigtails...I can just picture it...oh bless your heart.

[squirrrel]

Second one was when I was a kid - I was playing barbies and cut their hair, found it fun and cut one of my pigtails off. Happily showed it to my mum then asked her to put it back on.
Cue devastation at the realisation it couldn't be put back on lol.

I feel so sorry for your younger self on reading this. Of course it doesn’t matter if I cut the whole pigtail off, Mum will put it back on for me later. The shock finding out it doesn’t quite work like that must have been huge.

[Stray_mind]

I had an emotional cut. I just cut off the ends of my pigtail braids. From then on, my hair had to be trimmed to shoulder length to even up the hemline.

[Jas]

I know, and my grandma still has a pic of me in year 7 with a fringe out on display :( !

Ah the pigtails cut was traumatising, needless to say that never happened again!!

Ah stray, I feel your pigtail pain :P

[Viola88]

Following Feye's method, I am a master at cutting my fingers. :o

[hanniejayyy]

i was really bored with my hair and instead of going to the hairdresser or someone with actual experience i chopped off half my hair in a very uneven cut - if my hair wasn’t so wavy it’d be much worse! i’ve been growing this out ever since and i regret it

[sophia_]

My mother used to cut my hair above my chin when I was a kid, and she either didn't know how or didn't care to make it even, lol. So it didn't make a big difference the few times I tried to trim my own bangs when they got to eye level, lol. Since they were already uneven, I would just cut off the parts that were getting in the way.

[Doreen]

When I was 10, I was at APL with blunt bangs. I liked the face-framing layers and decided to cut some on myself... only I didn't know how to do layers and it just ended up being a large chunk off of one side. I couldn't leave the room and face my parents looking like that so I cut that piece to bang length. No one noticed, although later in high school (still had blunt bangs) my friend was trimming my bangs and commented that they were very thick on the left side and looked lopsided. Grew them out soon after that.

[Jo Ann]

I tried to cut my own bangs/fringe once...one side ended up being about an inch shorter than the other...Mom always made it look so darn EASY when she did her own!

May Nana's hairdresser RIP, despite all the bad memories I have of her and her pixie cuts on me... :(

[MoreSky]

I’m a lifelong self trimmer and love doing it. The hardest lesson I learned was that hair on one side of my head is thinner than the other, and grows in a different direction. I have thick hair so the difference is probably not noticeable to others. Apparently this is true for many people, but argh, I didn’t know, so ended up with a somewhat asymmetrical long pixie. That experience taught me haircutting isn’t math and both sides don’t have to be exactly identical to make it work well and look good.

And bangs, eesh. I swear what works well one month doesn’t work the next.

[Strawonaberry]

When I was around 13 (embarassingly old for this lol) I decided to cut bangs on myself, I started but then I suddenly didn't feel like having them anymore, so without a second thought I cut them off at the roots ... needless to say I had to wear headbands for a looong time :whistle:

[Vacurlylady]

Wow! I’m feeling for all of these mishaps. I’ve never tried to cut my own hair. And after reading some threads before I’m like oh I will be cutting my own hair from now on, micro-trimming and S&D. But after reading these I’m thinking maybe I had better not even try! ��

[Jo Ann]

Vacurlylady,

Aim small, trim even less... ;)