TRIMMING AND CUTTING NATURAL HAIR

This post is a little shorter than my others! Sorry I’ve been SOOO busy with uni lately but it’s almost end of term *happy dance* so I’ll be fully at your service soon enough lol! Also there will be another feature on Friday so stay tuned!

So we’ve all felt that terrible knot in our stomachs when we sit down in the stylist’s chair and we see him/her whip out a pair of scissors! We’ve all had that terrible experience when we go in for a little trim and come out with like 4 inches missing. The horror!!! 

I do a proper trim 2-3 times a year (on straight hair) and I cut off any horrible ends I see between those times by myself. Now before someone freaks out, this is what has worked for me since I went natural. Because I rarely use heat and I keep my ends moisturised, my ends are pretty healthy so I don’t have to trim that often. If I trim more than that, I’ll end up cutting off perfectly good hair. This is why it’s important to know your hair – if you study and analyse your hair, you’ll know how often you need to trim it. You should check your hair regularly for split/frayed ends to know when to get a trim.

Tips for trimming:

• If you trim your hair by yourself, make sure you buy proper trimming scissors, not just your normal household scissors. Your normal household scissors may not be sharp enough and may fray your ends.
• When you go to the hairdresser, show the stylist how much YOU want to cut off. What you think is one inch is probably different to what your stylist thinks is one inch. Trust, I’ve been there and it’s not fun!
• Tell your stylist how you normally wear your hair so he/she has a better idea of how to cut your hair
• If you decide to cut your own hair, make sure it is fully detangled and take your time so that you do it properly. Also please take the time to learn how to trim it! You don’t want to end up with some jacked up hair because you were trying to experiment!
• If you’re cutting your hair into a specific style, it’s a good idea to take pictures of the style you want so your stylist knows exactly what to do.
• If you usually wear your hair in its curly/kinky state, try to stay away from thinning shears (a special type of scissors that are used to thin the ends of your hair so that when the hair is worn straight, the ends don’t look too thick)