Help with Haircut

The picture is not working but with fine hair like that and you want to keep the length then I would suggest doing like a taper down the sides going to the back and layering the back with choppy layers so it blends better than straight cut layering.

 

I like it!!! Good luck!!

 

Oh that would be doable. Better longer than too short! You can always trim it shorter time after time until you are comfortable with the length.

 

The longer hair gets, the thinner it will look. That maniquin head is thicker than a lot of people's hair, so the layers in the front will just not work for most. When you layer the front like that, it removes the bulk from the sides. With the wrong stylist, it will very well look like a long mullet.

Your best bet is to choose a length, wherever the hair is thickest. A good stylist can comb it all back, and see where the thinning is worse, likely towards the bottom 12 inches. Cut that off, lightly layer, nothing heavy or chopped. It needs to be totally blended, if your hair really is fine. Otherwise it will look like it's been weed whacked. Fine hair shows choppy texture as... chopped up looking.

If you want to know where the thickness is leaving off at, braid your hair. Look at the braid and where it starts to become thin. That's where you need to cut it, where the braid goes skinny.

Hair that long has a lot of breakage in it from combing and knots being combed out. Occasionally, you do need to get a good 12-18 inches cut off. Otherwise the end of the braid will be about 25 hairs after years of just 1 inch trims.

It's possible you have thick hair in a small amount. Fineness is based on the individual hair. People can also have a large amount of fine hair, giving the illusion of thick hair. Or they can have a small amount of thick hair, giving the illusion of fine hair. What cut suits you best depends on the make-up of the individual hairs, and then how many of those you have. Most people have between 100,000-140,000 hairs. They're all in various stages of growth, and the longer the hair is, the fewer strands that make it down to the bottom. Hair only grows about a 1/2 inch a month or so (cutting will not make it grow faster, it only makes it look better as it does so), so when you see someone with hair to their toosh, you know at the bottom it's about 4.5 years old if it's coming off the top of their head. That's a lot of damage one can have.

The biggest mistakes you can make with super long hair:

Start an angle at the chin and go down... it will remove all length above the ear, leaving all the length in the back, as if another 12 inches should be cut off the back.

Put layers in it higher than 12 inches from the bottom. It will thin it too much.

Step the layers or chop them in. It needs to be blended and soft unless you have an hour to fix it up with tools and product.

If you're curious about how thin your ends will look after adding layers, take the hair from the top of your ear and go straight around to the other side and clip it up. The hair that remains will be what won't be layered, and will be the ends of the cut. How thin is it? (Unless you have a stylist that layers it down to the bottom, then you'll have some very thin ends.)

The type of layering can add or remove thickness. Whether it is cut "up" or "down" (the angle of the hands when holding the hair to be cut) A "Down" layer will thin the upper area and show the laying while the bottom will retain some thickness, which avoids stringy ends. The "Up" layer, used for shorter hair, will remove the bulk from the bottom but leave it at that top. Ever see bra length hair with a "hunk" of excess in the middle? That's an up layer used wrong. Happens most often on curly hair.

On long hair, you want blended layers cut "down", starting no higher than 12 inches from the bottom. Unless you luck into a stylist that knows how to step AND blend, to allow for shorter layers within the cut that don't look choppy or create a "line".

Play around with your hair to settle on a length. Fold it at different lengths and hide the rest behind your shoulder, to see how short you're willing to go. A good stylist will "show" you the different lengths before taking scissors to it. Don't let them push you into a length you don't want. Some of them get caught up in what should be done versus what the client wants.

 

It seems most stylist cut hair too short, even when you tell them not to. I haven't had my hair cut in somewhere around 5-8 years, and I am fine with how it is now. I may let my sister cut it.... Maybe. She is going to school right now. But there is no way I would let anyone cut 12 inches of my hair off. Good luck with what you decide.