The Pros and Cons of an Undercut

Having an undercut was the most adventurous venture I’ve ever done with my hair .

My hair journey can be summed up in the likeness of one celebrity : Demi Moore. My hair has always been long and straight and sporting the bangs so basically I lived my life looking like Demi Moore.

I got to branch out from my usual styles in twenties and I finally got to experiment with my hair starting out with hair dye.

I've done my hair in a ombré effect, I've done different colors at the ends of my hair, but after I get my hair dye tries out, I wanted to do something different. Something that adventurous to alter my looks maintenance to my mane.

After debating it the past couple of years, I finally did it, I got an undercut. I'd like to share what my experience has been like if your curious about taking the chop to your locks.

Debate and Decide

I usually associated undercut hairstyles with punk rock styles or androgynous styles. Which does look great in any way that someone wishes to express themselves, I just didn’t know if it would look great on me since that would be a big commitment to shaving off half of my hair.

A couple of reasons I opted to have an undercut

- The hairline near the nape of my neck has been snagged from certain necklaces that I wore. Most of the hair right at that hairline was torn and short so it was time to go ahead and get that hair gone to grow back in the same length (and I would have the freedom to wear my jewelry knowing my hair wouldn't be snagged in the chains).

- I have very thick hair, so having half my hair gone was all it took to convince me to have less stress about my long tresses.

When I got my undercut done, For a few days it took me a while to get used to having the underside of my hair having that buzz . Having said the bit about my thick hair, I was surprised even though I went for a a mid-shaft undercut, I still had a lot of hair.

But there were a couple things that I really had to consider before I committed myself to doing the Mulan chop to my hair.

I had to know that because of my hair length, it would take a while for the undercut to catch up with the rest of my hair over a period of time.

When I understood that, I had to accept it, even if I grew frustrated with it. Believe me when I'm about to tell you what has driven me crazy about an undercut. What I'm going to share is what you'll have to experience like I did.

The Frustrations

Hair grows as it does and with the different lengths of hair from the longest of my hair, the undercut would eventually catch up. There is a lot of patience to have, It will look a little odd for a while.

And of course with that mentioned, the undercut started growing out in the awkward stages to tolerate .

That has been the most frustration part of keeping up with the hair of the undercut. I've trimmed it a little here and there, and I’m not gonna lie I’ve had some moments where I literally thought about just shaving it again because it bothered me so much with the awkward growth. Whenever I would put on a headband, the pieces would stick out like weird antennas . But, I knew if I shaved it off again out of frustration, I will just be starting from the beginning and then I’m gonna have to wait again for my hair to grow out.

But despite my complaints of these shaggy stages, I can finally move onto the upsides besides having less hair to brush.

The Perks

• Shampooing

One thing that I do want to point out that I actually discovered recently was in my own progress for caring for my long hair. It's been said by certain hair care professionals to start from the mid shaft of your head and then work to your scalp. By having an undercut I have an easy passageway to get into the mid shaft of my head and work it up to my scalp and in turn, that undercut is shampooed very well and then conditions very well. So I never would have thought that having an undercut would make that exact process of shampoo in my hair easier to massage it into my scalp.

• Styling

Braiding my hair has been very easy knowing that I only have to go to the mid shaft of my scalp. Think of it having a chic but edgy hairstyle with having less to braid along the scalp.

It’s been a struggle when it comes to curling my hair because of the hairline near the nape. I would have to say before I did an undercut I did about 8 sections to curl. Four on the left, and four on the right. But having an undercut it makes my process easier. I only have to do four sections to do the mid-shaft and then the crown of my head. So now I don’t have to worry about reaching to uncomfortable links to get that bottom part of my hairline. Also to mention that it cuts the time in half from 40 minutes to 20 minutes.

It's efficient on time and money to use less shampoo, care for the hair in different routines, and makes styling smoother and simpler. And all it took was having less hair with the same length.

If your thinking of taking the spontaneous decision to do an undercut, I hope I have answered any curious questions by sharing my own experience on how the process goes and what it would look like.

Undercuts have been a mainstream look for styles of to expand on from sporty, androgynous, edgy, anything. The opportunities are endless to do more styles with less hair. More styles and more management for the main mane of hair.

I've summed up the pros and cons, but to finish off this piece. I'll share the video of my before and after of getting an undercut.