Do you cut your own hair? Any tips?

In the interest of saving money I've been thinking about cutting my own hair since I usually just get a simple cut at the barber anyways. But I'm pretty clueless on this stuff. Is there much of a difference between kits? How do I do the back? Any advice appreciated!

I have done it a few times. I bought some kit on Amazon and it works fine. Doing the back is probably the hardest. I've used two mirrors before to see it. But it depends what kinda thing you're going for. If you're doing a Vinny you could probably handle it without seeing what you're doing. Maybe for cropping the back it would still be helpful.

I have been cutting my hair for about a decade now. I use a Wahl clipper set I bought from Target or something. Doing the back of your head is a challenge. I use a hand held mirror while standing with my back to my bathroom mirror and I found that to be the most effective way to see the back of my head, so I'm using the mirror to look at the larger mirror that the back of my head is facing. I wouldn't recommend standing on a towel or something to catch the hair that falls- you just end up with a towel covered in hair. Invest in a broom and just sweep up, assuming your bathroom isn't carpeted or something. After you cut your hair, take a shower and then check your hair in front of a mirror. I like to take my hands and kind of pull at my hair from two different areas just to check that it's evenly trimmed. I find it easy to miss spots around the edges of the top and sides of my head. In short, if you think you've got all the hair trimmed, go around another couple times to make sure. Additionally, don't forget to use scissors to trim around your ears or else you look like some kind of Padawan.

I cut my own hair all the time. The hardest part is definitely the neck. However, if you're using hair clippers its pretty hard to mess up the front if youre using the same guard all the way, it's pretty hard to mess that part up. As far as the back goes I usually try to get someone to just do that part for me. I dont have any way to set up mirrors in my apartment so if I dont have anyone near that can do it for me I will put on a baseball cap far back on my head and use that as a guard for sorts for my neck line. Then I just take pictures of the back of my head to see if it looks fine or not. This an extremely archaic way to do this but if you got no other options, it works.

I bought a low-to-midrange kit at my local department store for about $35 USD. I haven't paid for a haircut in, oh, fifteen years. This is what I do every time:

1. Get yourself a clipper with guards of different depths, a comb, a smallish mirror, a wall mirror, and a razor.
2. Wash your hair and towel dry. Damp hair will stick together making cleanup easier, and the added water weight will keep it from drifting away from the blades.
3. Get neked.
4. Look at the direction your hair naturally falls because of your crown (hair growth spiral). Trace an invisible line from the base of your nostril through your eye's pupil. E.g., if your crown goes anti-clockwise, trace from the right base of your nose through your right pupil. The point at which it divides your hair is the traditional parting line. Don't feel like you have to stick with that; if your face is round, move further up. If it's square, move further down the side.
5. Figure out how long you want the top to be. When I do a full-on haircut, that's the longest that came in my kit, which is 1 inch (25 mm). I'll step down from there, to 3/4 inch (19 mm); that'll be the top of the side.
6. Comb everything above the part firmly toward the other side of your head. Give yourself a really absurd combover. If you bought a clipper kit you probably have clips you can use to hold it down.
7. Use your non-dominant hand to keep everything above the part tightly down so it can't creep up into the blades. With your dominant hand, run the clipper from bottom to top, starting at the cheek and running straight up past the hair part. Do this all the way, against the grain, around to behind your ear, stopping before you get to the back of your head. Do multiple passes. You WILL catch uncut hair after three and four runs over the same spot.
8. Next comes the second gradient stage. For me, that's the 1/2 inch (13 mm) guard. Again, run bottom to top, but stop about two-thirds of the way to the hair's parting. Multiple runs, don't spare any cowards. You can kind of "drift" upwards at the front edge of your hairline, but it'll be fine if you don't.
9. Swap out again for a shorter size, and I'll use the 3/8 inch (10 mm), or 1/4 inch (6 mm) if I'm feeling gutsy. Repeat step 8 but go about a third of the way.
10. Figure out how far up your head your part is. Use a sewing measuring tape, a piece of cut string, whatever. Part your hair on the other side of your head and do steps 6-9 for that side.
11. At this point you should look like an idiot.
12. Grab your small mirror. Hopefully you have something you can hang or brace it on, or better yet it's on a swing arm. Place it so you can see the back of your head in the mirror, reflected in the other mirror. I use the wall mirror to reflect my head and use the hand mirror to get that image into my eyeballs. One way or another, get so you can see the back of your head.
13. Trace the line of your top part around the back of your head. (I'll actually drop down about 1/2 inch as I do this, because I have two crowns.) Comb everything above that line forward toward the front of your head. With your non-dominant hand either holding your top hair down or steadying the mirror, do for the back what you did for the sides. Since the hair at the crown tends to spring outward, I'll reach the parting line and almost flick outward/go straight up instead of following my head's curve.
14. Gradient the back just as you did the sides. The back is the trickiest part, so when in doubt cut long.
15. Remember that length you picked out for the top? That guard sat on the bench, watching all the smaller, weaker guards get picked. Well, now it's that guard's turn. And it may be bigger and dumber than the others, but that's OK. Because now is its time to be merciless.
16. Since the sides are already shorter than that guard, give yourself a buzz cut. Cut forwards, backwards, and from each side. Spike your hair and go over it again. Again, multiple passes. If you're feeling fancy, make sure your hair is good and damp and try this: run your hand across your head, making your hair stand up. Your clippers will follow just after, cutting the hair before it has a chance to collapse. If you want it longer in the front, come in kind of high and drop down as you get towards the back.
17. Take your razor and a mirror. This is the time when it's really, really good to have both hands free. Fold your ear down and use the razor, and tiny scissors if you have them, to clean up the edge of the hair around the ear. You don't want a giant bald spot, but you don't want the edge of the hair to brush the top of your ear either. Or maybe you do, I don't know you from Adam.
18. Step 18 is just to say that this is tricky and I screw it up nearly every time. It fixes itself in two or three days. And when people see the side of your head, their brain superimposes your facial features over it, so the profile is actually really hard to notice anyway.
19. Take your razor and the small mirror, and again figure out how to see the back of your own head. Comb the hair from your back parting to your neck straight down, decide whether you want the hair to be cut flat across the bottom or curved, and go to town. I nick off a sliver at a time, keeping it as even as I can. Remember to straighten up from time to time, because your hairline will change drastically as you're hunched over the mirrors. Get an eyeful and resume, and take your time.
20. Shake off outside if you can. Then shampoo at least twice.

