With many people still unable to or hesitant about visiting hair salons because of a particular respiratory virus that may be floating in the air, getting your hair done at home is becoming more and more popular. This presents its own set of issues, however, namely a lack of know-how and of specialized equipment.
Here we’re always trying to provide you with as much know-how as possible but if you don’t have some hairstyling tools at home you’ll also need to learn how to work without them. A common question in that regard is how to thin out hair without thinning shears and whether you can even do it?
Well, you most certainly can thin out your hair without thinning scissors, and here are our tips for how to go about it.
How to thin hair without thinning shears?
Thinning scissors or shears are a great tool for thinning out hair because of how one of their blades is ribbed. This makes them very effective at thinning out hair quickly, effectively, and with little to no risk of screwing things up.
You can thin out your hair even without thinning shears, however – it’s just going to take a bit more time and effort. Here are our tips:
- Get a friend or family member to do it. Most of the tips and guides we share here are DIY-oriented. And while you can certainly thin out your hair alone, this is something that’s best done by another person.
- Wash, condition, and comb your hair beforehand. As with most hairstyling procedures, it’s best if your hair is in its best condition before you start.
- Choose whether to do the thinning on wet or dry hair. Wet hair is easier to work with but with dry hair, it’s easier to gauge your progress.
- Choose which thinning method you want. There are three main ways to thin out your hair – notching, point cutting, and slithering.
- Notching is done on shorter hairstyles as it only thins out the tips of the hair. It’s also done at a steeper angle than the other two methods.
- Point cutting thins out the hair deeper than notching but at a smaller angle. It creates a choppy look that’s great for layered cuts. As with notching, it’s only done from the tips of the hair going inward.
- Slithering is ideal for long or wavy hairstyles. It’s much deeper than point cutting and is done at an even smaller angle. It’s also best done from the scalp toward the ends of the hair rather than in the opposite direction like notching and point cutting.
- Stretch a section of the hair perpendicular from the scalp and hold it tightly between your fingers. Start with just a 1-inch stretch of hair, preferably at the lower back of your hair where any mistake won’t be noticeable. Keep in mind that smaller angles thin out less and bigger angles – much more.