That (Second) Time I Cut My Own Hair...

It's been two whole years since the last time I donated my hair. Honestly I can't believe it has been two years already. I pretty much didn't cut my hair in the interim because I was planning on donating it again. I probably would have done it sometime in the winter-ish because that's when the length started to get annoying, but it made more sense to wait until it was warmer and also so that I would have some extra length after the butchering. I really love having long hair so it hurts every time I donate but I know it's a really good thing to do so I suck it up and do it. 

And actually since finding Beautiful Lengths (alternative to Locks of Love) which only requires an 8" donation instead of 10", it's less soul crushing to cut all my hair off. As you will see, I ended up with my hair still being pretty long even tho I cut about 9" (allowing for the bands) from all my layers. 

The reason I did it myself? I have a lot of layers. And if I just banded it at 8" and cut, most of my hair would be too short to be useful. And even after a not-so-successful self-hair-cutting last time, I came up with a better plan for a good result, and tried it again.

Oh and sadly I somehow lost my "before" picture. I apparently deleted it by accident which really did make me sad because I love to see the change but nothing I can do about that. So instead of using really good before-and-after photos to put side-by-side, I found two random pictures that best showed my hair:

So even tho it is still pretty long and doesn't look like anything significant happened, it did. But not feeling tramuatized at least. Also the method I used this time worked out much better. The only touch up I did was I took about 1/2" off the very bottom and did some face framing. No need for a salon! :D

How I did it:

1) I collected my supplies: a ruler that is already marked at 8" from the last time I did this, scissors, and hair thingies.

2) I banded my hair in sections over the top of my head and moved the bands up to the 8" mark on the ruler.

3) I decided it was best to have all the sections tied up first and then start cutting from the bottom section. I did do just one side at a time tho because I felt like that would work out okay.

 4) First cut!

 5) I went a little longer with this one because it got really thin at the end.

 6) Another

 7) And another!

8) Check to see if it looks terrible. It doesn't (!!!)

 9) And the top section.

10) Not bad, not bad. A professional would probably still be better for for the ease of what I was trying to accomplish, this is way easier.

11) I did the other side, only two sections due to my side-part, didn't take pictures.

12) Look at all that hair.

I honestly think it came out pretty decently. I can't see the back at all. Didn't think to check in a mirror. But after showering and checking the layers in a few sections it over all looked okay to me. Layers start a bit shorter than I'd like, but I was able to cut a full 8" off all my hair so I'm pretty happy about it. 

I do not recommend trying this at home, but if you do:

1) Make sure to move the bands to the 8" mark before cutting!!!. I banded the first 4 sections into sections before making the adjustment and almost cut the bottom one wherever it was. That would have been very upsetting!

2) Make sure you are pulling your hair straight up over your head so that it won't get cut lopsided.

3) Standing on your tip-toes will not help you reach the end of your hair with the ruler. Yeah.