Quarantine Haircuts: How Not To Ruin Your Hair During A Coronavirus Crisis

Our hair can play a big role in our overall mood and wellbeing. 

When we feel sad, we cheer ourselves up with a new hairstyle. When we are bored, we change our routine by coloring it differently. When we are quarantined due to a worldwide pandemic—well, it’s just not a good idea to be left unsupervised with a pair of scissors.

If you feel compelled to change your hair during quarantine, you are not alone. I couldn’t help myself either. But after cutting my own hair on a quarantine whim, I can teach you what I’ve learned and help you make the best of it.

Here are some tips on how to cut your own hair:

Step 1: Preparing Your Hair 

For most of my life, I had long hair. Long, light-brown curls parted in the middle were my go-to hairstyle for almost every occasion. I liked it, but there was a part of me that got bored of the repetitiveness. Quarantine gave me the perfect excuse to change it, so I decided to grab my scissors and cut away.

I looked up DIY haircut tutorials on Brad Mondo’s Youtube channel. As if fate was signaling me to keep going, I noticed that the hairstylist and brand owner from New York had uploaded the perfect video just a few hours earlier. 

Before starting, I washed my hair and straightened it. Hairdressers usually cut your hair when it’s wet to straighten out knots and curls to produce an even cut. Also, make sure your hair is brushed and untangled. 

Step 2: Sectioning and Tightening 

The second step is separating your hair into four sections—part your hair in half, and then part each individual section in half as well. The second part is the trickiest, but you can do it easily by finding the apex of your head—that is, its highest point—and running a comb from there to right behind your ear. 

Then use hair ties to mark your desired hair length. The trick is to let your hair fall naturally and tighten it enough so it stays in place. If you lift the hair before putting the hair tie, you’ll cut the top of your hair shorter than the back. If you don’t tighten it enough, the hair tie will move and you’ll lose your guide. 

Make sure that all the hair ties are placed at the same length in each section. If you do this correctly, you should end with a symmetrical cut. Tightening the front sections was easy, but my sister had to help me with the back to make sure they were done correctly.

Step 3: Cutting

Once your hair is separated and your hair-tie guides are in place, it’s time to cut. Use the sharpest scissors you can find to make this easier. The idea is to cut as close to the hair tie as possible so that all sections are cut at the same length. Cut one section at a time.

The best technique to use is point cutting, since it’s almost impossible to give yourself a blunt and sharp haircut that ends up looking symmetrical. Point cutting is done by angling the scissors diagonally and snipping small pieces of hair at a time. You’ll have to cut, cut, cut throughout each section to give the ends of your hair a soft, texturized and blended effect. 

Cutting your hair can be messy and tiring. To minimize this, I recommend grabbing a selected section of hair with your free hand and cutting straight across about an inch below the hair tie. You’ll have most of your hair in your hand, which you can throw away easily to avoid a mess. It’ll also be easier to point cut if you’re closer to the hair tie, which will make your arm less tired.

After all the sections are cut, remove the hair ties and see how you did. Point cut any longer chunks of hair to make it symmetrical. You might want to ask someone to help you with cutting the back of your hair. And that’s it—you have successfully cut your own hair. 

I cut about eight inches of my hair—I love my new hair style and might keep cutting it myself even after quarantine is over.

While I can’t guarantee that Brad Mondo will be proud of me, at least I won’t be appearing in one of his Hairdresser Reacts to DIY haircut fail videos.