How often should you actually get your hair cut?

Most people need a cut every 6 to 12 weeks, and where you land in that range comes down to your length and the state of your ends. Short and sharp needs 6 to 8 weeks. Mid length can stretch to 8 to 10. Long hair you are deliberately growing can go 12 weeks or more without looking neglected.

The short version

Short cuts and fringes: every 6 to 8 weeks to hold the shape.

Mid length: every 8 to 10 weeks is the usual cadence.

Long hair or growing out: 10 to 12 weeks, sometimes longer.

Bleached or heat styled hair needs cutting sooner, closer to 6 to 8 weeks.

Cutting does not speed up growth. It stops splits climbing the hair shaft.

How often to get your hair cut, by length and style

A short bob, a pixie or anything with a fringe lives and dies on its shape. Leave it 12 weeks and it stops being the cut you paid for. Six to eight weeks keeps the outline where your stylist put it, and it is usually a quicker appointment because there is less to correct.

Mid length hair is more forgiving. Eight to ten weeks works for most of the clients in my chair. If you wear it up a lot, or you are not heat styling much, you can push toward ten weeks without anyone noticing.

Long hair is where the rules loosen. If your ends are in good condition you can go 12 weeks, sometimes 14. The calendar matters less than the state of the last inch. Once it starts looking thinner and feeling rougher than the rest, book in.

What happens if you leave it too long

Split ends do not stay put. A split travels up the hair shaft, and once it has climbed past the damage you wanted to lose, your stylist has to take more off than you wanted. Clients who come in every 6 to 8 weeks lose half an inch. Clients who come in twice a year often lose two or three.

The second thing is shape. Hair does not grow evenly. The sides and the crown grow at different rates, so a cut that sat balanced in March is heavier on one side by June. That is usually what people mean when they say their hair has gone flat or lost its life.

The third is styling time. Overgrown ends do not hold a blow dry. If your hair used to sit right and now needs 20 minutes of fighting every morning, the cut is the problem, not your technique.

Why your ends wear out between cuts

Your ends are the oldest part of your hair. The last inch of a shoulder length head of hair has been through roughly two years of washing, brushing, heat and weather before it ever reaches the scissors. Everything you do to it accumulates.

Heat is the biggest factor for most people. The American Academy of Dermatology advises limiting blow drying and using low or medium heat settings on irons, because excessive heat causes damage. If you straighten daily on a high setting, your ends will need cutting sooner than the 8 to 10 week guideline.

Colour is the second factor. Bleached and lightened hair is structurally weaker, so if you are having balayage or foils done, plan your cuts closer together. I usually tell colour clients 6 to 8 weeks, and we often do the trim in the same appointment as the toner.

If you are growing your hair out, keep trimming

This is the one that catches people. Growing your hair and cutting your hair sound like opposites, so clients stop booking and wait it out. Six months later they have the length, but the last two inches are thin and wispy and the whole lot has to come off anyway.

Hair grows from the root, at roughly half an inch a month. Cutting the ends does not slow that down. What cutting does is protect the length you have already grown, so it survives long enough to count.

The compromise I give people who are growing out is a dusting every 10 to 12 weeks. A quarter of an inch, no shape change. You keep the length and the ends stay solid.

Booking your cut in Stopsley

Cut and finish with us is £42 to £55 depending on your stylist and how much work the cut needs. A restyle, meaning a proper change of shape rather than a tidy up, is £60. If you want the ends done and a blow dry, blow dry is £28 to £35 and a curly blow dry is £30 to £38. Full pricing is on our pricing list.

If you are not sure where you sit in the 6 to 12 week range, ask at the end of your next appointment. Tasha, Sabrina and Sheree will all tell you straight, and we can book the next one before you leave so it does not drift.

We are at Shop 660, Jansel House, Hitchin Rd, Stopsley, Luton LU2 7XH. Open Tuesday and Wednesday 10 to 8, Thursday 10 to 6, Friday 10 to 3, and Saturday 10 to 4:30. Closed Sunday and Monday. Call 01582 730381 or book online. Klarna is available if you want to spread the cost.