Perspective
Best Days to Cut Your Hair in October 2026: Hunter’s Moon
The best days to cut your hair in October 2026 by moon phase: New Moon on the 10th, Hunter's Moon on the 26th, and the windows between. Plan your cut.
October settles the year into its colder half. Days keep shortening, the last of the summer color drops off the trees, and the sky delivers a New Moon on the 10th and the Hunter’s Moon on the 26th. The two weeks between them are the waxing half of the cycle, the stretch hair folklore has traditionally pointed to for a growth-focused cut.
October 3: Last Quarter
The month opens mid-cycle, on the tail end of September’s Full Moon. Nothing dramatic here, just the release phase winding down before the next New Moon.
October 10: New Moon
In our system, a New Moon is a Fallow day, a day of rest rather than cutting. We spend it on a slow wash or a long mask instead of the scissors. Plenty of moon lore reads the New Moon as a fresh start and a good day to cut. Our calendar treats it as the pause before the cycle builds again.
October 18: First Quarter
The Moon reaches its halfway point, climbing toward the Hunter’s Moon at the end of the month. This is the middle of the waxing window, when the tradition still favors growth-focused cutting over maintenance trims.
October 26: Full Moon (the Hunter’s Moon)
October’s Full Moon is called the Hunter’s Moon, the first Full Moon after September’s Harvest Moon. The name goes back to autumn hunting and preparing meat for winter, and the Moon itself isn’t any bigger or brighter than usual, it just rises soon after sunset for several evenings running, which gave hunters extra hours of moonlight (the Old Farmer’s Almanac has the full rundown). In our system, a Full Moon isn’t an automatic override the way a New Moon is. The night’s category still comes from whichever zodiac sign the moon is sitting in.
What this means for your hair
The broad strokes are simple on their own: the waxing half, October 11 through 25, is the one the tradition points to for a cut meant to grow out, while the waning half that opens on the 26th is the one people traditionally save for upkeep, a trim to hold a shape rather than grow one. Halloween night falls in that waning stretch, with the Moon around 65 percent lit. The specific day-by-day breakdown for October, which dates fall into which category, lives in the calendar itself rather than here.
There’s no scientific backing for cutting hair by moon phase, and we’ll say that plainly. What keeps people doing it isn’t proof, it’s ritual: timing a haircut to something happening in the sky instead of just fitting it into a random Tuesday afternoon. If that appeals to you, October’s a good month to try it.
For the full breakdown of which October days fall into which category, the Sept–Dec 2026 Preview calendar has it mapped out. Or start with how the five-day system works if you’re newer here. Looking for last month instead? See September’s dates.