Last week, a friend texted me an all-caps question: “HOW DO I GIVE MYSELF BANGS?!” But before I could respond with a bunch of don’ts, she sent me a picture of her slightly butchered new hair and a few blushing emojis. I mean, props to her for saying screw it and attempting a major cut with zero experience, but, you know, definitely don’t try her approach at home. Because if you want to cut bangs at home, you need to do some research — and that’s where we come in.

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Ideally, you would all make appointments with your hairstylists and bring in a bunch of carefully curated inspiration photos and leave with the bangs of your dreams. But I’m a realist, and I know you’re probably going to chop them off by yourself anyway, so I’d like to help in your journey by giving you some incredibly helpful bang-cutting tutorials, below, to avoid any and all hair mishaps.

For side-swept bangs…

For curly, layered bangs…

For thick, blunt, Zooey Deschanel bangs…

For choppy, face-framing bangs…

For shaggy, center-parted bangs…

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Originally posted on StyleCaster.