How To Cut Your Own Hair

Step 1

First off, a good brand to go with is WAHL hair clippers. Which can be found at Walmart, Costco, Bath and Body works as well as many grocery stores. They will vary in price anywhere from $18 to $150. Why $150? becuae your going to get higher quality and usually a more heavy-duty set of clippers. Those ones are what the professional/hair salons will use. Also when looking, I suggest - also - finding yourself a separate, smaller cordless high powered trimmer, to trim those pain in the neck, neck hairs. The clippers for hair do not work as well on the neck and over ear hairs. If those fail, online is always a good route if you can wait.

Step 2

Once you have purchased yourself some cutters, find a spot in your living area with a mirror and that will be easy to clean up afterwards. Remember hair floats everywhere. If vacuuming is of connivence then somewhere in front of a mirror with carpet is great. Otherwise the bathroom is a great spot. I find that the best personally.

Step 3

Remove your shirt or put on something to cover you from hair.

Step 4

Then move to finding a guard length of your liking, the kits usually come with 7 to 8 lengths, and usually go up to an inch.

Step 5

Once you have a good length of what you want your hair to be. place the guard on the blades, turn on the clippers and proceed to cut. If you are one who likes it cut all over the same length, say for example 1/4 an inch is a common length of hair.

Step 6

Then make sure your blade is up for maximum results - start by cutting the side burns into the sides of your head around to the back. The hair will build up on the guard so you will need to tap it off occasionally.

Step 7

From the sides and back of your head gone work your way from the front to back on the top. Really go over the front and top in the back, those hairs are usually the most difficult. I find running my hands through it and dusting the already cut hairs out helps to see if there are any missed hairs.

Step 8

Once you have cut all your hairs, take the smaller - what I call edger- to go over your ears and to clean up the back. The back is a crucial part to the process, most people look at the back of your head - knowing you have a clean haircut. Its a statement to have a well cut line in the back and sides.

Step 9

I use the mirror thats on the wall, and take a secondary mirror like a pocket mirror or moms/girlfriends mirror to see the back of your hair. Facing away from the mirror on the wall and holding the secondary mirror in front of you, you should get a fairly good look at the back. Using a steady hand go down the edge of the hair in the back and clean up the long neck hairs and leave a nice strait line. If there are problems with this, which it is very difficult to do then have a friend do it if accessible.

Step 10

In addition to a buzz cut all over, there is a fade, or having your hair blended. I have come to like this look better, and is how I currently have my hair. I do the same steps as before although I cut the top of my hair first at a longer length. An example could be with scissors or up the longest length the guards will go, making sure of an even cut all over, especially in the front.

Step 11

Then this is where you proceed to the cutting on the sides. I have found two ways that work to get a nice smooth blend. I take a #2 (1/8 inch) and pressing hard on your upper cheek start cutting till about a third of the way up or the whole sideburn, start slowly lifting off your head a little bit and keep slowly fading away from your head. You'll hear the clippers start to cut less and less hair. This usually takes a steady hand or some practice.

Step 12

You'll want to pay attention to where you fade off as you go around. I am usually fairly close to the mirror for this one. When moving to the back it gets tough as you cannot see the hair. I have found that the mirror technique used when edging helps. or I use my other hand that is empty to mark where I faded to, This will only be two or three cuts upward before you can see on the side again. once you've evened out a good fade all around, again edge the ears/burns and back up (EBB).