Shave and a Haircuts Two Bits

Remember that old saying?

Now it will cost you at least $15 to get a basic haircut. My Mom was the hair cutter in our family. I wish I could share with you all the pictures I have of me and my sister with our little Dutch Boy Cut. Apparently she knew 2 cuts - Dutch Boy and Crew Cut - thank goodness the latter was reserved for my brothers. As I got older I progressed to a "Dorthy Hammel", Shag and Perm. Trust me, I am no authority on haircutting or beauty -  I never went to beauty school or took a correspondence course but still I figured - How hard could it be? -  I was soon to find out.

My Mom was the most patient, loving and kind woman I have ever known so the story I am about to tell you tested every one of  her many virtues. When my brothers and I were teenagers (and my mom was at work) they decided they would like a haircut - simple - lets go out back, get the clippers and cut. Now up to this point I had never once cut any one's hair but for some reason I was handed the clippers to do the cut. They said they wanted it short so I took off the height gage - I know now! - and proceeded to gauge my brothers' head - big bald spots began to appear, other areas were noticeably long, ouch was yelled many times, but I persisted. When it was all said and done - it looked horrible! But that didn't stop my other brother from hopping up in the chair to get his done - had I created a new look? Well, practice doesn't make perfect and both brothers ended up looking like sick, over plucked birds. At that point my Mom arrived home where she was greeted by the boys removing their baseball caps and declaring - Is that Mom? The look of horror on her face is still with me to this day. She then indicated that they looked like they were suffering from scabies and  I was ordered to take them to the barber shop and pay to have it fixed - short of a hair transplant, there was no fixing this!!

And so produced one of my "fondest" childhood memories. You know how they say you will laugh about it later - well we did! And the funny thing is - both my brothers are now bald by choice (and heredity) - I like to think that I had a part in that.

With that resume you would think I had learned my lesson and wouldn't be caught within 10 feet of scissors - wrong!! I tend to be a little hard headed when I envision myself doing something. Today I cut all my families' hair - as well as my own. I started with trimming Megan's and then having a friend teach me how to give a crew cut and use the clippers properly (believe it or not, this was after destroying half of Colin's head and rushing him over to her house for instructions - I told you I was hard headed!) It turns out crew cuts aren't so hard. Keep the gauge on, go against the growth of hair and trim. Also, keeping the clippers clean and oiled helps - I spray it with cooking oil before each cut. All my boys, including my husband have crew cuts so that makes it easy - and I do one cut - if you want lines and creativity you do it yourself. And for Megan - she has long hair, so really all I ever do is trim - if she wants something new, she goes to the professionals. For myself I would love to be able to remove my head from my neck, cut my hair and then reattach. But since that is impossible, I rely on help - I cut the front and then I get help on the back (usually one of my kids) - it helps that I have a lot of wave in my hair so evenness  is not required and I'm not too picky - hair grows back. I will go from time to time to a professional when my own efforts are waning but think of all the money we have saved over the years- 6 people with at least 8 haircuts a year (my boys now like their hair cut every 2 weeks) even if we went to the "Super-haircuttery" that is a lot of savings. Haircutting is also a great thing to barter with people - if you know how, you have leverage.

Spoiler Alert - I dye my hair. When I first noticed some grey hair I headed to Walmart and picked up a box of hair dye- the girl with the red hair on the box was crying out to me - now if you looked at my picture on my bio, you know that I am no ginger but secretly I always wanted to be. Again -  how hard could this be. I followed all the directions but after looking in the mirror the drastic change made me a little self conscience. I went outside where a  neighbor man yelled over asking me if I had dyed my hair -  No! I said and ran back in the house - 2 minutes later I went back out to confess - of course he knew I had dyed it and he assured me it looked good - just different.
Many years later, I still dye at home, but try to stick closer to my original color - it is easier and looks more natural. There are 3 levels of hair dye - #1 washes out in 6 - 12  shampoos  #2 lasts 24 shampoos and # 3 is permanent and you must wait for it to grow out. If you are going to do anything drastic - go to a professional.

Again, going to a salon to get your hair done is expensive and time consuming - give it a try on your own, you may be pleasantly surprised or you may just be wearing hats!

When Colin went away to school one of the biggest decisions wasn't what color comforter to buy for his bed but  where will he get his haircut? I told him just to find a barber, but he decided he could cut it himself, so him and Ryan learned how to give themselves crew cuts.

Like mother like sons - making a lot of cents!!