How To Point Cut Bangs Without Regret Or Tears

Bangs getting a little wild and crazy but no time to run to the salon for a quick touchup?

Does the thought of trimming your fringe yourself scare the life outta you?

Maybe since you can’t cut a straight line on a piece of paper you feel you can’t possibly trim your own fringe?

Good news! This is where point cutting comes in. It’s supposed to be perfectly imperfect making it THE option for those looking to trim their bangs themselves without messing it up.

So when it comes to how to trim your bangs at home here’s what we’re going to explore:

Using Point Cutting For Trimming Bangs

• So What Is Point Cutting And Why Bother?
• If You Must Trim Use Proper Scissors
• How To Point Cut Bangs At Home Step By Step
• WATCH: Trimming Zooey Deschanel Bangs By Point Cutting

So What Is Point Cutting And Why Bother?

It’s a basic hair cutting technique where you hold the scissors vertically (straight up and down) in relation to your hair.

You then go up and into the strands rather than cutting across them. The idea is to snip out bits of hair with the points of your shears. That you you essentially limit the amount of hair any one snip is going to remove. Making it almost fool proof.

This leaves you with a nice blended affect rather than a blunt line – which admittedly can be hard to get straight.

When done you end up with a shorter fringe. That has less bulk, less weight with feathered ends which softens your overall look.

Point cutting typically avoids leaving you stuck with a too short shearing that can’t be fixed.

Pro Tip: You need to be constantly aware of where the tip of the scissors are in relation to your fingers if you don’t want to cut yourself.

This is a great way to clear out the dead ends on those beloved bangs. While getting them out of your eyes and returning them to their former glory.

And for quick point cutting refresher why not check out our recent article that covers how to point cut your own hair? It shares four must know techniques that can make you a whiz at this in no time.

Okay so while there is a degree of risk when cutting your own bangs one thing can make all the difference. That is …

If You Must Trim Use Proper Scissors

Can’t overstate the importance of using the proper scissors. Only use super sharp ones designed for cutting hair. Those and those alone are the best scissors for cutting bangs, period.

Grabbing any ole shears from the junk drawer or out of your kid’s school bag ain’t gonna cut it, pun intended.

Here’s why. Dull scissors tend to bend your hair before slicing anything off. That can lead to uneven results – at best. Or something that looks like a beaver gnawed it off at worst. So for anything close to salon results you really need sharp hair shears.

Ideally for point cutting you want ones with a nice thin tip.

Oh and don’t use them for anything but cutting hair.

Now we cover the ins and outs of the best hair cutting scissors. Collecting pretty much everything you need to know in one place. So if you’re in the market for a decent pair of hair shears that’s where you want to start.

Alright so what’s the process? This graphic hits the highlights of bangs point cutting before we get into the details.

How To Point Cut Bangs At Home Step By Step

Here’s a beginner friendly rough guide to trimming bangs using point cutting. Or the tips you need to do this right.

Step 1) START WITH DRY HAIR as you never ever ever want to trim bangs wet yourself. For best results it’s also a good idea to work on freshly washed, dried and styled bangs.

Step 2) SEPARATE OUT THE FRINGE by deciding what hair is fringe and what is not.

Step 3) WORK SMALL SECTIONS so as to catch mistakes early and keep the length consistent.

Pro Tip: Most find point cutting is more forgiving when working with smaller sections. For sure more so than whacking straight across.

Step 4) USE A RELAXED HOLD without putting a lot of tension on the fringe. Too much tension risks the hair springing up when cut leaving you wondering where the length went.

Pro Tip: Also try to cut the fringe at zero or minimal elevation off your forehead. This keeps you from taking your fringe out of its comfort zone where it naturally lays. If you do that unpredictable results can follow.

Step 5) MAKE THE FIRST SNIPS COUNT because the first few cuts/snips are definitely the most crucial. Get off on the wrong foot and the odds of ending up with bangs that are too short grows by a lot.

Step 6) POINT CUT TO LENGTH cutting into the selected section of hair not across it. Although if it’s been a while you can rough cut across then fine tune by point cutting.

Pro Tip: This section wants to be no more than half an inch wide.

Step 7) CREATE A LENGTH GUIDE in the middle with your half inch wide section of fringe. That will be your guide for how much to cut for the rest.

This clip delivers several important little tips in about 60 seconds. While showing how to do the length guide thing.

From there work to the edges of each side.

Pro Tip: Using your eyebrows as length guide is often a good idea.

Step 8) EXPAND OUTWARD from the center first to one side then the other. Do so by grabbing another section of hair on one side including some of the guide. Comb through. Snip to length.

Pro Tip: “Chip” all the hair to the guide’s length on one side before turning your attention to the other.

To soften your fringe a bit more you can always do some point cutting of the very ends of your hair. You may know this as dusting. If you want to know how to dust your hair may I suggest you click that link to get the latest thinking on doing that.

Step 9) DO NOT BE IN A RUSH. Taking things slow now can save tears later. It’s better to stop and check your progress frequently along the way than to boldly keep cutting and praying it all works out in the end.

So it’s always a good idea to stop and evaluate where things stand and adjust. Cut a little and check it. Cut a little more and check it again to see if you’re still on course.

Even if you have to revisit the cut the next day and snip a bit more that beats living with a too short fringe for a a couple of weeks or so.

The big drawback to this is approach is it takes longer than making a dramatic horizontal cut and hoping it’s straight.

The big advantage is you have more control. Plus it’s nowhere as scary as making a massive horizontal cut where odds are good of making a mistake.

Step 10) FLUFF your fringe with your fingers to loosen things up and encourage it to fall as it wants to naturally.

WATCH: Trimming Zooey Deschanel Style Curtain Bangs By Point Cutting

This is a very detailed step by step explainer video of what she does to trim her overgrown fringe. The key point is to go slow. No need for haste.

Here’s her routine in a nutshell by timestamp

• psn 1:53 wash and dry your hair
• psn 2:10 break out all the hair that belongs to your fringe
• psn 2:55 Tie back the rest of your mane with a hair tie
• psn 3:20 Break out the small triangle of hair that makes up the middle of your bangs
• psn 5:00 Start point cutting that one inch wide section using your eyebrows as the length guide
• psn 6:40 Cut, stop and assess the length
• psn 9:15 Release the remaining hair for your bangs
• psn 9:30 Use what you cut as a length guide and trim up the hair on each side
• psn 10:25 With this style of fringe you’re going for a swoop or arch on the sides
• psn 12:20 Stop and assess the length – time further as necessary

Now after reading and watching the clips you should not be afraid to pick up a pair of hair scissors and do some serious bangs snipping, right?

For more help taking your beauty routine to a whole new level be sure to follow our hair tips, tricks, hacks board on Pinterest. Perfect if all you really want is that always elusive perfect hair day.