As a daughter of a hairdresser, I can count off the times I actually visited a salon on one hand. It was not a bad experience, but I do have to say that I prefer having full control over how I want my hair to look like. It's not that I don't trust in my local hair stylists' skills, I just don't trust their perception of measurements. Now, if you do want to cut your hair at home, here are some tips on how to do it right!
1) Use sharp scissors.
I can't stress this enough. If you use blunt scissors to cut your hair, you'll get split ends. I'd advise you to get a pair of hair shears that you only use on your hair and on nothing else.
2) Know what you're going for before you start.
Do you want a blunt hemline, layers or something completely different? There are a
lot of guides online as to how to do different cuts yourself so I won't go into great detail here as everyone's taste in haircuts is different.
3) Keep the split ends at bay
First things first - you can't repair split ends. That's a myth that is spread to sell expensive products, which is why you'll need to get rid of them sooner or later. Split ends are caused by friction, heat styling or chemically treating your hair.
Here is a graphic that shows you what you're looking for if you're checking for splits.
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Microtrims
You should cut your hair on a somewhat regular basis. Most hair stylists recommend to get a trim every 6-8 weeks. Cutting off a portion of your regrowth, preferably 0.5cm (0.25inches) each month will minimize split ends a lot. This method is great if you don't want to spend too much time trimming your hair. However, if you want to grow your hair out, you'll have to be aware of your own hair growth rate or else you might cut off too much, which will slow down your growth.
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Search and Destroy
With this method, you target split ends and white dots directly by cutting them off one by one. Overall, your hair will grow faster using this method as opposed to microtrimming as you're only cutting single hairs. However, this method is really time consuming if you have loads or very thin hair, like me.
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Twist your hair and cut off everything that pokes out of the twist
I personally don't like this method because I don't find it valid since everyone's hair is different lengths and there will be hair that's poking out of the twist that's perfectly healthy. I do agree that this method works for pointing out split ends, though. Just don't cut off everything that sticks out of the twist!
4) Don't overdo it.
When you cut your hair yourself, go slow. You can always cut off more if you don't like it, but you can't reattach hair that has been cut off!
