How to Cut Girls Long Hair at Home

These easy tips make it so simple to cut your daughter's long straight hair in the comfort of your own home with no tears and no mistakes! Keep reading to find out how to do it. ✂ 
cut long hair
Updated October, 2022

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There is no reason to pay big money to take your daughter to a hair salon when you can easily cut her long hair right at home! I'm going to show you just how easy it is to cut your girls hair at home, using my own daughter to demonstrate.

Isn't it amazing how fast your kids hair grows? Must be all the happy meals 😉

My daughter has been bugging me to trim her hair for awhile now and I want to share some easy tips to cutting or trimming girls long hair because maybe someone else could use this tip! I was a little startled by how long her hair had grown! She wanted several inches cut off so it would be easier to maintain for summer, and not so hot.

How to cut girls long hair

Full disclosure: I'm just a regular mom, I am by no means an accomplished hairdresser or even a hairdresser at all! In fact, back in college I trimmed Mr. DIY's hair and left a bald spot on one side...he had to go and have it fixed! Since that big mistake, I haven't been allowed to cut his hair again 😏

However, I'm not afraid to cut my kids hair. I've often found that the job I do is nearly as good as the cut they get at the walk-in salons...if not better! I was finding I had to fix their hair after they went to a salon, so I decided to save myself the money and do it myself at home.

I have a good, sharp pair of hair cutting scissors as well as clippers for my boy's haircuts. I bought a hair trimming set and it came with all the attachments for the clippers as well as the scissors. They're relatively inexpensive for something that you'll use so often! 

Cutting my daughter's long hair is the easiest, so much easier than cutting the boys hair! There's no trimming around the ears (my least favorite thing) or the neck. It's a simple matter of making sure the ends are even.

There's a trick to it, and I'll share it with you so you can easily cut your daughter's hair too...all from the comfort of your own home...and save yourself some money!

Supplies to cut little girls hair at home

  • spray bottle of water
  • wide tooth comb
  • conditioner (or this amazing detangler from The Salon Guy)
  • large hair clips
  • hair scissors
  • stool (something backless for them to sit on to raise them up a little...saves your back...you can see a little further down that my daughter is sitting on 3 stools stacked on top of each other!)
  • towel (optional)

scissors, detangler, comb, clips

Step One

Your daughter's long hair needs to be very wet before you cut it. I have my daughter wet her hair under the tap, and I keep a spray bottle of water handy to re-wet it as needed. Use a wide tooth comb and slowly comb all the tangles out, being gentle. If the hair is really tangled, rub a little conditioner between your palms and work it through the hair; it will make the job easier. Look just how long this little peanut's hair was! We recently found The Salon Guy 25 spray, which detangles in literally seconds! It also keeps the hair wet for longer so you're not having to spray water as much.

wet hair and comb straight

Step Two

Make sure the hair is parted where your daughter normally parts it. If I'm going to make a mistake on her hair, this is where it happens because after it's washed, the part is often slightly different. But that's no biggie, you can go back when it's dry and make adjustments!

Tip: I always have my daughter look in a mirror and part her hair herself

Step Three

Depending on the thickness of your daughter's hair, you will need a couple large clips, the best are the ones with claws like this, although you may need smaller ones if your daughter's hair is very fine. 

Divide the hair into sections

You're going to think of the hair in terms of 3 horizontal sections, the bottom section is what we're going to cut first, so we want to section off the hair using the comb to divide the first section straight around her head so you have a nice, straight line. Twist and clip the rest on the top of her head. 

section hair and clip


The antics never end around here! 😜

Spray that bottom section of hair with water again if you need, to ensure it's nice and wet. It's very important to make sure your girl is keeping her head straight, not tilted. You'll want to check this periodically during the haircut! Have her find a spot on the wall straight ahead and stare at it.

Step Four

Decide how much hair you're going to cut and make the first cut in the middle, after first drawing the comb straight down the hair. Then repeat this step all the way around each side, snipping it evenly. When the hair is wet, it lays flat and there are no flyaways so not only is it easier to cut but you are more apt to cut it evenly. 

Step Five

Once you've cut this first section of your daughter's hair, stand in front of her and compare the sides, making sure both sides are the same length. Make adjustments as needed. 

