5 Steps for Trimming Your Bangin' Bangs at Home

Salons are expensive. Everyone likes getting their head massaged and their hair did, but sometimes your pocketbook doesn't have the means to afford it as often as you may want. It can get especially expensive if you have bangs -- those suckers grow fast and they demand frequent attention!  One easy way to cut your yearly costs at the salon is to trim your bangs yourself.

I've been cutting my own bangs for a while now (5+ years) and it's definitely an excellent skill to have. Here's my technique~ when it comes to cutting my bangs.

1) Set up your station.
There's going to be some motherfucking fallout, so it's best to be prepared. I have found that the best place to cut your bangs is in the bathroom directly in front of a mirror. Lay down some paper towel on the area where the hair will fall. If you have a sink in front of your mirror like me then cover the sink with a couple of pieces of paper towel -- this ensures easy and quick clean up of the hair trimmings for my fellow human sloths who can't be bothered with having to wipe down the sink afterwards.

Buffer your bathroom with some Bounty.

2) Use the proper supplies.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but don't try to cut your bangs with a pair of Fiskars. Precision is important! Purchase a pair of personal beauty care scissors. You can easily find them for as cheap as $6 at Walgreens and they are definitely worth the money. In fact, you can probably buy a pair at Dollar Tree for $1 if you really just can't justify dropping $6 on a pair of scissors.

What are you doing?!! NO.

3) Tame your mane.
This goes for curlyheads and non-curlyheads alike - make sure to brush or comb your bangs out before you begin to cut! If you're like me and your bangs tend to flip out/curl then you need to make sure they're all nice and flat and even before you trim. Otherwise you may end up with some crooked ass fringe. The stakes are high, guys. Some people like to wet their bangs down beforehand, but I personally am against that because I feel like it's harder to achieve the length I want since my hair is curly and the length between dry hair and wet hair is radically different. Unlike sex, you're going to want to do it dry.

I prefer to use a fine toothed comb, but any comblike or brushlike thing will do the job. Make like Ariel and use a fork if you want!

4) Get caught in the middle.
Some people say to start cutting your bangs at one end and then slowly make your way to the other side, but I say fuck that. I have found that it's easiest -- and you get an overall more even cut -- if you start in the middle and work your way out. Start between your eyebrows and...

5) Take it slow.
Don't just go crazy with the scissors and start chopping off chunks. Now you can think of it like sex - foreplay is good and so is taking it inch by inch. However, when cutting hair, you're going to want to take it in even smaller increments -- centimeter by centimeter. You can always cut more hair off, but you can't magically grow your bangs back to where you were before you messed up. Take it slow! Just cut little bit after little bit off until you achieve the length you want!


next week's how-to of sorts: So You Messed Up Your Bangs & Now You Want to Shave Your Head