“My mom cut my hair.” Those words, uttered by anyone in sixth grade, were enough to ensure humiliation. Especially if you’re talking about one among those bowl cuts that were so common within the ’80s. Well, my mom did cut my hair a couple of days ago because my usual salon was closed thanks to COVID-19. Now, I’m watching the choppy ends within the mirror, cringing. A guide to DIY Lob Haircut and other Hair Styles
The problem with DIY-ing a haircut even a lob? We had no plan. “Just do what looks right,” I told my mother. Of course, that didn’t end well. If we’d analyzed a touch before and ordered the proper tools. Or maybe followed my stylist’s instructions and purchased a Zoom consultation together with her , maybe I would’ve looked better for the professional call I had afterward .
Sure, you don’t need to get a DIY a lob haircut immediately — but it definitely feels good to possess new hair. Plus, though some states have re-opened salons, several haven’t . And with infections spiking in many of the states that prematurely re-opened. Some are talking about the potential for a second shutdown.
So, if you continue to want to require matters in your own hands, here are five haircuts to undertake yourself. With notes on what hair types each cut works best for. And if you would like to understand your curl type, consult our guide.
What to understand Before you begin
First, inspect the fundamentals on cutting your hair reception before you are doing anything . The bare minimum you would like may be a cutter , a comb, and a few clips. Search for cutting tools which will steer you thru the method with guides and guards. and wish we are saying it? Don’t use your kitchen shears or your kid’s school scissors. They’re not even on the brink of sharp enough for what we’re trying to realize here.
Shears :
Hair-cutting scissors can get expensive, but Brooklyn-based stylist Siobhan Benson recommends a six-inch Japanese steel shears. On sale for $27. they seem to be a good value and can do the work nicely.
Clippers:
If you would like clippers for your cut (and we’ll tell you below if you do), New York-based stylist Anthony Dickey recommends clippers with guides, just like the Wahl Clipper. This comes with four attachment comb cutting guides, oil, a cleaning brush, a red blade guard, and instruction manual .
Razor:
For a feather-styling razor, Benson recommends that you simply make the investment during this $50 piece by Jatai that features a guard to stop nicks.
Clips:
For sectioning hair, Benson says these basic plastic clips will do the trick.
Comb:
For creating parts, Dickey likes the Conair detangling comb.
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The DIY Lob Haircut
Best for hair types: Type 1 (straight), Type 2 (wavy), Type 3 (curly)
The lob may be a flattering look on a spread of faces and at a spread of lengths. And we are going to show you how to DIY a lob haircut on yourself with minimal help. And though it’s been around for a couple of years, it’s stuck around because it’s so versatile. There’s a lob for everybody — even folks with curly hair. This is often a hairstyle best executed if you’ve got someone helping you. Keep it simple by sectioning the hair into just two parts, and don’t expect perfection. Your stylist can always touch this up later, but it’s a less drastic cut which will keep you from “Tank Girling” yourself. If you’ve curly hair, blow-dry your hair straight first before you start , suggests Dickey.
A straight-across lob for a DIY haircut is that the easiest option. Benson advises center-parting the hair and tilting your head down, together with your chin tucked. Next, create two sections in your hair. Pin the highest section, which should be sort of a half-ponytail, up. Then, cut the lower section straight across or point-cut into it. After you’ve finished cutting the lower section, do an equivalent with the upper half-ponytail section.
Stacy Batalla Salva Advice on a DIY Lob Haircut
When you’re doing an A-line lob, Stacy Batalla Salva, owner of KAS studio in L.A. And Las Vegas , says there are a couple of more steps to think about . Have your helper pull all of your hair back, and brush or blow-dry it in order that they can part your hair within the center. When your home stylist cuts, they’re going to imagine a smile — or the semicircle-shaped half a bowl. That’s the road they go to chop . “If you narrow your hair in an upside-down frown or smile, which will offer you a lob that’s a touch bit longer within the front, and that’s super cute,” Batalla Salva says.
When DIY-ing the lob haircut, getting a touch messy is okay, as you’ll fix minor mistakes later. Styling is vital , as your most perfect lob is really blow-dried straight then waved. But you’ll still want to point check the hair as you narrow . Grab a hair from an equivalent place on all sides and meet within the middle, ensuring it’s an equivalent length. an excellent place to check? Right above each ear, pulling to the rear to see .
