Is Cutting Your Own Hair Always a Better Choice Than Visiting a Barber?

[Evo]

Supposedly if you tie a pony tail centered on the crown of your head and cut the hair from that it should be pretty even. That could be an urban myth because the person i heard it from isn't a reliable source.

That would end up with many layers to your hair, with the shortest hair at the top of your head and the longest at the back of your head. I guess if you want that, it would work.

P.S. - I don't want to work anymore, will someone support me? I'm really cheap to keep.

 

[mgb_phys]

Supposedly if you tie a pony tail centered on the crown of your head and cut the hair from that it should be pretty even.

Or a puddin' bowl works for the full Dwayne Dibley (UK readers will understand)

 

[russ_watters]

I installed a mirror on a swing-arm next to my sink for the purpose of cutting my hair myself, but it is still a bit hit or miss trying to cut the back. I'm slowly learning to use my hands backwards, but even still, I can only see one side at a time, so it is tough to make them even.

 

[Evo]

I'd love to see Russ with long enough hair to do a ponytail

 

[Moonbear]

My grandmother used to cut my grandfather's hair...but I'm not sure it counts for much when there isn't much left to cut anyway. He just had that little ring left around the bottom that was still hanging on for dear life after the rest had fled...or maybe it was just my grandma's haircuts.

If you like your hair short and something other than a buzz cut, I don't know how you could cut it yourself (even then, probably easier to have someone else do it for you). I don't think I could reach the back of my hair if I wanted it cut short. I do cut my own hair, but it's long and I just pull it around to the front (I've gotten good at getting it even that way, but I have a lot of room for error...nobody will notice if it's an inch shorter than intended because I got it wrong the first time and needed to even up one side). Then again, I've never had any luck with hairdressers. Their ideas of what they want my hair to be never matches my ideas of what I'm telling them I want it to be. My biggest mistakes cutting my own hair still haven't been as bad as the "professional" haircuts I've gotten. They do well with cutting thin, stick straight, short hair, but when you have thick, curly, long hair, and want to keep it that way, I think they get jealous and try to butcher it on purpose.

 

[ehrenfest]

I have curly brown hair that is between 1-3 inches thick depending on when the last cut.

I don't even use a mirror to cut it. I just go to the bathroom with a scissors and cut off chunks that are getting too long and throw them in the toilet. It takes like 5 minutes every 2 months.

In the winter I let it grown long for warmth. In the summer I usually cut it more often in order to keep from itching. The ONLY reason I cut it is because it can get cumbersome when it is long.

My dorm-mates tell me it looks funny but whatever. I think that in the future when everyone has realized that "hair styles" make no sense, people will watch old movies and make fun of people with nicely-trimmed hair.

 

[Math Is Hard]

My dorm-mates tell me it looks funny but whatever. I think that in the future when everyone has realized that "hair styles" make no sense, people will watch old movies and make fun of people with nicely-trimmed hair.

Hair styles DO make sense, though. A nice haircut frames and flatters the face. People like to look attractive, so why would people in the future give that up? Same with fashion, makeup, diet and exercise products. People will always fork out lots of dough for things that make them look and feel purty.

 

[Moonbear]

Hair styles DO make sense, though. A nice haircut frames and flatters the face. People like to look attractive, so why would people in the future give that up? Same with fashion, makeup, diet and exercise products. People will always fork out lots of dough for things that make them look and feel purty.

So they can reproduce and hence perpetuate the species. Being attractive is important!

 

[ehrenfest]

People like to look attractive,

Do you think it is a biological drive to look attractive? Well of course it will help you obtain mates if the opposite sex thinks you look attractive. But society has totally changed what it means to look attractive. I am relatively sure that a clean haircut is NOT one of the biological triggers for attractiveness. Therefore, the future could easily reverse this image of attractiveness and render hair styles obsolete.

 

[edward]

How the hell would you get it even in the back? I'm sorry, but I can't look like I got my head caught in a fan.

Ah Ha I think I now know the origin of the mullet.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Do you think it is a biological drive to look attractive? Well of course it will help you obtain mates if the opposite sex thinks you look attractive. But society has totally changed what it means to look attractive. I am relatively sure that a clean haircut is NOT one of the biological triggers for attractiveness. Therefore, the future could easily reverse this image of attractiveness and render hair styles obsolete.

Reverse? So, in the future, we'll all walk around with bad Nick Nolte hair?

http://www.throwmyshoe.org/images/nicknoltedui.jpg

Oy vey!

 

[edward]

Reverse? So, in the future, we'll all walk around with bad Nick Nolte hair?

http://www.throwmyshoe.org/images/nicknoltedui.jpg

Oy vey!

