So I’ve been thinking a lot about cutting hair on full moon versus new moon. My grandmother used to swear by timing her trims with the lunar cycle, but I can’t for the life of me remember which phase she said encourages growth and which slows things down.
I know she once told me all these rituals: if you cut your hair in different ways at different times, it would have different effects. I went through all my books on magick and even one specifically on beauty magick but I can’t find anything.
Does anyone know?
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New moon for trims if you want growth, full moon if you’re trying to keep it short. The waxing/waning energy thing applies to pretty much everything in witchcraft, not just hair.
Has anyone actually noticed their hair growing faster or slower based on when they cut it?
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The connection to your grandmother is probably what matters most here. The ritual itself is beautiful. New moons feel like growth energy to me, so that would be my pick for trims.
Did your grandmother ever mention anything about saving the cut hair afterward, or was it strictly about the timing?
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Anoint the scissors!
I do it pretty much every time I’m trying to call in a specific result instead of just riding the moon phase. Quick wipe with alcohol first. Then a tiny dab of rosemary-infused oil on the handles only, not the blades, and I speak the intention right over them. Very Practical Magic kitchen-witch auntie energy. For beauty or confidence cuts, I set up a little bowl of water with rose petals and a clear quartz nearby, then rinse my hands in it after as a sealing.
Look into agricultural lunar almanacs, not just witchcraft books. A lot of the ‘cut to grow/cut to slow’ lore got preserved through planting and pruning traditions, along with livestock care, rather than formal spellbooks. The farmers were keeping it alive while everyone else forgot.
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An older hedgewitch taught me this one: cut on a waning moon when you want to release something, and burn or bury the trimmings with an intention attached. Simple as that.
I write a word on a slip of paper, wrap a lock of hair around it, tuck the whole little bundle under a rosemary plant, and let it do its quiet work. Just my experience though…
Anyone else use that lunar haircut chart from Morocco Method? Pretty detailed thing. I’ve been following it a few months now. There’s this old saying, “As the moon swells, so swells the root,” that lines up pretty well with what they suggest for growth timing.
Always heard full moon for hair growth.
I’ve been doing this for years. My hair’s almost down to my hips now, and honestly I can’t tell if it’s the lunar timing or just consistent care. Either way, it works for me.
Always felt the full moon pulls things outward. Growth included, and yeah, that means hair too. Last trim I did under one had way less fallout in the shower after.
Full moon trims always gave me longer hair, but new moon ones made it break easier.
I trimmed just the very ends on the night before the full moon for three cycles, then switched to tiny trims right after the new moon. I noted texture, shedding, dreams, mood, and everything else. For me, full moon trims made my hair feel thicker and more ‘alive,’ but new moon trims seemed better when I was trying to recover from bleach damage. It felt more like a reset.
If your grandmother had specific ways of cutting, she may have meant more than timing too, like blunt cuts for strength or point-cutting for movement. She might have been thinking of cutting only a small lock for spellwork rather than an actual haircut.
I always watch the tide too, not just the moon phase. Cutting on an incoming tide feels different from an outgoing tide for me; it pulls the intention in a different way.
Quick question first. Did your grandmother tie the timing to moon sign, weekday, or saint day? Or was it just full vs new moon?
In my family the phase mattered less than the condition of the hair and the purpose of the cut. Friday/Venus for softness and beauty. Monday/Moon for intuition and dreamwork. Saturday/Saturn when something needs severing.
I also separate maintenance trims from spell cuts. A dusting of split ends goes into compost or herbs, no ceremony needed. A lock cut during a threshold moment gets wrapped and salted, then stored until I know whether it wants burial or fire, or water. Sometimes that takes months.
If you’re trying to reconstruct her method, ask the older relatives whether she cut hair before weddings or funerals, or during illness recovery. Those little household rules tend to reveal the actual pattern more than any rulebook would.
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