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The DIY Curtain Haircut
Best for hair types: Type 1 (straight), Type 2 (wavy)
You might remember every babe from a ’90s sitcom or film with this hairstyle. Whether it is Leonardo DiCaprio’s flip or Jared Leto in My So-Called Life, young male heartthrobs were the provenance of the curtain bang. the design has been updated — now it’s less flipped-up and floppy. And more tantalizingly face-framing and wispy, à la Brigitte Bardot. an honest deal of your forehead are going to be covered with this version of the curtain, unlike within the ’90s.
Part of what makes it a curtain is how you select to chop and elegance it. It can have a horny , shaggy, slightly mysterious appeal like Alexa Chung. Or let it frame your face with girlish innocence love it did for Jennifer Garner in 2019. What’s great about it’s that by simply creating framing bangs. You create an entire New Look without committing to a full haircut.
Batalla Salva Advice on DIY Hairstyle
Batalla Salva suggests trying this haircut dry. First, determine what proportion bang you’ll want to make and where you’ll want the edges to fall. Usually, Batalla Salva says, you’ll want to start out one to 2 inches from where your widow’s peak would be. To work out how long the wispy center of your curtain bangs should be, grab your bangs ahead . Comb them evenly, and hold them taut in between your fingers. Pull them down and see where you’d want them to fall.
Especially if you’ve got finer hair, you’ll want to make some width and movement. Start by creating a triangular section of bangs (with the purpose of Triangulum facing up) like this. Determine how far you can cut in (around the highest of the lips may be a good place to start out . Then you’ll always cut more if that’s not short enough for you). Twist the triangular section of hair once (though those with very wavy hair may find that a tightly-twisted coil works better for his or her hair type) then point cut directly below the twist. Facing your shears upward into the ends. Especially if your hair is thick or wavy, you’ll got to thin the middle of your bangs. This is where your center part is, so as to get rid of weight.
Then, using regular shears or texturizing/thinning shears, begin creating the curtain frame for the cut. You’re looking to form an angle that goes down and blends into the remainder of your hair. Cut together with your shears facing down at an angle, starting with alittle , modest angle. Read the following pointers for more on the way to cut face-framing layers.
The Pixie
Best for hair types: Type 1 (straight), Type 2 (wavy), Type 4 (coily)
The pixie is dramatic, gamine, and iconic. Michelle Williams, Lupita Nyong’o, Halle Berry, Audrey Hepburn, and Jean Seberg have worn some version of the design . This cut eliminates most of your hair and puts your face center stage. a pointy contrast to the peek-a-boo curtain cut. The pixie boldly declares you’ve got nothing to cover .
It may seem too hard to perform on a lover or loved one (or even yourself) if it’s your first time styling. But take Benson’s tip: Purchase a feather razor with a guard like this one by Jatai. “Scissors are super sharp then is that the straight-edge razor, but you won’t nick yourself with this,” she says.
If you have already got a pixie, you recognize you would like to chop it when your hair starts getting bushy within the back and hulking round the ears. If you’ve got Type 1 or Type 2 hair, section your head and slide the feather razor right down to your end and nip the ideas by the neck, trimming them. Since your ends aren’t typically getting to be straight like they’re with longer hair. It’s easy to only cut where your pixie is growing out unevenly.
For Type 4s, the pixie is particularly great when you’re for transitioning to natural hair, Dickey says. “The pixie, or tapered cut, is ideal for anyone who has been reception for the last eight weeks and has not had their hair cut. Or for anyone who decided to not relax their hair right before the quarantine,” he says. “It’s usually the fear of the workplace that creates [people] apprehensive about transitioning to natural hair, so now’s the time.” He adds that the heat and humidity of spring and summer are great for growing out natural hair.
If you’ve got longer Type 4 hair and you’re getting a pixie for the primary time, a pair of clippers is that the easiest method to execute the design. So as to urge a smoother cut, you don’t want your hair to be soft when taking the clippers to them. Dickey recommends washing your hair with a sulfate-free shampoo and no conditioner. Then blowing it out with a blow-dryer with a comb attachment. (Dickey recommends the Yellow Bird, Black Bird or Silver Bird models.)
If you’re transitioning from a relaxer, you’ll best see the road of demarcation between your relaxed and natural textures after you shower. Use scissors to urge obviate the relaxed part, then fully blow out the remainder of your hair. So you’ve got an accurate line and may do a precision cut.
