Beginning with a Bang(s): A Short Messy Haircut for Winter

Here I go. A new, soon to be tested, rule of thumb of mine is having short hair in the winter and long in the summer. Sound the wrong way around? Well, in winter it's pure misery to have your long just shampooed hair drip all over your shoulders (and I have NO intention of wasting years away drying it) and in summer nothing is easier to deal with the heat than putting long hair up.

So now I'm going to put this to test. It's been years since I've had short hair and I have to shake off never-again resolutions made on bad-hair-with-no-option-of-putting-it-up days to do it. I'm sending a prayer here to the goddess of good haircuts for once (actually a second time) for it to look good on me.


The last time I had a good short haircut (and NOT for the lack of trying) I was two.

aw. wasn't that cute?

After giving some thought to the matter it finally struck me that instead of trying for yet another ill fitting short cut I could try and aim for the cute messy haircut I had then. So that's what I'm going to do.

What you(I) will need:

1. a hair band.
   
2. a ribbon (or shoelace) in a color seen clearly against your hair.
   
3. scotch tape.
   
4. scissors (I have the professional sharp kind. they're probably better for your hair. I imagine a blunt pair is more likely to fray the ends).
   
5. a mirror (recommended: have a stool across the mirror to be comfortable as you cut).
   
6. (a picture as a guideline)
   

Step 1: Preparing a guide for cutting the length
Tape the shoelace to the middle of the hair band.

shoelace to the middle of the band

Step 2: Put the hairband in your hair. Look in the mirror and decide on the length you want. Cut the lace at that length.

deciding on length

Faithful to my cute haircut of two, I'm going for jawline length.

Step 3: Cutting the Length

With the hair band in your hair (NOT pushing it back. it's there as a guide to length), sit across the mirror and guided by the shoelace length, cut the bottom of your hair.

important note: since I have curly hair, which is way shorter when it's dry (it curls up) I cut my hair when it's dry and recommend this for others. This prevents unhappy 'where did all my hair go?!' surprises.

cutting length

in retrospect: I found out that it's nearly impossible to see the lace when getting towards the back. What I did: I used the hair I had already cut (from the sides) as a guide to cutting the back. This lead to me having it slightly longer in the back. I think I am going to enlist my sister to straighten it out.

note: at this stage you can stop and walk away with a nice classic short bob. I was almost tempted, but this leaves me with hair getting into my eyes. So I am forging on.

contemplating stopping

Layering

Looking at my baby picture it looks like I had a mess of two layers there. With the help of the mirror, when I measure the place of the top layer, it comes out on (grownup) me to be at around 3-4 inches (8-10 cm) and the second layer is between that and the bottom.

Step 4: Layering

Top Layer: randomly take small groups of hair all around and cut at around 3-4 inches (8-10 cm) long.

Middle Layer: same thing, only this time cut midway between the top layer and the bottom.

important note: always lift the group of hair you're cutting - you won't cut ears or other hairs by mistake - and cut below, not above, the fingers holding the hair.

top layering

in retrospect: yikes! this was harder than I thought and my hair looks a little chunky. A thought: maybe I should have used the layering technique in my last post instead (starting with that. then the length. then bangs).

Step 5: Baby bangs

Wash your hair and let dry naturally. When nearly dry, while looking in the mirror cut off the hair that falls into your forehead around half an inch from the top (yep, really short).

Originally I had intended to make a straight cut with a crooked lock sticking out just like in my baby picture. Thinking it over, I suspect the picture was taken right after someone had done the cut because curly hair (which I still have) doesn't lie flat like that and would curl up (and look funny) after being washed. That's why I opted for a get-off-my-forehead technique instead. I think that part turned out okay (see below).

again, contemplating my hair with coffee

Conclusion: I'm more or less okay with the length and bangs (cute :-)), though less happy with the layers. I will be grateful to people with know-how on layering giving me advice on this (please do)!


epilogue: a midnight trip to the bathroom reminded me what bad hair days are like (yikes!). I have to put in here that that's the price of having short curly hair and NOT the specific cut. I guess I'll have to have some styling cream on hand till summer. oh well.