Between haircuts? Touch up your hair without going to the Salon.

Written by: Vince

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You’re at that awkward stage of hair growth where your hair still looks alright, though, it could look better. However, you really don’t want to spend any money. It’s been a month or so since your last haircut and you run your fingers through your hair. You can feel that your hair isn’t nearly as nice as when it was freshly cut, but it also isn’t an overgrown bush that warrants another visit to the salon. What should you do? Fix it yourself! Thinning and trimming are two basic techniques one can use to keep your hair looking as good as it did when you first got it cut.

First off, we’ll need a couple supplies! Not all of these are necessary beyond the scissors, shears, and mirror, but they all make your job that much easier.

• Comb (For parting, getting cut hair off your head,etc)
• Hair Clips (These help organize your work)
• Thinning Shears (Everyone ought to own a pair of these)
• Scissors (Make sure these are as sharp as can be, dull scissors = split ends)
• Water Spritzer (Pick one up for $1 at Walmart in the travel subsection with all the sample sized shampoos, toothpaste, etc)
• Large Mirror/Adequate space

Next, you’ll want to find yourself in a brightly lit space with as big of a mirror as you can. You may also want a smaller mirror to hold so you can view the back of your head when you try to touch it up.

Trimming

I cannot stress enough the word trimming. You shouldn’t be cutting more than a centimeter or two off.  Trimming is there to help fix up the ends of your hair by getting rid of frayed, split edges or even fix a stray, uneven hair. Any drastic cutting would better be done professionally. I generally reserve trimming for my bangs and sides.

To trim your hair, you ought to first mist your hair with the spritzer. Don’t get it soaking wet, just saturate your hair enough that it kind of clumps together. One thing I like to do is to always have a towel on hand to wipe off any excess water.

Then, part your hair into easy to manage sections with a comb or your fingers. Clip back the part that you currently aren’t working on to keep it from flopping onto what you’re currently trimming. It’s usually best to trim the layers beneath first before the ones on top. If you start trimming the top layers, there’s a possibility that as you work your way down the layers, you may cut more hair than you want because some of the cut hair falls down and gets stuck in the hair below.

As for the actual cutting, you want to take the part of your hair you’re trimming and hold it taut. You’re looking, or rather, feeling the ends of your hair where its uneven, thin, split, or otherwise imperfect. Then, make a a clean snip to trim. Make liberal use of your mirrors so that you end up trimming your hair evenly. Also, always remember the golden rule of any form of hair styling: less is more. It’s far easier to go back and trim some more hair than it is to try and fix a botched, uneven hair cut.

Thinning

Thinning is easier than trimming in my opinion because it offers more room for error. You can “over-thin” your hair and it won’t look nearly as bad if you cut off more than you needed to while trimming. While trimming focused on the ends of your hair, thinning serves the body of your hair. If your hair feels thick and you’re having more trouble than you used to with styling and getting some volume in your style, then trimming is a viable fix.

Again, you’ll want to get your hair wet with the spritzer and get it wet enough. However, instead of making meticulous portions of hair with a comb and climbs, I like to thin my hair more “free-style.” Generally, start with the back of your hair and grab a clump of hair.  Hold the clump with you fingers so its taut and determine where you want to thin. The “teeth” on thinning shears is what gives them their magic. When you cut with them, you won’t make a full cut and they’ll only cut a portion of the hair you snip. Thus, if you grab a long length of hair and use your shears right in the center, half of that length of hair will be cut to a shorter length but half of it will retain its original length. This unevenness in hair length works to create textures and can even improve volume depending on your original hair length and where you thin.

Generally, I like to use my shears at about 1/2 the length of my hair when my hair is shorter, and when my hair is longer I’ll start a little lower. The important thing to remember  when you use your shears is to only make one cut at the same area. For example, thin a clump in the back, then the sides and the top. Grab your comb then and comb out all the stray hair that you’ve thinned. When you’re done, run your fingers through your hair again and feel what spots might need more thinning. If you make several cuts at the same area, you may cut over hair you’ve already cut.

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After trimming and/or thinning, the best way to see how your hair looks is let it dry. Either blow dry gently or let it air dry and then examine it yourself in the mirror. If you remember my tip on making all your cuts as small as possible, your hair shouldn’t look that much different. The difference is more in how it feels. A successful touch-up ought to leave your hair feeling lighter and clean. Give yourself a thumbs up and get styling!

I apologize if this article might have been a little hard to visualize and follow a long but I will hopefully get a demonstration video or two up soon to showcase these techniques so stay tuned!