[Start with a pair of clippers just like the Wahl Combo Pro Styling Kit, which comes with guide combs in sizes (1/8″-inch 1/4-inch, 3/8-inch, and 1/2-inch) that attach, which help prevent mistakes. Start with a four (a medium length of 1/2-inch from the scalp) or five (a slightly longer cut at 5/8-inch) guide,] clipping round the nape of the neck and therefore the perimeter round the ears. Cruise your clippers up to the rear of your head where it starts to curve, and hack to where your temple is, above your ear to the front. Hack as high as your head begins to curve. Use a mirror to seem at the rear periodically. Deciding whether you would like to maneuver up to a shorter-length guard of three (3/8-inch). Remember: Start with longer guards, as you’ll always go shorter later.
Then, if you’re daring, Dickey recommends beginning the guard and shaping your cut lightly together with your clipper, freehand. Consider shaping your eyebrows, and use that very same delicate, nuanced accuracy. begin any excess, especially pulling your ears right down to clip errant pieces of hair behind them. you’ll even fade your hair with a 1 or a two guide, or line your hair, which Dickey says the Wahl Peanut clippers are great for. “I like using the purpose of the hairline to the ear to form one line, then you’ll do these basic lines, sort of a cross shape as an example ,” he explains. “You’re dragging your clippers over such as you would to draw on an eyebrow, going from the tip of your sideburn area.”
Styling the highest of your tapered cut could involve slicking it back or to the side. Pompadouring it, mohawking it, combing or teasing it forward, or shaping it with the clippers.
“Don’t be too alarmed if you don’t like your pixie [at first] because hair grows a few quarter-inch to half an in. a month,” Dickey says. “In every week or two, no one’s getting to see your skin fade that you simply went too short on.”
The Deep Parallel Point Cut (DPPC)
Best for hair types: Type 1 (straight), Type 2 (wavy)
Fine hair that’s flat and lifeless won’t be your personal jam — that’s OK. you’ll give your hair some texture with this easy, ends-only cut.
If your hair is getting too flat and you’re unsure the way to cut long layers, meet your new friend, The deep parallel point cut. Batalla Salva says the DPPC will offer you tons of movement and flow without messing up your hair trying to chop long layers once you don’t skills to.
To start, section off your hair above your ear into a half-ponytail. Tie rock bottom part below so you are not touching it. Comb and pull one- to two-inch sections of your hair directly over and ahead of you. Pull the hair straight upward then right down to a 90-degree angle together with your face. Then, flip the ends of your hair over and start cutting nearly parallel with the ends, but during a zigzag fashion, which can hack a number of the length. The deep cut means you’ll go a few of inches in, rather than just snipping at the ends.
What’s key? Don’t cut the lower half your hair that you simply tied below your ears. Leave that as is, or merely trim the split ends. That way, you won’t ruin the rear of your hair and therefore the baseline, but instead, just create internal layers.
You won’t need to style your hair tons with this cut, Batalla Salva says, but it takes tons of weight and adds movement and flow without complicating it.
The Heart-Shaped Afro
Best for hair types: Type 3 (curly) and sort 4 (coily)
Rather than trying to realize a perfectly-shaped, rounded Afro reception , Dickey advocates for a heart-shaped style — it’s easier to try to to yourself, and draws attention to your eyes and cheekbones. “The great point a few heart shape is that it’s basically a grown-out tapered cut,” Dickey says.
First, gently blow-dry your hair employing a comb attachment. “When you stretch out your strands, it’s getting to be far more transparent where your split ends are, and you’ll be ready to see 99 percent of what must happen together with your cut,” Dickey says. confirm you set in many leave-in conditioner, because it protects your hair and keeps it soft.
Whether you would like the perimeter of your hair at your jawline (which is perhaps lined up to the rear of your hairline), at rock bottom of your ear, or above your ear.
Create your first guide lines by cutting together with your scissors or clippers. counting on your length, your guide lines could be just above the shoulder, at the nape of the neck, or right at the hairline — but don’t go above the hairline. Once you’ve got your entire back to the specified length cut, you’re ready for the edges . Using your back because the guideline, counting on how long or short you would like your hair, match all sides to the rear .
Then, you would like to match the front to the edges . Comb forward all the hair, from the crown of your head and from ear to ear forward, and snip to your required length. The farther you pull the front of your hair faraway from your face, the longer it’ll remain.
Use your scissors to place some final touches on your nearly-finished product, aiming for your heart shape. Lastly, stir up those Wahl Clippers to wash up your neckline.