To give myself a Ponytail Haircut?

[ThatOtherPoster]

My lovely hairdresser isn’t free for another month.

My hair is all one length, aside from a fringe. It’s about bra-strap length. I just want some long layers, and shorter round the front.

I have proper scissors. My hair is thick snd wavy. Should I just do it?

YABU - wait for your appointment
YANBU - hack!

Hairdressers train for at least 2 years (more usually) so they know what they're doing! Don't think you're going to get an nice haircut from 5 mins looking on the internet 🙄

Am re-brushing it. I do feel a hair-cutting technique where you have no clue which bit of hair goes where is slightly dangerous.

Ps your hair looks different lengths as the back is pulled forwards 🙄

Brush it into the pony tail, so it's close to your scalp.

Twist it tightly but smoothly and cut an inch off the end. Twist in the opposite direction and do it again- just the sticky out lengths this time. It evens up the cut.

Your hair is wavy so it will be masked.

The hair that's been brushed up and across your scalp will end up the longest. The stuff at the front and edges will be a little shorter. It makes a lovely layered V at the back as a result.

I really like doing this cut for the soft layers, but I do find I need to have a proper hairdresser cut now and again to reduce length. As a one off now and again, it's really good though.

I've been cutting my own hair for a few years now. I can't do the pony tail trick as my hair is too thick for the scissors to cut through, but I put mine into bunches and snip each side. Then I do a little of tidying up and it always looks good (if I do say so myself). My hair is poker straight so it's hard to disguise if it does go wrong. I imagine wavy hair is a lot more forgiving.

I have done it. An inch. 😂 I’ll finish my make up and dry it and report back/start legal proceedings against @Chunkymenrock

I'm supposed to be going out for a walk, but I'm thoroughly invested in this now!

Great stuff! What's this drying about though? It is best to cut it dry! I might do mine in a minute, now I'm all excited!

I reckon you'll be back for another inch off...

I can’t see any difference! Except maybe the ends look a bit worse than they used to 😂 😂

You didn't cut enough off!
When u pulled your hair forward the shortest bits would be the length of your hair
So you could probably have got away with taking about 3" off and still keeping all your length

my daughters have been cutting their own long hair for years.. using the ponytail method, they also do not use scissors they use an electric shaver for a clean cut.. then use scissors to layer gently.. looks fantastic ☺️

I did this and the first time it looked great. It lead me into a false sense of confidence as I thought fuck it I'll take a bit more off. Nope, it looked more like a mullet second time and was a right state, even though I used the exact same technique

Stop right there, OP. Don't be tempted to take any more off. I'm currently trying to grow mines out so the hairdresser will have enough to work with

YANBU but YouTube how to do it properly as just grabbing the ponytail and chopping won't work. You need to angle the ponytail properly and point cut in to texture it.

If you grasp the ponytail and hold it down against your chin, where you cut will be the length the shortest layer at the front hangs to, if you see what I mean. So if you want them to start just below chin length, cut there.

(Just below chin length was an example...you'll no doubt want longer like J.A's. )

My hair is very wavy/curly so I've got away with this a few times, but only for a bit of a trim.

I can’t even see where the hair went from really!

You've done a great job! It looks lovely

Whether that's your natural colour or out of a box it is stunning. And the cut looks great. Do some more unicorn.

Ask him to follow a you tube video. They do work quite well and are a bit more precise.

You have lovely hair OP!

I cut mine a few months back for the first time using the unicorn method. I didn't realise it didn't take any length off the back...and that's what I really wanted. Lots of layers around the front though. It looked fine. There was a bit framing my face on one side that was an inch shorter than the rest, but actually not really noticeable unless I pointed it out to people.

I've been box dying my hair for years and was hoping I could never have to go to the hairdresser's again, but I need to find a way to get the length off the back.

Are you having another go?

Do a bit more unicorning for sure, to get those layers. Go on, you've seen nothing terrible happens! Do it dry, smoothly brush into ponytail on front centre hairline, snip across and then snip upwards into the end with the scissor tips, to soften the blunt edge. Then pull out hair elastic and ta-da!

I cut my own hair most of the time if I want a lot cut off I go to the hairdressers

I section the front bit off twist cut then snip in so not so blunt

Then the rest of my hair pull into high ponytail and cut then snip in

But I have lots of hair and it’s wavy/curly/frizzy so any mistakes can only really be seen once hair is blow dried or combed straight

I nearly always end up putting more layers in my hair after going to the hair dressers they never do them short enough