How To Trim Thin Hair At Home

Now that salon haircut appointments are indefinitely postponed due to the coronavirus, your hair may look fluffier, shaggier, or feel heavier than yous prefer. Without knowing when y'all can next plop into a hairdresser's chair, yous demand the right tools and tips to get your pilus looking sharper, fifty-fifty if the only people who'll see you are over Facetime video. We spoke with Marina Melnikova, pilus stylist and owner of Boston-based salon Zenarose, to bring you expert at-abode haircutting advice to have you looking tidy (and reduce the risk you'll give up and just fizz your whole head).

A photo of a set of hair cutting tools. — Credit: Getty Images / Alexander_Volkov

You don't need trained easily to clean upwards your hair at home, simply you lot do demand the proper tools if y'all want to achieve the best results possible. "I find that whenever people try to cut their own pilus, they grab regular scissors and that would exist your number one mistake," Melnikova says. Instead of pair of scissors, Melnikova recommends using a cablegram or trimmer and a pair of thinning shears.

Thinning shears resemble regular pair of scissors at first glance, but the superlative blade looks like a rummage, with sharp blades at the point of each tine. You can cut into your hair with them, just instead of making a edgeless cut, they will only remove some of the pilus—the strands that go between the comb tines volition be spared. In this manner, you can remove "mass" from your hair without snipping it all off in ane cruel dive. For a quality pair of shears you lot can use for years to come up, Melnikova suggests that you lot'll spend between $30 and $90—a large range, merely reflective of what reputable places like Sally Beauty Supply sells. To be a little less spendy, the ULG Pilus Thinning Scissors have over 1,000 rave reviews on Amazon, are stainless steel, and thin the hair with a "abrupt razor edge that won't damage or cause dissever ends."

If you don't already accept an electric trimmer, we recommend the Wahl Lithium Ion+ Stainless Steel Grooming Kit, which has a cordless 1.5-inch broad trimmer and 12 blade guards—or plastic attachments that prevent the hair from getting as close to the cutting blades—for clipping pilus to a variety of lengths. While it's designed for beards, this is sufficient for what yous're about to exercise. A more beginner-friendly option is the Philips Norelco Bodygroom 7000, a personal favorite of Reviewed's editor-in-main Dave Kender. The trimmer comes with 5 adjustable lengths—less overwhelming than the Wahl'due south 12—and can be used cordless for fourscore minutes.

Get the ULG Hair Thinning Scissors Cut Teeth Shears on Amazon for $23.99
Get the Wahl Lithium Ion+ Stainless Steel Grooming Kit at Target for $59.99
Go the Philips Norelco Bodygroom 7000 on Amazon for $69.95

Pace 2: Clean up the hairline and sideburns

A photo of a man trimming his sideburns. — Credit: Getty Images / Marccophoto

The primal to cut your hair without snipper's remorse is focusing on the shape of your original haircut and only getting rid of extraneous pilus that has grown exterior the lines since you last saw your hairdresser. "The whole point with the men'southward haircuts is, 'don't actually try to give yourself a haircut,'" Melnikova says. "Just clean upwardly what'southward there."

If your hair is getting long around your sideburns, around the ears, and along the neckline, take your trimmer to dry hair—never moisture, as fifty-fifty straight hair shrinks upwards and will look shorter in one case it dries. A quick tutorial on how trimmers work, for the uninitiated: The device is designed to be used somewhat like a razor—you lot approach cutting hair by placing the apartment side of the trimmer caput flush to the skin, and moving the blades toward and through the hair. Without a guard in place, y'all will as well get a very close-to-the-skin effect, meaning you're basically shaving hair off. Outset with 1 of the larger attachments, and even maybe give it a run on your leg or arm hair, until y'all understand the mechanics.

You can even cut the hair over the grade of a couple of days, washing and styling it in between to come across if you've trimmed plenty.

Once you get the knack and tin can see the effects, get at your sideburns showtime, with an zipper that's only slightly shorter than the hair length that's at that place. Go slowly, considering y'all don't desire to accept off too much and create a visual "pace" from sideburn to the balance of your hair. You tin likewise employ the trimmer bract with no attachment to shorten sideburns that take grown too far down your face up (you lot may find that flipping the trimmer over, then the apartment side is facing away from your face, volition requite you a cleaner line at the bottom of a sideburn, or forth the neckline)—only recall, no baby-sit means you're effectively shaving hair off at the skin.

Take your time with this process and lean on the side of keeping the hair long to avoid changing the shape and hairline your stylist has created for you. Only trim what you tin can run into—if you don't have someone in your household willing to tackle your neck for y'all, you may prefer to get out information technology exist (cutting your own hair at the back of your head using a mirror is a whole 'nother level).

Step iii: Shape the meridian and sides of the hair

A photo of a man using thinning shears on his hair. — Credit: ULG

Once you've cleaned up the hairline, you tin can move onto thinning out parts of your pilus that look poofy or feel heavy. The thinning shears will do simply that—thin out rather than lop off hair—because equally you scissor the strands between the 2 blades, some volition fall between the tines of the comb blade and therefore not be cut. You can go at a section with multiple "snips" to remove more than hair, and fifty-fifty shorten the overall length of your hair—but doing this with thinning shears rather than regular scissors will brand for a softer effect, considering with each closing of the shears, the private hairs are cut at slightly unlike lengths.

To first, hold dry hair perpendicularly out from the side of your caput with the fingers of your nondominant paw (but do not pull it taut), and snip with the shears in your dominant paw, close to the ends of the pilus. Accept off a petty at a fourth dimension, and experiment with the bending at which you hold the pilus you plan to cut. Become slowly, and let the hair fall downward later each snip or two, then y'all can regard the effects of your work. (You lot can fifty-fifty cut the hair over the course of a couple of days, washing and styling information technology in between to see if y'all've trimmed plenty.) Depending on your pilus length, yous may opt to utilise the shears without the second hand guiding yous, especially as you get the hang of it. "Over again, using the shape that's already at that place and only kind of cleaning it up and making it more than manageable should requite you an extra couple of weeks," Melnikova says. "That'south going to prepare your haircut for your hair stylist."

The product experts at Reviewed have all your shopping needs covered. Follow Reviewed on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the latest deals, product reviews, and more.

Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.