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"    Emily Weiss; Photo: Getty Images   On Tuesday, The Atlantic published a piece exploring the phenomenon of women on TV shows chopping off their own hair in a fit of hysteria. It&amp;#039;s happened on Mad Men, Girls, and The Newsroom, and it&amp;#039;s a common pop culture trope: Woman loses her shit, goes right for the scissors. Perhaps this does happen in real life, but the DIY haircut isn&amp;#039;t always a Britney Spears-level cry for help. There&amp;#039;s a group of \u00FCber-cool ladies in the fashion and beauty worlds with even cooler heads\u2014in both senses of the expression\u2014who also happen to be cutting their own hair.  Man Repeller&amp;#039;s Leandra Medine has been chopping her own hair since she was in high school, and it&amp;#039;s definitely not because she&amp;#039;s out-of-control. Just the opposite, as a matter of fact. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve always had a hard time relinquishing control,&amp;quot; she explained.   Stylist Ilaria Urbinati took some kitchen scissors to her waist-length hair last week. Inspired by Demi Moore in Indecent Proposal, Urbinati decided she wanted to cut her hair to her ears and could no longer wait for her very busy hairstylist, Mara Roszak, to do the deed. After cutting it to her shoulders herself \u2014 calling it a &amp;quot;pre-cut&amp;quot; until Roszak could finish it off \u2014 Urbinati decided not to wait, and chopped the rest off. A common theme amongst hair DIYers is the desire to look a little imperfect. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s my favorite haircut I&amp;#039;ve ever had,&amp;quot; Urbinati said. &amp;quot;I really like imperfect hair and that it looks a little choppy and grungy. I was going for that &amp;#039;90s Winona thing a little bit.&amp;quot; Medine has an equally imperfect look in mind. &amp;quot;Honestly? I just want to look more French,&amp;quot; Medine said. Into the Gloss founder Emily Weiss also desired that nonchalant, effortlessly mussed French look when she documented her own DIY cut last year. Kitchen scissors are generally the tool of choice. Medine uses &amp;quot;the scissors you use to cut open packaging.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s almost a badge of honor. &amp;quot;I love telling people that I cut it in five minutes with my kitchen scissors,&amp;quot; Urbinati said. &amp;quot;It makes me feel kind of punk.&amp;quot; Kandee Johnson, a makeup artist who&amp;#039;s made a career out of teaching people how to DIY their beauty routines and who frequently cuts her own hair, recommends that you spring for a proper pair of shears. &amp;quot;You can get an inexpensive pair at any beauty supply store like Sally Beauty,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;[But] I&amp;#039;ve used kitchen scissors in an emergency!&amp;quot; (OK, maybe you don&amp;#039;t actually need real shears, but a mirror so you can see the back of your head is a necessity.)  The best advice Johnson gave? &amp;quot;Start with a little. You can always go shorter or take more hair off, but you can&amp;#039;t add it back on,&amp;quot; she recommended. And expect the occasional disaster. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m lucky in that my hair is naturally curly, so I don&amp;#039;t know if I&amp;#039;ve screwed up very frequently. [It&amp;#039;s] so frizzy and so puffy,&amp;quot; Medine said. &amp;quot;But that said, bangs were certainly a mistake\u2026 I hope Frederic Fekkai isn&amp;#039;t reading this.&amp;quot;  Leandra Medine; Photo: Getty Images "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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