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If you must!
Is there a greater example of a frazzled state of mind than a woman on the verge of cutting her own hair? Well, maybe a woman on the verge of bleaching her own hair. It’s that old, on-screen trope – think Hannah Horvath in Girls, Sally Draper in Mad Men. On-screen, we are cutting our own hair as a sign of great, inner psychological turmoil, or we are about to embark on a new journey in life (Amy Dunne in Gone Girl, June in The Handmaid’s Tale).
So is it any wonder, with so much change and fear around us that the DIY haircut is trending on social media?
“Oh my,” says David Cashman, hairdresser extraordinaire with a client list that includes Millie Mackintosh, Angela Scanlon, Pippa O’Connor and Laura Whitmore. “It is totally a sign of a frenzied state with too much time on your hands if you’re deciding to do this.”
Let me play devil’s advocate for you. On the one hand, no one except your family, partner, supermarket staff and the cat is going to see you. We all have bad hair at the moment. Stick a hair mask in and wait for the day when your hairdresser will be awaiting you with open arms and the professional tools and skill required to give you your great hair back. Even a small trim can go terribly wrong. It will be much easier for your hairdresser to trim your long fringe than fix your bad fringe. Do you want to be like Pink, who got drunk and cut a lopsided chunk out of the side of her head?
On the other hand though… isn’t now a really good to experiment? If it’s really bad… it’ll grow back, right? There are a few months for it to grow back. No one except your family, partner, supermarket staff and the cat is going to see you.
You know all this. You’ve had this same argument in your head. For some of us, it is not a case of if we will cut our own fringe – but a case of when.
Feathered fringes at Dries Van Noten
One more caution before we go in: “My advice is to seriously think about this before picking up the kitchen scissors in a state of boredom,” says David.
Okay, have you seriously thought about it? Let’s do this.
“Section your hair into a small triangle shape and make sure the section is clean and the same width on either side,” says David. “Comb your hair down towards your nose, and take your first snip.”
“Remember: start off with cutting a small amount of hair and see where it sits. Repeat if you would like it shorter. Do not twist the hair and cut it thinking this will give you a fringe! This will only bring tears – I promise!”
“If you are trimming your fringe from when your stylist cut it, take less off before heading into Edward Scissorhands vibe, cutting the hair straight across will give a more blunt feel to the fringe, but by using the tip of the scissors to chip into the line, this will soften the look.”
A final caution: “This is not something I’d highly recommend and please don’t blame me if it goes wrong! I am happy to give any advice to any of you – slip into my DMs over at @cashmandjmc.”
Backstage photography by Jason Lloyd Evans.