Female Cut with Scissors
Sheila's hair was getting long, looking a bit shaggy and it was driving her crazy so she felt it was time for me to figure out a way to cut her hair. Until now, I've only cut men's and boy's hair with clippers and I knew that wouldn't work for a woman so I had to educate myself a little bit.
I've done a lot of military style haircuts for men but I knew that a woman's head would require a completely different approach. Even though Sheila likes her hair short, I knew I needed to do some research and planning. Clippers would not work here. It was time to figure out how to use scissors, thinning shears and a safety razor while using a comb and my hand as a guide.
We attacked Sheila's head yesterday afternoon. It wasn't until I shot a few "before" photos that I realized that her hair had grown quite long and shaggy. It was definitely time to do something with Sheila's hair.
Let's start with an "after" photo from the front...
Here is before and after at the back...
Before and after, right side...
Before and after, left side...
So, for my first time, ever, doing a woman's hair with only manual shears, it turned out well. This wasn't without a few beginner mistakes, however.
Here are the things I need to correct for next time (if there is a next time):
Which way to position my hands to guide my cuts was a bit perplexing at times. I couldn't figure out if from the top was best, or from the bottom, or front of hand or back of hand. Also, trying to slide my big fingers under Sheila's fine hair was almost impossible without having long nails on the end of my fingers. By the end of the haircut I was beginning to feel better about which direction to do this and how to get my fingers under her hair effectively.
I also wish I could have practiced a few different types of cuts before actually cutting hair on Sheila's head. She ended up being my practice dummy. Having never used scissors before, I needed to figure out how to do point cutting, taper cutting, thinning cuts... and I'm not even sure I'm using the correct terms.
I like the way Sheila's back of her head turned out the best. I like the taper... I like coming to a point at the bottom... that turned out quite well. At mid-height back, I could have taken off a little bit more or thinned slightly. It is a little bulky there. Overall, the back looks good and this is the side I like the most at this point.
The sides... the biggest issue I had with the sides was getting the sideburns right and blending it to the sides. I knew I couldn't or shouldn't block the sideburns like a guy's hair so I opted for coming down on an angle from the top of the ear to a point at the bottom of the sideburn. Where I made my mistake, however, was that I tapered it upward evenly from the bottom and, I think, I should have tapered from back to front, shortest to longest, as well as bottom to top. If I left a bit more length toward the front, it would look softer, I think. I'll have to remember this for next time, if I need to do this again another time.
The top was where I made the biggest mistake. I didn't check to see if Sheila's hair was growing in evenly under all that shaggy hair on top. I quickly learned that it hasn't been!
I started removing length from the top to get it to a manageable level and suddenly all the length on the front was gone... gone completely! She had no long hair in the front but just some very fine short hairs and this area was thinner than I realized when it was covered with the long shaggy hair. Making this problem a bit more complex, the top still needed to go shorter and needed some thinning. So, in the future, I will need to separate the front half of her head to keep toward the front and then just consider the back half as the top of her head. For this haircut, I was thinking that separating it into three parts, front to back, was the way to go. Unfortunately, that took too much off the front. As it is now, that back half of the top of her head should probably be a bit shorter but, after what happened to the front, I was afraid to go any shorter. Again, I'll have to remember this for the next time, if I need to do this again.
Overall, for my first time cutting women's hair and using only scissors, thinning shears and a safety razor, it came out well. If I had another two heads to practice on yesterday, I would have done far better by the third head of hair! Before the next haircut, if necessary, I'll need to make sure to revisit this blog entry to avoid making the same mistakes.
I've done a lot of military style haircuts for men but I knew that a woman's head would require a completely different approach. Even though Sheila likes her hair short, I knew I needed to do some research and planning. Clippers would not work here. It was time to figure out how to use scissors, thinning shears and a safety razor while using a comb and my hand as a guide.
We attacked Sheila's head yesterday afternoon. It wasn't until I shot a few "before" photos that I realized that her hair had grown quite long and shaggy. It was definitely time to do something with Sheila's hair.
Let's start with an "after" photo from the front...
Here is before and after at the back...
Before and after, right side...
Before and after, left side...
So, for my first time, ever, doing a woman's hair with only manual shears, it turned out well. This wasn't without a few beginner mistakes, however.
Here are the things I need to correct for next time (if there is a next time):
Which way to position my hands to guide my cuts was a bit perplexing at times. I couldn't figure out if from the top was best, or from the bottom, or front of hand or back of hand. Also, trying to slide my big fingers under Sheila's fine hair was almost impossible without having long nails on the end of my fingers. By the end of the haircut I was beginning to feel better about which direction to do this and how to get my fingers under her hair effectively.
I also wish I could have practiced a few different types of cuts before actually cutting hair on Sheila's head. She ended up being my practice dummy. Having never used scissors before, I needed to figure out how to do point cutting, taper cutting, thinning cuts... and I'm not even sure I'm using the correct terms.
I like the way Sheila's back of her head turned out the best. I like the taper... I like coming to a point at the bottom... that turned out quite well. At mid-height back, I could have taken off a little bit more or thinned slightly. It is a little bulky there. Overall, the back looks good and this is the side I like the most at this point.
The sides... the biggest issue I had with the sides was getting the sideburns right and blending it to the sides. I knew I couldn't or shouldn't block the sideburns like a guy's hair so I opted for coming down on an angle from the top of the ear to a point at the bottom of the sideburn. Where I made my mistake, however, was that I tapered it upward evenly from the bottom and, I think, I should have tapered from back to front, shortest to longest, as well as bottom to top. If I left a bit more length toward the front, it would look softer, I think. I'll have to remember this for next time, if I need to do this again another time.
The top was where I made the biggest mistake. I didn't check to see if Sheila's hair was growing in evenly under all that shaggy hair on top. I quickly learned that it hasn't been!
I started removing length from the top to get it to a manageable level and suddenly all the length on the front was gone... gone completely! She had no long hair in the front but just some very fine short hairs and this area was thinner than I realized when it was covered with the long shaggy hair. Making this problem a bit more complex, the top still needed to go shorter and needed some thinning. So, in the future, I will need to separate the front half of her head to keep toward the front and then just consider the back half as the top of her head. For this haircut, I was thinking that separating it into three parts, front to back, was the way to go. Unfortunately, that took too much off the front. As it is now, that back half of the top of her head should probably be a bit shorter but, after what happened to the front, I was afraid to go any shorter. Again, I'll have to remember this for the next time, if I need to do this again.
Overall, for my first time cutting women's hair and using only scissors, thinning shears and a safety razor, it came out well. If I had another two heads to practice on yesterday, I would have done far better by the third head of hair! Before the next haircut, if necessary, I'll need to make sure to revisit this blog entry to avoid making the same mistakes.
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