DIY haircuts now the norm

Salons are closed and many are attempting haircuts and trims by themselves at home

Do-it-yourself haircuts are the rage with the lockdown restricting access to salons. People are taking trims and cuts into their own hands. From maintenance trims to drastic changes, hair transformations are having a moment on social media.

Yogesh Kumar, creative director at Blown says cutting hair looks easier than it is. He doesn’t recommend doing full haircuts to people at home. “Trimming your hair and maintaining the current geometry is something that people might have to do. Especially for men, since in two to three weeks their hair tends to get unruly,” he says.

A basic trimmer is all that’s needed for this. He says it gets trickier the longer one’s hair is. “Women have a time period of 90 to 120 days before they grow out of a particular haircut. So maintaining the style might not be as much of an issue,” he explains. For those who are bogged down by split ends or the like, he recommends one to take their time and slowly weed those ends out. “Don’t attempt to do it with the speed it happens at a salon,” he advises.

A large number of ‘quarancuts’ stem from a need for change rather than a need to keep up one's appearance. Writer Rida Jaleel says her haircut was inspired by a surge of boredom at 3 am. She explains that her hair was getting a little longer than she liked, and when she spotted a pair of scissors on her bedside table, she thought the prospect of a haircut sounded fun.

“I’ve never been someone who placed a lot of importance on hair. Yes, it significantly affects how people look at you but hair is one of the most reliably predictable things, it always grows back no matter what you do to it,” she says.

She now has an unintentionally asymmetrical bob and no regrets. “I didn’t want to attempt to fix it at the risk of chopping off more than I could handle, so I left it. A few days have passed and I’m loving it,” she says.

Rida says it was definitely a decision influenced by the lock down, “I wouldn’t have done it on any other day, but the days of not doing anything caught up to me,” she says.

She had a creative block and wanted to do something that would give her a rush of adrenaline.

Neha Cadabam, consultant psychologist, Cadabams Hospitals, J P Nagar says that there are a lot of people who turn to drastic changes to cope with things. She says, “Changing your hairstyle helps to shift the attention to something else apart from the pandemic.”

She adds that cutting one’s hair is a coping mechanism many turn to as it holds just the right amount of risk. “It feels big as it changes the entire way you look and how other people look at you. While there is a risk of it going wrong, there is also a feeling of accomplishment of doing something you normally wouldn’t do, on your own,” she explains.

Cutting bangs seems to be a popular choice but the results have often been unexpected. “Bangs are one of the most difficult to cut, and cutting them with your kitchen scissors is a bad idea,” Yogesh says.

Messing up a haircut would mean you may have to wait a long time to be able to rectify it, so tread with caution if you reach out for a pair of scissors.