Home hair cuts

When I was a kid, I thought it was perfectly normal to have my mom cut my hair. Until sometime in about elementary school, I thought that going to the salon or barber was only something that grownups did. Even after my first (remembered) salon haircut, I thought that it was like a special treat.

This feeling has continued. I, frankly, love going to the salon and getting my hair done. The whole thing just feels like such a treat. The swankier, the better. I like sitting there sipping my tea and reading my book while I wait for my appointment, smelling whatever essential oils they've put in the air. I even love getting my hair washed, and I've always loved having someone else toy with my hair. Best of all, my hair never looks better than the day I walk out of the salon, because as much as I love having other people toy with my hair I don't actually much like fussing with it myself. I have a few hairstyles that look really complicated but they don't require any products or curling or drying, just a bit of hand dexterity and practice. Which is especially good, because I don't really have any hair products or a curling iron, and the hair dryer I have has been used maybe half a dozen times. (It was a gift from my mom years ago, and I keep it around because I keep telling myself it will be useful at some point, for something.)

With all of this, you'd think that I prioritize getting regular haircuts and all the pampering that goes along with them. Nope! My last salon haircut was about three years ago. I decided to get a hairstyle that would require more maintenance and regular trips to the salon, but after about six months I realized that I didn't have the energy to maintain the style or to make it actually look good every day. So I got a cut that would be easy enough to maintain and grew my hair out for the next two years.

After Little Miss Sunshine was born I realized that I had four months of maternity leave, so I dyed my hair blue. This was a long-held dream of mine. (I know, I dream big.) Then, feeling the need to do something else to get rid of some of the weight of my thick hair, I handed the clippers to my spouse and made him give me an undercut. Well, it ended up too short and I realized after a few days that, even after it grew out a bit, I wasn't loving the style the way I thought I would. Though, it did do a lot to relieve some of the weight of my otherwise long hair.

With my return to work coming up, I knew I couldn't return with long blue hair and I wanted to fix the undercut situation anyway. I looked up what is often the cheapest source for a haircut, a salon school, but the logistics of getting a babysitter for my kids (they're not open on weekends) and getting there and paying for it all just seemed like such  hassle. Instead, one morning while the Munchkin was at preschool I grabbed the hair shears and went at it. I cut my hair so short that I sometimes feel like a Flapper. An A-line bob, it's wonderfully short and easy. I barely have to brush it! No more baby fingers tangled in my long locks. No more giant knots from all the getting up and going back to bed that I do. No more heaviness. And since summer is coming, it's wonderfully cool.

Short hair!

This is not the first, or even the dozenth, time I've given myself a haircut. I won't lie, it took a lot of courage the first time. It's my hair! But I figured that I could always put it under a hat and go to the salon if it was a disaster. Well, it wasn't. Which is not to say that I do all the work myself. I do the initial trimming and then grab someone else to double-check the back. One time, the handy person was my younger brother. Evening out my hair was not what he expected to be doing that evening! But he was a good sport about it. HusbandX has, in the past, performed the same office for me quite a lot.

When the Munchkin saw my haircut, she wanted one of her own. This happened the last time I cut my hair too. She's only ever had two other haircuts (done by me) because, OMG, her hair is so pretty with its curls! She wanted her hair long, girly, anyway. I occasionally brought up the idea of trimming her hair, but she was never interested and I thought her hair was fine as-is so I didn't press the issue. Well, when she asked for a haircut like mine I was game. Last time I cut her hair I thought I was trimming it shoulder-length, the way she'd asked for, but it turned out after the first few snips that she'd been shrugging up her shoulder. I can't complain, the effect of the shorter hairstyle was even cuter than it would have been a bit longer. The curls were still there but it framed her face adorably, and it was still long enough that I could pull it out of her face when I need to.

This time I ended up cutting it even shorter. It's sort of easy mode for summer, since I know she's going to be swimming and running around, and she's never ever going to want to let me brush it. This way we don't have to fight over her hair.

Before

The one trick to cutting a toddler's hair that I can offer up is that I gave her frequent chances to get the wiggles out. She'd start to shift around and I'd say, "Do you need a moment to wiggle?" She'd step away from me to shake and shimmy and then step back when she was ready for more. In her world, it took forever (about fifteen minutes) but she seemed to love her new haircut. For days afterward she was asking me to cut her hair again.

The first person whose hair I cut, other than my own, was HusbandX's. He had, so far as he could remember, only ever gotten his hair cut by one woman in his life, a friend of his mom's. In college he refused to get his hair cut by anyone else, which meant that he had to wait until he went home at breaks and his hair would get long. Not in a good way. I finally persuaded him to let me cut his hair, after watching many, many Youtube videos of how to give a man's haircut. I'd also, for years, observed what stylists do when I was at the salon, because it's interesting, so I figured that I at least understood the principles. Well, that first haircut wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst, either. It was certainly better than the long hair he'd been sporting for weeks months. And I only got better from there.

After!

The point of all of this, and I promise I do have one, is why it's worth it to me. Why, if I love going to the salon so much, would I instead cut my hair at home? Yes, it's expensive, but not doing something I enjoy borders on cheap rather than frugal.

As much as I enjoy going to the salon, I've decided that it's not that time of life. It takes time away from my already busy life and it is expensive, using up some of our finite funds. Mind you, not going to the salon has been my choice. If I told my spouse how much I really, really love it he'd probably get frustrated by my refusal. But my time and money can be better spent elsewhere, like our efficiency projects (we want to insulate the house before next winter)and my garden.

My current personal moratorium on going to the salon isn't absolute. I will definitely be going to the salon occasionally in the future. But it will be more of a strategic pampering than a regular one. After all, the very rarity is part of what makes it so enjoyable. How often in my regular life do you think I get cossetted and spoiled? Holding that time out for when I actually need it makes going to the salon something I appreciate all the more. If I did this regularly, it would not only become routine but it would also actually become a hassle.

It's the same way for many things. We'd get sick of having Christmas once a month, and we'd get sick of our favorite foods if we ate them all the time. For me, making my trips to the salon rare makes my gratitude for them all the greater. And since I've gotten pretty darn good at cutting my own hair it's less of a burden to push off going to the salon. I get an ego boost in the meantime, with people complimenting my haircut. In many ways, that's just as good as getting pampered by a salon.