According to conventional wisdom the one thing that you should not attempt...beauty-wise...is to cut your own hair. It's up there on the chart, next to the dark area of the map that say "Beware of ye hippogriffs".

Of course, "conventional wisdom" has tried to tell me many things in the past...and failed...so it's probably no surprise that, for the last six or seven months, I have been forgoing visits to my hairstylist and cutting my locks myself. And, as I've got this far into the experiment without anyone asking "what's wrong with your hair?", I can assume one of two things...

1) even going to a hairdresser, my natural inclination is for the unkempt, tousled, 60's-French-girl-if-you-squint look so...no matter how bad the cutting...no one can tell any difference

OR

2) after years of squirming miserably in various chairs while the stylist ignored my ideas on what I was hoping my hair would look like I have finally hit upon a scheme which gives me "artistic control"...the rationale being that it may not be the greatest cut but I know myself well enough to know where I want my fringe to hit, etc.

In reality, the truth is probably somewhere between those two but the sense of liberation from never having to endure the pain of the "salon experience" more than makes up for any styling deficits (to my mind at least).

And so, in case anyone else out there is fed up with forking over $70 only to leave the salon thinking that 'you're not happy with the cut now but, perhaps in a few weeks when it grows out?' here are some tips.

Buy a pair of professional scissors, this is one of those scenarios where you need the proper tools for the job.

Go slow. The first couple of times I trimmed my fringe and a few split ends. Once I was satisfied that everything was going okay I moved into full cutting mode.

Vote early, and often...aka don't feel that you need to cut every hair in one session. I generally trim my hair once a week at this point...no split ends and I get to 'tweak' my hairstyle and modify any elements I was unhappy with from the week before's cut.

Relax! It is only hair (I swear)...it will grow back...