Self trim your very short hair

[yvsa]

I've read that many people here trim their own hair. Often they use the trimming method from Feye:applause. But I'm growing out from a pixie and I would like to do the trimming myself. Are there self-trimmers here who started the self trimming at a very short hairstage? I would really like to hear from you. I don't want to go to the hairdresser because I only need a little trim on the back of my hair. Reduce the mullet just a little bit. The sides of my hair does not need to be trimmed. I've asked my husband but he is scared to make a mistake:p. I would like to do it myself. It would be cool to grow my hair out without gowing to the hairdresser and do little trims myself:cheese:.

[Isadora Lewie]

I used to cut my own hair when I grew out from shaving it off.

It's really tricky, but if you can get two large mirrors and angle them towards each other (one in front of you, one beind) so that you can see the back of your head, it is possible to see what you're doing. It takes a lot of dexterity, and a little practice so maybe give it a go once you've got a lot of mullet going on so that if you end up cutting too much it's not a disaster.

I found that point cutting into the hair is the best way to disguise an uneven cut and it gave lovely texture. However, I do have wurly hair, so it naturally hides any rough or uneven edges. At uni I tried the same technique on a 1a friend and although it wasn't a disaster, it looked pretty choppy and uneven and nowhere near as good. This was in the late nineties though, and i was at art school at the time, so it was pretty cool to look punky...

Unless you don't mind the possibility of it turning out a bit messy, I'd probably find a hairdresser if I were you.

[Dani]

Easily done, my friend. I agree with Isadora Lewie on all points. My hair is pretty much the same type as yours (for years I thought my hair was 2b, but have only realized the past year that it's 1c/2a), and I have a pair of fantastic Arius Eckhert shears that I got at Sally's a long time ago, and they are one of my most prized possessions. :p I haven't had to have them sharpened and they still cut perfectly. I highly recommend them if you want to cut your own hair. I find cutting my own hair very easy and Way too much fun. :D

I cut it to shoulder length, then chin, then into a pixie three years ago, and if I knew then what I know now I'd have some seriously long hair. But as it was, I didn't know how to grow out a pixie at all, and I trimmed it often. For growing out a pixie (if you want to grow it out fast, which, who doesn't? ;)), I really need to tell you how important it is to just let it grow. Yes, the mullet is not so great, but don't trim it to all heck and back and never gain any length for putting up in any way, like I did! And for me that all turned into trimming the back forever and cutting my hair lots for a long time- I finally realized what I had been doing about six months ago and that I still had chin length hair. Now it's finally SL for the first time in forever and I can do braids and pigtails and buns galore! Thank goodness.

My two problems were this: Having great fun cutting short cool styles into my hair, and the other reason I didn't get it long quickly was because I'd never had such short hair before, and the feeling of it was just awful for me- it would itch my neck like crazy, and just generally drive me nuts, so I kept cutting it shorter as it grew so I wouldn't feel those things as much. It was just so hard for me to get used to having any kind of length on my hair again, for some reason. And see, I prolonged all that (repeatedly), which made it much worse than if I'd just grown it out quickly.

Just wanted to talk about this, because I pulled all these hair hijinx and messed up growing my hair out; but it was fun messing it up with my scissors whenever I felt the urge or saw a picture of an awesome cut, and all that has also made me -really- appreciate having longer hair, and how much better I look with it, and I feel like this is the first time ever that I've been actually ready to grow my hair long. I'm all aware of it now, and know that I've got to just chill and have fun with it when I feel like it. There is highlighting damage, but I only need to dust it once or twice a year, and once my hair is actually getting long (apl to bsl to me), then I'll start trimming off the damage more quickly.

All that happy nonsense (hopefully I made some sort of sense (coffee, anyone? :coffee:)), to get on with saying that cutting your own hair is way easier than people think. I've seen people say there's no way they could ever do it, and they're quite right. If you don't believe you can do something, then you won't. There is no can't in my life. :p I can do anything.

I never had two big mirrors to see in for cutting the lovely mullet section of my pixie, but I've always had a bathroom mirror and a little handheld mirror. I would just comb my hair, look in the mirrors and stand straight. Then pick up the small section of hair I wanted to start with and point-cut into it a bit, without looking of course, it's behind my head; then combed it and looked in the little mirror. I'd repeat that and get it done. Point cutting is just cutting straight into the hemline of hair with the tips of the shears; cutting a little bit off at a time, and makes the edges soft and uneven and blended. Perfect technique for bangs too, of course. I recommend Never doing a blunt cut on a mullet. Ever. If you really want to trim off a lot of the mullet (again, not recommended if you want to grow your hair quickly), then you can start with a small blunt cut then do point-cutting into that. So it's easy, even on growing-pixie hair. Just do a little at a time; there's no rush. And growing out all those layers can suck, but it really looks good once you can get it all grown out a bit. I was too obsessed with having perfectly blunt hair, and that is truly dorky when one is in the pixie-shoulder stage. :p Well, for me anyway.

At chin-shoulder and beyond lengths also, it's even easier to trim it, naturally. I've never done Feye's trimming method (though I love Feye :D). What works best for me is just parting my hair down the middle, all the way back, then putting up one side in some way. The half that's down I comb out, turn my head to see it all in the mirror, then just pick up a small section from the "end"- the back, and trim it- a dusting/microtrim is good to begin with. I usually do a blunt cut, but any way you want is fine, really. Then I put that piece back behind my neck (or if you want to be really good, you'll pin that cut section up). then I go to the next little section to trim, which is in the back next to where the first piece was. I trim that and then put it back. Onward, ho! All the way to the front. Comb it out and check if the evenness is to your liking. Done on one side. Put that half of hair up and take down the other side, and do your trimming there. Take everything down, comb it all out and check in the mirror. Trim any little extras you don't want if you missed a little. That's it! And with our hair type, imperfection is the best, imo. This works for me with much longer hair, too. It's fast and fun and easy, also.

I hope this makes some sense and helps you a bit. I need some coffee, but also I totally ramble when I post, so those combined make for a possibly nutsos post. :p Have fun! :D

[HereIGrowAgain]

I just got rid of my mullet tail, and am planning on keeping the neckline short until everything else catches up. Adding a mullet to my Southern accent, here in Iowa... yeah.

Ok, so here's what I did.
1 - Wet hair. Wet. Not damp, especially with our wavy type hair.
2 - Comb straight down in the back.
3 - Pick up one little section, the furthest to one side, and slide your fingers down the length of the hair until the side of your fingers closest to your shoulders reach the ends of the hair length.
4 - Make tiny snips (point cutting) at the hair at the top of your fingers, the side farthest away from your shoulders. This will leave you pinching the hair you just cut off.
5 - Move on to the next tiny section.

If your hair was cut straight, or buzzed all one length, last time, then using this method will assure you of an even neckline. If one finger width is not enough to get rid of the mullet to your liking, then go one more finger length. You can catch any stragglers when you are all done.

Good luck!

[yvsa]

I did it!!! Bye bye mullet.
I've put a pic in the super-shorties thread if you want to see the result. I'm happy with it:). Thanks for the advise you all gave me.

[swivelhop]

ZOIK! I cannot believe how well that turned out. The hairline looks great. Is that still considered pixie length?