Cutting Your Own Bangs is Actually a Cinch

If you can arm yourself with the right tools, it’s pretty easy to avoid the hairdresser every two weeks when your bangs start to cloud your vision. Here’s our guide to getting a salon-worthy bang trim every time:

Tool up

You can’t cut with any old pair of scissors, as much as it can be tempting to start snipping every time you start to see a wayward hair. You’ll need to trim the length off your fringe using specialized cutting shears and for 99 percent of wearers, your bangs will also need to be thinned out and texturized at the ends, so you’ll need to arm yourself with thinning shears as well.

Tweezerman Deluxe Cutting Shears, $40, Amazon

Tweezerman Stainless 2000 Thinning Shears, $20.75, Amazon

Clean 'n' dry

Work with freshly washed hair, and blow dry straight in your usual style until completely dry (strands expand when wet and then will contract once dried, so cutting on damp or wet hair will give you an inaccurate length). Clip the rest of your hair up so you don’t accidentally snip any other part of your style.

Xtava Allure Professional Hair Dryer, $36, Amazon

Never cut straight across

Leave that to the professionals. Find the trimming point with your fingers and hold with one hand. Take your shears and point vertically back up towards your bangs so you are snipping in short, sharp increments. Start at the center, and work your way outwards to one side, then repeat on the other end.

Keep checking

Work slowly and keep stepping back from the mirror to check you are still working at your desired length and the ends are looking straight. If you have thicker hair, it may be best for you to trim in two sections.

Thin out

The purpose of your thinning shears is to blend everything together and keep the line from looking completely blunt (unless that’s that look you are going for). Again, work slowly and keep stepping back to check it’s all coming together.