Remember, it's always best to cut small amounts at a time; you can always trim more hair but you cannot add it back once it's cut! ✂

Step Six

Now it's time to let down another section of hair. Divide the remaining hair in half, let down the next piece and twist and clip up the rest. Wet as needed. 

Starting at the middle back again, draw the comb through the hair nice and tightly and snip your daughter's hair right at the length of the first section. The clipped first section works as the perfect guide. Work your way around the head in this manner until the second section is done, going back over and making sure it's all even by combing through it and trimming any longer pieces.

divide hair into sections and cut

Here is my daughter's hair after the second section of hair had been cut. You can see that it is wet. You can see the straight line right across (easy to do when it's wet and when you use your comb as a guide).

Step Seven

Let down the last section of hair...we're almost done ! Wet the hair again...Oh, and you can see that we discarded the towel...my comb's tines kept getting caught in the terrycloth. It was much easier without it! So proceed with this last layer just like you did with the first two. Comb through each strand before cutting to loosen any knots and make sure it's laying as straight as possible. We the hair as needed before cutting and cut as before.

let down final section of hair


Cutting my daughter's entire head of hair only took about 10-15 minutes. That will vary according to the thickness of the hair you're dealing with, and obviously this is for hair that's all one length. If you're wanting to layer the hair, you'll need to find another tutorial!

Here's a recap of how to cut girls long hair at home

steps to cut girls hair at home
And I've been doing this for many years! Sometimes I get it a little bit crooked (see below) but you can bet my teenager let me know! And of course I fixed it 😉
girls at home haircut before and after
I've been cutting my two boy's hair for years as well. Boys hair is a little trickier because you have to be more precise, but you can watch some YouTube videos for a tutorial.

boys at home haircut before and after
My daughter loves her bouncy new haircut!! So swingy! I love the money I saved, the time I saved and the fact that we didn't have to drive anywhere or wait in any lines!

girl's haircut after

Did this look too easy? I promise you that it really is that easy to cut your daughter's long hair at home! If I can do it I know that you can too!

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask them in the comments or send me an email.  I would love to know if this at home haircut tutorial was helpful, please drop me a comment below!

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how to cut girls long hair

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Comments

  1. What a cute style for a lovely girl!! Thank you for sharing your great tip with us!! :)

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  2. Great tutorial and I love that face! thanks for sharing with SYC.
    hugs,
    Jann

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  3. My husband is the family barber/stylist. He has said the same thing, cutting women’s long hair is easier than giving my two teen boys their haircuts. He took over giving haircuts to my boys when they were quite young, so he has gotten a long of practice, easily over a hundred haircuts on each one, plus he has trimmed my long hair for me over the years. His method is a little more detailed with sectioning my hair just behind my ears on each side, he also does my hair dry so he can see the splits/damage, and he takes smaller increments when he lets my hair down to trim each successive layer to match the guide below. I have him trim my hair every other month, just about an inch off the ends. In 2020, I had a couple friends ask me if he could cut their hair for them. I was ok with it, one friend had an overgrown pixie with a mullet thing on her neck that was bugging her. She wanted her hair cut quite short and asked if he could cut short hair, as it is more difficult to do. I pointed out that he had been giving my boys their haircuts for years. She said great, she wanted hers cut short, the same as my older son. He put a neck strip around her neck and caped her with the pin stripe cape he uses with my boys. He used a combination of the clippers with attachments and clippers over the comb for the longer hair on top, and to blend the back and sides. He finished up her neckline with the peanut clippers. He cut off a good 4” all over, and she loved it. Her husband loves short hair and he commented that it looked better than the haircuts she got at the salon. So I was happy that we could help her out. It is a great skill to have.

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  4. Thanks so much for this step by step! It really helped me make a good job of my daughter's hair now she has turned 5 and it's getting longer and thicker.

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  5. Great explanation and steps, thank you! Lots of boys have long hair, and lots of girls have short hair. So I just wish your post wasn't so gender specific. I have one kid with short hair and one with long hair.

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  6. A great tutorial with the photos. It resulted in a fab haircut for my tween daughter. Thanks!

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