Need a Trim? Here are 4 Ways to Trim Your Natural Hair

When it comes to trimming or dusting the ends of your natural hair, things aren’t as complicated as they might seem. The rules for trimming naturally curly and kinky* hair are not too much different from trimming hair that’s straight despite it not all growing in the same direction.

Before you start trimming your natural hair, it’s important to know when it needs to be trimmed. In a previous article, I discussed some tell tale signs of natural hair that’s in need of a trim. The first clue is tangled hair that causes your fingers to get stuck while running your fingers through it. The second clue is see through ends. The third one is frizzy hair that won’t tame. And the fourth clue is an abundance of single strand knots. If you can identify at least one of these, then you are definitely in need of a trim.

Fortunately for you lovely natural ladies, you don’t always need to go to the salon to get a trim. The majority of your trimming can be done in the comfort of your own home.

All you need is a decent pair of shears and patience. Click the tab above or the link in the description to find out how to pick a good pair of hair scissors. In this video we will describe 4 methods of trimming used by various naturalistas that you could use when trimming at home.

When you figure out your best method, you can trim as often as you like, which is not such a bad thing if you like nice blunt ends.

Freshly trimmed ends, will allow your hair to tangle less since you get rid of the pesky little fairy knots or single-strand knots as well as weathered ends. These end up being problematic when out of frustration or impatience, you rip into healthy strands to get through tangles while combing.

Trims also aid in limiting the spread of split ends which tend to climb up the shaft if left unattended for too long. By stopping split ends and limiting tangles you retain length, your hair will look and feel smoother, your styles will set better and may even help you get to your hair goals much faster.

With that said, here are our 4 trimming methods:

1. Twist And Snip

This method of trimming your natural hair might be the easiest. This is how you do it; Twist your hair into small even sections. After all the hair is twisted, grab your shears and snip off any frizzy and tangled ends. Stretch each twist and snip any hairs that are sticking out along the twist. Simple!

2. Stretch And Snip

This method involves trimming your hair after it’s freshly washed and stretched. Stretch and detangle your hair the night before using your best heat free stretching method like banding or African threading. Use a detangle brush to get that blow out look while banding or threading then allow your hair to dry.

When your hair is dry and working in small sections, detangle and pull the hair taut snipping off any uneven or split ends. Just a word of warning, I have used this method in the past and it is easy to cut off more than you need if you do not detangle your hair thoroughly first. If you want to retain length, be very careful with this method.