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A Hairstylist Shows How to Safely Trim Your Own Hair

So you don't emerge from quarantine looking like Tom Hanks in "Castaway"

Coronavirus 2020

About Coronavirus 2020

Washingtonian is keeping you up to date on the coronavirus around DC.

It’s been about a month since most of us began social distancing, and our hair is starting to show it. If you’re getting the urge to chop it all off, hold on. Selma Owens of DC’s Bang Salon provided some tips to help you keep your hair looking fresh, and avoid any disasters.

How to maintain your hair at home

In this video, Owens shows how to maintain hair health and color, and demonstrates how to safely give yourself a trim.

Some of her favorite products

For general care: Olaplex

“I use the entire Olaplex system. It has a bond builder so it helps repair from the inside out,” says Owens. “There’s a treatment, shampoo, conditioner, styling cream, and hydrating oil for styling my curls.”

For color touch-ups: dpHUE

“This coloring kit is a better quality than what you would find in the supermarket or drugstore. It has better ingredients, better results, and does less damage to your hair.”

For root touch-ups: L’Oréal Magic Root Cover Up

“This non-permanent solution is really easy to apply, and there’s a lot of colors to choose from so it’s easy to find something to match your own,” she says. “It offers permanent-like results until your next shampoo, it’s less messy to apply than a traditional coloring kit, and there’s no risk of permanently altering your color.”

For at-home trims: Cricket S-2 500 Hair Shear

“These are inexpensive, good quality shears. A hair shear is smaller and has narrower blades than the scissors you have at home, resulting in a more precise cut. These are durable and sharp, and they offer shears for lefties as well!”

Jane Recker
Assistant Editor

Jane is a Chicago transplant who now calls Cleveland Park her home. Before joining Washingtonian, she wrote for Smithsonian Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied journalism and opera.