I get you, I don't like hair dressers either.

I cut my hair every year with this method, which gives length at the back and pretty layers around the face.

I have very thick, coarse hair with a mixture of 2a to 3a waves and curls.

I cut my hair dry. If you wet your hair it will shrink much more after cutting.

Sectioning:

Tuck your chin in and tip your hair over, to brush all your hair forward in front of you.

Brush it straight over, from the nape of your neck to your forehead, and then in parallel strokes so all your hair is laying the same way.

Section it horizontally into three equal parts and tie each into a tight pony tail.

You want to have one pony tail for the back third of your hair, one for the middle/top of your head and one in the front.

Each pony needs to be sitting on the centre line of your head and make sure the hair in each section is equal amounts, and laying straight and flat.

If your hair is very long (mine is), plait each pony tightly and tie it off again at the bottom of the braid. If your hair is thin or shorter, just tie another elastic at the bottom of each section without braiding it.

At this point, measure your hair against your face/body so you know where to cut and don't cut it too short.

So the front section should be hanging in front of your face, and you're not going to want to cut it any shorter than collarbone length as it will still need neatening up and will also shrink once it's cut and no longer being held taught.

An elastic at collarbone length with be approximatly chin length at it's shortest points once cut. I usually go with underboob as my length marker.

Mark the point at the length you want by wrapping another elastic around it.

Repeat this for each section, using the front section as the length guide.

So the middle and back pony's get an elastic in the same spot, and when you hold all three pony tails/braids together in front of your face, the elastics all line up at the same length marker.

Cutting:

Starting with the front pony, pinch the length guide elastic tightly and slide one blade of your scissors into the braid to cut each third of the plait off one by one. If you haven't plaited your hair, just pinch it flat and the snip it all in one go.

Repeat this for each pony.

Then while your head is still tipped over, untie the front section, brush it out and neaten up any weird lines you see with vertical cuts.

To do this, hold little sections of hair flat between two fingers, point your scissors upwards and cut the corners off these sections with sharp vertical angles.

Once you're happy with no weird lines, split this loose section of hair into two and tie it together under your chin, so it's out of the way. (I tend to braid mine and tuck it down my shirt too as there's just so much of it otherwise.)

Repeat this process of neatening up weird lines and then tying it under your chin on the middle pony, and then just neaten up the back one.

After you've done that, with your head still tipped over, untie the sections under your chin and brush it all out so all your hair is laying forward again, and repeat the process of neatening up any weird lines you see again.

Once you're happy with how it looks from this angle, tip your head up and brush your hair into your normal style but with all the length from the back now in front of your shoulders, so you can see it all to neaten up any weird lines again from this angle.

Keep going till it looks like a proper hair cut and then it's done, and you should wash your hair now to get rid of any cut hair bits stuck to your skin etc.

Not a woman but I watch Brad Mondo with my wife sometimes and it's entertaining. He does a lot of reaction videos about people messing up their own hair and goes over how to properly do it. He's worth checking out.