odbNLnKt.jpg
odbNLnKt / Getty Images

Pandemic bangs. I know you're thinking about them.

I have seen people across the internet flirting with cutting fringe for themselves. Is it cabin fever? Coping? A thirst to control some aspect of life when everything else feels so... out of hand? The freedom that no one will see you for weeks, maybe months? Whatever it is, don't listen to naysayers like Kelly Ripa.

I am your enabler. Let's talk.

Cutting hair is seen as a form of self-care after trauma, according to what Christy Beck, a Pennsylvania therapist told Quartz back in 2017. Be it a break-up, a death, or, for me, a bike accident that knocked out one of my front teeth, a hair cut is a change that helps us cope. That aforementioned bike accident is why I got bangs back in November. The stress and despair and fear we're all living through right now—experts have identified it as grief—is why you should allow yourself to go for it.

Throw caution to the wind. Look how good my mom looked with them in the '80s and hers definitely needed a trim:

I felt fresh and alive after my bang-cut. My bangs are flouncy and cute and versatile and they take my mind off what I lost. (RIP, my beautiful chomper.)

For straight hair, here is how:

The teens on Tik Tok are making it look so easy! If you're down to say "fuck it," just follow their lead. Before you follow their lead, I need to make sure you know this: CUT LONGER THAN YOU THINK YOU NEED. Thanks.

That means separating the front part of your hair into a triangular segment and twisting it and then cutting. If you go this route, make sure to start small. You can always cut more hair to make your bangs thicker. Once you cut, modify to your preference and it should all work out. Or, you can call your hairdresser whenever the pandemic ends and schedule an appointment.

If you would like a more refined approach, let's dive into that.

First and foremost, you should use hair-cutting scissors. Other scissors are duller and may make your hair shorter than you plan. Be wary of that. Cut long and then trim at an angle as you cut shorter—"You point with the scissors like a clock’s hand pointing to seven and then lightly trim across," according to this article.

You also need to cut your hair while it's dry. Wet it and blow dry it and then cut.

The best approach, in my experienced opinion, is to watch a ton of YouTube videos of girls cutting their hair.

I think this is the most useful step-by-step tutorial and also it's super funny:

This girl talks a lot in the beginning so I skipped to the action:

You'll notice in both of those videos that the girls cut their bangs and then cut longer strands to frame their faces around the bangs. That's an important step to make them look more cohesive.

Okay, now for my non-straight haired comrades:

Curly hair is forgiving. Curls hide any cutting errors so you can make more mistakes. This is a fine line, though, since curls are unpredictable. When I got bangs, I started small to see how my hair would react to being so short. I gradually cut more bangs out of the front pieces of my hair the longer I had bangs and now I have full-fledge curtain bangs. Zooey Deschanel wishes.

This is the guide I followed.

Some videos:

And, in case you need help with upkeep, here's how to trim that fringe:

This is all the help I have for you. I want you to be impulsive in this weird purgatory we're all living in. As my mom always said whenever I got a haircut, hair grows back. And, worst case, you'll be giving your hairstylists a lot of business once we get back to normal if you end up like this:

If you are swayed by my argument and cut bangs please send me a picture.