I'll guessing you've gotten several great responses in the half hour I spent writing this, but I'll be hanged if I'm going to let this disaster go to waste...

I just throw on a #1 or #2 guard and go to town on my head until it's all even.

Clippers with a pivoting head makes things much easier, so you can cut the back with your hand in a natural position.

Heh, i still ask my mom to do it, and im 26. She was a barber for a while so thats my excuse xD

I've been cutting my own hair for like 20 years now. The thing to remember is that it'll grow back, so don't worry too much about screwing something up. Have a hand mirror so you can see the back of your head, and then it still helps if you have somebody (spouse, roommate, sibling, etc) to check for any spots you might have missed. You'll get the hang of it, and you'll save a ton of money.

did it once very recently, wasn't terrible. i think i'll just use the longest guard on my razor next time and do it all evenly to make things simple-ish. i think if i tried to get any fancier with it it would look ten times more horrible and i'd end up shaving it everywhere evenly anyway.

You're going to laugh at me, but I highly recommend the flow bee... As seen on tv! Have cut my own hair since college (over 15 years) and of all the methods and tools I have used, it's one of the best I've used and makes the process much faster and cleaner(it attaches to your vacuum cleaner hose, and thus - no mess). It works best with shorter styles but is very versatile and I tend to do a little cleanup work with the hair scissors and clippers once I do the main work with the flow bee.

I've been cutting my own hair for about 7 years now and I wouldn't have it any other way now. The only downside is that it sucks to shave my head (basically a #1 buzz all around) once or twice during the winter but it's worth all the money saved. The $17 spent on a hair/shaving kit has gone a long way for me. Would recommend unless you don't want or don't look good with super duper short hair.

Also my tip would be to lay out some newspaper or cut up one of those a big black trash bags to lay out under the area you're gonna give yourself a haircut. It makes cleaning up the mess on the floor much easier than to sweep a bare floor full of your chopped off hair!

Everything he said is great advice; I'm going to point this out. This will help reduce the likelihood of clogging your drain. You can use a face towel to get extra hair off of you.

I used to cut my own hair. I no longer do, but even now, I have them shampoo my hair after the cut to reduce the amount of hair that goes down my own drain.

Thanks for all the advice! Definitely seems like a more than feasible option.

I've cut my hair for fifteen years for the price of one haircut. I've saved about $2,000.

Anyone cut their own hair who have hair like Patrick does?

I used to just buzz it down, but now I am having a mid life crisis and wearing an undercut which was pretty easy to do as well. My hair just grows incredibly fast, so I like handling it myself.