One of the most common questions we get asked is “how can I cut my bangs or fringe with hair scissors?”, and after 2020, more and more people are learning how to cut hair at home.
Rather than book an appointment at the salon for a haircut, we are going to walk you through how to cut your bangs (fringe) at home.
Don’t need to wait any longer as your fringe won’t get shorter until we get cutting!
What Do You Need To Cut Your Bangs Or Fringe
The preparation for your haircut is short and straightforward, to get started you require:
- A pair of sharp hair scissors
- Wet spray to dampen your hair (not soak)
- A comb or brush
- A mirror to cut in front of
A quick note around hair scissors, you should avoid using regular scissors such as kitchen, fabric, paper or craft shears. These may damage your hair, and it looks even worse if you have split ends on your bangs.
7 Step Guide To Cutting Your Own Bangs Or Fringe
Now that you have a pair of sharp scissors, something to lightly spray and dampen your hair, and a comb or brush, let’s get started!
1. Decide How Short You Are Going To Trim Your Bangs
The first step is to decide precisely how short you want to cut your bangs. The rule of thumb is to always cut less than you want so that if you are not satisfied, you can keep cutting it shorter.
You can comb your hair straight down the front of your face so that your bangs sit straight and level. Then use your fingers to decide roughly where to cut.
2. Pull The Rest Of Your Hair Back
Pull the rest of your hair back to avoid any distractions while cutting. You can secure non-fringe hair to the side and to the top. You can use a brush or comb to help isolate non-fringe sections.
After this, you should have your fringe isolated to the front of your hair and ready to cut. If you feel like your side or other hair sections are in the danger zone, then try combing and re-securing those non-fringe sections.
3. Spray Your Hair With Water
You can either spray your hair or simply splash a bit of water onto your fringe. Ensure that you dampen your hair and avoid soaking it.
If you get your fringe too wet, then it will be harder to get a nice clean and even cut. So feel free to dry your hair, the try to dampen your fringe again if it gets too wet.
4. Use Your Fingers To Locate The Cutting Point
With your non-dominant hand, measure your damp fringe with your index and middle fingers by pinching your hair at the top and bringing your fingers downwards until you find the perfect cutting point. Your aim is to rest your fingers above the spot, so you will cut under. Remember, to be conservative and cut a little less than you want.
Once you find that perfect length to start cutting your fringe, you will use your dominant hand to pick up the hair scissors and start cutting.
5. Start Trimming Your Fringe
At this point, you should have your index and middle finger pinching just above the spot on your fringe where you want to cut hair.
Take your hair scissors with your dominant hand, open the blade and slowly start cutting below your fingers.
Remember, you will want to cut in a flat, almost parallel, under your fingers. Calm and steady as you slowly close the scissor blades to cut through your hair. The excess fringe hair should just fall away, but don’t stop cutting until you finish all the way through your bangs.
6. Review And Evaluate Your Bangs
For people wanting their fringe to be an even level, then you need to quickly review by combing you hair straight down and evaluate any fixes that you need to perform.
- On each area of your fringe, pinch your hair with your index and middle finger and start working your way down.
- Suppose you find sections or strands of hair that are too long. In that case, we need to fix this by taking your hair scissors and calmly snipping away at any excess length or unnecessary angles.
- Keep checking for the consistent and even length of your fringe all the way across.
7. Side Swept Bangs
For people looking to cut your fringe, so it sweeps all the way to the side, then the first step is to comb your bangs in that direction.
Tip your head forward slightly, so your fringe will move away from your face. This way you have a little distance for safety.
Take your hair scissors and aim them in the direction that you want you bangs to fall towards. So if I want my fringe to fall to the right side of my face, I will then have my scissors come in from the upper left and aim downward right.
Cut short sections of your fringe with a slight downwards angle. Try to go for half an inch while cutting.
The shorter, the better, so that you can quickly fix them up if there is anything wrong with your fringe.
Once you are happy, you can dry your bangs, push them to the side, and see how they look. If anything stands out, then you can simply repeat step 7, or perform a few necessary touch-ups.
Questions And Answers About Cutting Your Fringe
Question: What if my hair is too long? How can I cut my bangs?
Answer: You can take small sections off. Each time you cut, you can then evaluate and see how they look. Sure, this may take longer, but you can be more confident that any cutting you do to your bangs can be recovered. If you cut too much of your fringe off at once, then the damage takes longer to recover.
Question: My hair is damaged, can I still cut my bangs?
Answer: the healthier and stronger your hair, the easier it is to cut your bangs or fringe. If you are not confident, then you can buy some shampoo and conditioner that helps repair extremely dry or damaged hair. After your hair has recovered, you can then attempt to cut your bangs.
Question: What if I make a mistake while cutting my fringe?
Answer: Most stylists and hairdressers will recommend against cutting your own hair due to how hard it is to fix if something goes wrong. If you cut too much and mess up your fringe, then there isn’t much your hairstylist can do. This is why we recommend you to cut small sections off each time, then review and evaluate, then cut more if you need to. Safer and any damage is repairable.
Question: Is there much maintenance with hair bangs?
Answer: Depending on your hairstyle, having bangs can require more attention than any other part of your hair. Where you might cut your hair at a salon every three to six months, your bangs will demand attention every month! Depending on the type of fringe hairstyle you go for, some styles require less maintenance than others.
Question: How often should I cut my bangs?
Answer: Depending on your type of fringe, most hairstylists will recommend that you cut your bangs ever three to five weeks. Cutting shorter sections will allow you to maintain the same bangs over a longer period of time.
Question: Is It Risky To Cut My Own Fringe?
Answer: Very risky if you are not ready for it, but there are a lot of people who have learnt how to cut their own bangs at home and can maintain their hairstyle better. Avoid cutting while you have extremely dry or frizzy hair, make sure to repair any damage before attempting to cut your own bangs, and always be conservative when cutting your own hair. Cutting too much means the damage is harder to repair.
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