J. Elaine Spear

If you want to cut hair, you'll need a few tools to get started. Once you feel comfortable with haircutting, these tips will help you gain the trust of children, your family and friends; give touch-ups to prolong the life of a style; and approach new styles with confidence.How to prepare kids for a haircutWhen it comes to children’s haircuts, you might have to pull out every trick in the book to keep kids happy in the styling chair.

Although you see a lot of media and marketing hype about wellness these days, you never really hear anything about what a detrimental lifestyle can do to hair. Hair damage may not seem like such a big deal because hair doesn't become overweight or suffer from a fatal disease. Yet, when hair is damaged, every day can be a bad hair day — something that most people find depressing.

Hairbrushes come in thousands of styles, materials, and designs. A low-end plastic brush costs as little as $1 and a hand-tied boar brush as much as $100. The average price for a decent brush is from $5 to $15. Knowing what brushes to buy begins with understanding the difference in bristles (boar, nylon, porcupine, and metal) as well as the four basic categories of brushes (vented, cushioned, round, and classic).

You can create more volume or fullness with even the limpest of locks by manipulating the roots of the hair. If you want the hair to be full at the crown, blow-dry the hair forward (toward the face) until it's nearly dry, and then brush it back.For longer hair or spiky hairdos, dry the root area with the head bent over and the hair hanging upside down.

Enterprising stylists are always forging new paths in haircutting, whether they're experimenting with a texture technique or simply approaching the basics in a whole new way. A natural outgrowth of these creative approaches to shaping hair is a method called compact haircutting. This system is the exact opposite of traditional haircutting wisdom that touts small haircutting sections and precise angles, by using only one or two large sections of hair to create everything from a perfect frame around the face to a full head of layering.

Be cautious if you’re trying out a new style of haircut on yourself or someone else. Practice, start slowly and then let your stylish wings take flight. Keep these things in mind when cutting a style for the first time: Get a mannequin head to practice your first cut of a new style. These mannequins are available at beauty stores and can be purchased for as little as $20.

If you’re brand new at cutting hair, you may find your friends and family hesitant to let you work on their locks. Try winning them over one haircut at a time, and keep these things in mind: Start small, but think big when it comes to cutting your family’s hair. In the beginning, do small things like bang trims, end trims, and crisping up the haircutting lines of the men in your life.

When it comes to children’s haircuts, you might have to pull out every trick in the book to keep kids happy in the styling chair. Try to provide a fun and fast experience for children by using these haircutting tips: Pick their best time. Children have a way of derailing your haircutting mission when they are tired and cranky.