Here’s a sucky situation every short-haired guy can relate to: You just had a haircut two weeks ago, and it’s already looking shaggy around the edges. While it might be tempting to just start cutting your own hair—you just watched your barber do it, after all—that’s generally a terrible idea (case in point). But that doesn’t mean you should add your barber to speed dial just yet: Save yourself time and money by handling any minor trimming needs you have between trips to the barber with these tips from hairstylist Natalie Rose Dixon.
How to Trim the Nape of Your Neck
First things first: Don’t try to line up the back of your neck — according to Dixon, that’s a job best left for your barber. Instead, she recommends using electric clippers to trim only the peach fuzz growing just underneath your actual neck hairline: “Place your hand over the hair on the back of your neck, then trim everything below your hand,” she explains. It really is that simple!
How to Trim Around Your Ears
Bushy hair sprouting around the ears can make any hairstyle look like a shaggy mess. Fortunately, Dixon has a quick-and-easy process for trimming around the ears: “Comb the hair over the tops of your ears, then use electric clippers to carefully trim along the outsides of the ears,” she suggests. Just be careful not to get too carried away.
How to Trim Your Sideburns
“Lots of guys use the heights of their ears to gauge how high they should trim their sideburns,” Dixon says. “But the problem is, most people’s ears are different heights.” Knowing this, she recommends drawing an imaginary line across the center of your face, then using electric clippers to trim your sideburns accordingly. For more comprehensive burn-trimming tips, check out our guide to perfectly even sideburns.
There you go: Equipped with these tips, you can quit visiting your barber every two weeks. Just do us a favour, will you? Don’t tell them we’re the ones keeping you looking fresh between haircuts.