Lockdown locks: the long and short of cutting your hair

Many of us will recall home hair cuts from childhood, when our mother would plonk a Pyrex bowl on our heads and go to town with a pair of useless kitchen scissors. The result? A style which made us look like a member of a weird cult.

We are now weeks into lockdown which means many of us will be sporting longer locks, a thicker thatch and a fringe resembling that of a Shetland Pony.

We will mull over whether to take tonsorial matters into our own unqualified hands or, if childhood experience hasn’t put us off, allow a partner to unleash their inner Edward Scissorhands on our tufty bits - an enormous exercise in trust, which could potentially result in the worst haircut ever to land on a head - the mullet.

Some men may decide to let their hair grow, like a hippy or a hobo. Worse, adopt a Donald Trump comb-over, or put it in a ponytail - a style universally hated by everyone who hasn’t got one, and the first step on the sartorial slide to double denim. Don’t do it.

With roots also starting to show, some will consider a home dye kit. This offers plenty of scope for aesthetic disaster.

Everyone knows somebody who thought they were dyeing their hair blonde and ended up with a crowning calamity of Orville green.

Those of us who grew up playing hairdressers with Girl’s World dolls, might decide to have a Vidal Sassoon moment with the kids’ hair, but before doing so, consider if you really want your offspring to look like Wurzel Gummidge.

Barber and hairdresser Chris Graham, who owns Barbers of BT45 in Magherafelt and Barbers of BT80 in Cookstown, urges caution when it comes to DIY hairdressing.

‘‘Whilst in this time of self-isolation, confusion and irrational concepts, it is always easy to over react and think that I can try this myself or get someone else to do it. My advice is do not do this.

‘‘We as professional hairdressers and barbers go through thorough training taking into consideration fundamental aspects before we start cutting your hair. These include head shape, hair density, growth patterns, type of hair, lifestyle, problematic areas, maintenance, facial features, male pattern baldness, face shape, texture, movement and recession areas, to name but a few.’’

He warned if someone else attempts to give you a “tidy up” or a “quick trim” they will sabotage all the hard work and money you have spent getting your hair to the desired shape it may be.

What he does recommend, however, for men is simply using a small trimmer or clipper to tidy up ‘around the edges’.

‘‘By this I mean tidy up the natural hairline (do not create a new one). Doing this will really transform the whole hair by making it appear a lot neater as we tend to see the overgrown parts around our ears and necks, which is when we normally decide it’s time to visit our local barber.

‘‘This can be easy enough to do if you take your time and use the edges of a clipper to just remove whatever has overgrown from the natural hairline.

‘‘Just this simple method alone you will give the hair a whole new appearance and look a lot neater and tidier which will tide you over until your next haircut...henever that may be.’’

Chris said with women’s hair it’s much easier to conceal that the haircut is overdue unless you wear it a lot shorter.

‘‘For those with longer hair I recommend letting it grow out and again wait until the hairdressers open. It’s easy to put your hair up in a ponytail out of the way if it is causing annoyance.

‘‘For those with fringes or bangs, please do not attempt this on your own. We have all seen those disastrous videos online of people hacking their fringe off and it appears so much shorter than they originally thought. This has a lot to do with the tension you are holding in the hair, again a method trained hairdressers will only understand.

‘‘If however it is in your eyes and really causing you to be irritated let the hair fall into natural fall (meaning let the fringe sit as it natural would without any combs or fingers holding it and slightly trim the ends of it until out of your eyes (be extremely careful!), again waiting for the salons to reopen so the professional can then take over and tailor it to your specification.’’

Chris also advised people to be mindful of health and safety issues, specifically using scissors and clippers around anyone’s face.

‘‘This is especially advised in attempting to cut children’s hair as they are more likely to move unexpectedly. Proceed with caution.’’

And when it comes to colouring hair at home Chris urges people to leave it to the professionals, or if you really must dye your hair use a semi or demi permanent colour.

‘‘A box dye will generally come with a colour tube (pigments) and a bottle of developer. Whoever decided to purchase this is completely different to the next person who purchases it, meaning that no person’s hair is the same. So why is the box dye made to suit everyone….? Exactly It’s not. Chemicals are not to be played with,’’ he said.

‘‘Permanent box dyes contain a lot of ammonia, PPD and metallic salts. Whilst these can be dangerous to anyone, they are especially dangerous to pregnant women. Hairdressers will also carry our relevant testing prior to the colour service i.e. skin testing.’’

Instead of dyeing, Chris suggests root sprays.

‘‘Root sprays are ideal for everyone at the moment as they can hide greys and simply wash out. These are available at most pharmacies and health and beauty stores. These were designed to buy the client an extra couple of weeks for their colour which is exactly the situation we find ourselves in now.’’

But, instead of fretting about our hair, Chris suggests we use this time in lockdown to give our locks a complete break from chemicals and electrical gadgets.

‘‘Use conditioning treatments, and masks to repair the hair back to its original state by giving it the protein, keratin and amino acids needed. ‘‘Straighteners and hairdryers can also be kept to a minimum to allow the hair to repair as these can be just as severe on the hair shaft as the cosmetic colour.

‘‘By doing all of this you are leaving the hairdresser with a blank canvas to return you to as good as before. They will see exactly where the hair has overgrown and can resume from where they left off.

‘‘Myself I have chose to let my hair grow out and give it a break from styling! Even though I have the tools and equipment needed to do the job I too am going to follow my own advice.’’

Freelance hairdresser Brenda Shankey also has a few nifty hints and tips for hair during lockdown

She said: ‘‘For grey roots and colour touch up I recommend using eyeshadow to paint and touch up the roots if you have no root touch up products.

‘‘However root touch ups are all available online and postable to your door - the most popular is Colour WOW and lasts a good year for one box.

‘‘I couldn’t live without it in between my root tint regrowing.

‘‘Or if you have dark brown or black hair an old mascara wand Is brilliant for covering greys.’’

Like Chris, Brenda cautions again non salon colouring products.

‘‘It’s usually not recommended to use non salon colours because for the sake of a few weeks you could mess it up more in the long term and I always say better being safe than sorry.

‘‘Especially with chemicals and colour you’ve lots of dangers from allergic reactions to burning your scalp and damaging your hair beyond repair. So I’d really recommend a root touch up investment.’’

And in terms of cutting hair, Brenda offers the following advice.

‘‘For cutting men’s hair a lot of people have clippers at home and will attempt to give it a go!

‘‘Again if you are going to attempt this stick to having a high guard on the clippers and doing a minimum tidy up rather than a skin head’’

Kitchen scissoring for fringe trims is another isolation craze, but Brenda cautions: ‘‘Again keep the fringe below the eyebrows when cutting and tie the rest away from the face. Be safe with the eyebrows and obviously the eyes.’’

She added: ‘‘Hairdressers train years for a reason and we make it look easy because we have years of experience behind us.

‘‘So be creative with this and try to hold it out until the professionals re-open. If you absolutely 100 per cent can’t wait then I beg you to really try to not go near colour and with cutting take little off to get you through.

‘‘You’ve got to think can I live with this once it’s messed up or can I live with this a few more weeks and play it safe?!

‘‘The choice is yours but no one is seeing you anyway so embrace the moment of long unkempt hair and appreciate the love for your professionals waiting for you on the other side.’’

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