Do You Dare? How To Cut Your Own Bangs

Bangs are great until they grow out, right?

Problem is all bangs grow out.

So do yours need a trim? As in desperately?

The good news is you got this. As long as you not too terrified to take things into your own hands. Especially when you’ve got these rules to give you the courage to snip away with confidence.

Besides, you took the plunge and despite reservations of coming out of the salon looking like the stunt double for the guys from Dumb and Dumber you went with bangs. And you love love love them.

Still at some point when you have a fringe, probably sooner than you may like, you will need to get it trimmed. Doesn’t matter if you’re talking blunt, side swept or something wispy, a-trimming you will go. Eventually.

But it’s easy to put off. Because even though many stylists will trim your bangs for the price of a tip you still have to get fight traffic to get there to get the snipping done.

So each day you wake up full of good intentions. You make a mental note today is the day to swing by the salon to do the deed.

But once again maybe there’s car pool.

Or the hamster cage needs cleaned.

Or a best friend’s broken heart needs mending.

Forget “me time” with a hectic schedule and demanding job who has time to visit the salon every four weeks or so anyway?

Yet if you are still loving your bangs and lack plans to grow them out anytime soon you need to develop some way to keep them in trim that doesn’t require paying an on staff stylist to pull off.

Yet there’s another thing about bangs no one mentions. It seems like they can go from being their perfectly behaved, brow skimming best to OMG-these bangs- are-constantly-in-my-eyes-and-I-am-going-to-kill-someone-if-something-isn’t-done-about-these-soon mode. This happens without warning. Like almost overnight in some cases?

Leaving you to do battle with them daily as you do your best to keep this annoying flap of hair out of your eyes so you can see. The challenges of styling your overgrown fringe is getting bad enough that you are actually mulling over taking a scissors to your own hair? But who wants to get DIY on the job training with their own ‘do?

Despite all that there’s no need for the mere thought of trimming your own bangs to cause you to break out into a cold sweat. Many pull this off without a hitch. But while most anyone can learn to trim their own bangs, it’s still smart to have them cut professionally the first time. That way you will have a model to follow rather than creating one out of long hair. This makes trimming the overgrowth much much easier.

Unbreakable Rules for Bang Clean Up

Cut Dry
For starters don’t even think of cutting your fringe when wet. Why? Shrinkage. It’s an easy point to overlook. But fact is when hair dries it will shrink some making it too easy to cut too much when working with wet hair. Plus it lays different when wet too. So after washing your mane, give it time to dry thoroughly before going at it with your scissors. Otherwise you may end up with what looks like a badly grown out buzz cut instead of the effortlessly chic bob hairstyle you’ve grown accustomed to seeing in the mirror.

Sharp Shears Please
Also sharp hair shears are a must although some find sharp cuticle scissors work better because being petite and all they are just easier to handle. What won’t work is those junk drawer scissors you use for everything from clipping coupons to prying open the lid to the ketchup. No, those won’t work at all.

One Section At a Time
Using your comb select your bang and only your bang which you want to separate from the rest of your hair. Take care to be precise here so you aren’t cutting other vital parts of your mane which might dramatically disrupt the overall shape of your style.

Vertical Not Horizontal Snips
Now to pull off a salon-caliber snip you want to hold the scissors vertically and cut a series of tiny inverted V’s into each section of hair you are holding between your fingers. That’s right. You’re not going at the strands horizontally cutting them straight across. This risks ending up with a harsh blunt line that just sits there – if you’re lucky enough to cut it straight across to begin with.

Teeny Tiny Snips
Yet don’t get snip happy. That’s the last thing you want to do. Especially if you are new to this. Instead you want to cut no more than a quarter inch at the most. Doing little V snips like this will texturize your bangs. You’ll be left with a fringe that is a freshened up yet looks wispy and soft. Keeping in mind you can always cut more if need be but only time will fix the mess if you cut too much.

Plus you’ll be able to see for the next two weeks without having to constantly brush the hair out of your eyes.

Just in case you skimmed past the important points of keeping your bangs in trim this video shows how to do what we just discussed – for those who prefer to actually watch how to do it.

How to Trim Bangs the Professional Way

Look. We all know it’s simply not practical to think you can head to the salon every time you have overgrown bangs that need to brought back in line.

This DIY solution should work if you follow rules like these and don’t succumb to a bad case of “scissors fright”.

No, it’s not foolproof. What is?

But if you make tiny snips and don’t get overly ambitious with your scissors you too can successfully trim your own bangs. And use the time saved to tend to Hermie the Hamster.

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