Thats how I look when I wake up in the morning.

 

[Moonbear]

Do you think it is a biological drive to look attractive? Well of course it will help you obtain mates if the opposite sex thinks you look attractive. But society has totally changed what it means to look attractive. I am relatively sure that a clean haircut is NOT one of the biological triggers for attractiveness. Therefore, the future could easily reverse this image of attractiveness and render hair styles obsolete.

A haircut is a lot easier method of attracting mates than those cumbersome plumages of birds like the bird of paradise or peacocks that serve no purpose other than to attract mates. Similar to other species, it makes sense that the guy who can afford a nice haircut, both in time and money, and still have time to do his job, find his dinner, seek out potential mates, and is still healthy is more fit than one who doesn't have the time and money to spare for a haircut (afterall, children take up a LOT of time and money, so if a guy doesn't have any to spare, he might not be very fit to father children).

 

[DaveC426913]

Every human being that owns a scissors and has at least one hand is capable of cutting his or her own hair perfectly fine.

You're single right?

 

[hypatia]

I hear you on the salon haircut Moonbear, they are just not for me either. The last time I went for a real haircut, it was just horrible. I just cut a inch off the bottom 2 or 3 times a year. Plus its easier for me to tie it up for work when its all one lenth.

 

[Moonbear]

I hear you on the salon haircut Moonbear, they are just not for me either. The last time I went for a real haircut, it was just horrible. I just cut a inch off the bottom 2 or 3 times a year. Plus its easier for me to tie it up for work when its all one lenth.

Yes, most of the time mine is just pulled back in a ponytail at work anyway. I'm glad it's not shorter or it would be constantly falling into my face with no way to keep it back. Not just an annoyance, but dangerous if I'm working with radioactive material, or just plain icky when I'm working with cadavers (I forgot to bring a scrunchy one day I was teaching anatomy, and I had to leave early to take a shower right after class...some of my students were funny, they'd compliment me on my hair because they'd never seen me wear it down, and then warn me it was falling forward and getting into the cadaver ). When I'm doing surgery, I braid it and wrap it into a bun to tuck under a surgeon's cap (you can tell the photo in my profile is staged since my hair is sticking out). So, yeah, I can appreciate the option to not go to a hairdresser (I do get a lot of compliments on my hair even though I don't have anyone do anything special with it...I've actually had random strangers walk up to me in stores and ask if they can touch it ), but that doesn't work for everyone. I do still spend time and effort on cutting my hair and proper grooming, and do it nicely when I'm heading somewhere other than the lab, I just don't trust hairdressers with my hair.

 

[BobG]

I have curly brown hair that is between 1-3 inches thick depending on when the last cut.

I don't even use a mirror to cut it. I just go to the bathroom with a scissors and cut off chunks that are getting too long and throw them in the toilet. It takes like 5 minutes every 2 months.

In the winter I let it grown long for warmth. In the summer I usually cut it more often in order to keep from itching. The ONLY reason I cut it is because it can get cumbersome when it is long.

My dorm-mates tell me it looks funny but whatever. I think that in the future when everyone has realized that "hair styles" make no sense, people will watch old movies and make fun of people with nicely-trimmed hair.

Number 1 clue you should go to a barber and stop cutting your own hair:
Your dorm mates introduce you to friends with the warning, "This is why you shouldn't run with scissors!"

 

[Moonbear]

Number 1 clue you should go to a barber and stop cutting your own hair:
Your dorm mates introduce you to friends with the warning, "This is why you shouldn't run with scissors!"

Why on Earth would someone prefer a hack job on their head that people have been honest enough to let him know looks ridiculous when it's easier to either buzz it off or just let it keep growing long and pull it into a neat ponytail. Either option is more socially acceptable and far easier than hacking away piece by piece. I'm not even sure why getting a haircut wastes much time if all you're doing with the time is studying. If people flip through magazines while in a hairdresser's chair, you can just as easily flip through a textbook.

This whole series of threads is bizarre and disturbing, and not wanting to get a haircut is actually the least of it. Thinking eating is a non-essential extra that should be minimized as much as possible is not particularly conducive to survival. When trying to cut out everything else in life except doing math and physics problems, even the things that keep one alive and healthy, and denying oneself all social interactions, well, that sounds like a rather obsessive sort of behavior. Perhaps a visit to a psychologist or psychiatrist is required.

 

[BobG]

Why on Earth would someone prefer a hack job on their head that people have been honest enough to let him know looks ridiculous when it's easier to either buzz it off or just let it keep growing long and pull it into a neat ponytail. Either option is more socially acceptable and far easier than hacking away piece by piece. I'm not even sure why getting a haircut wastes much time if all you're doing with the time is studying. If people flip through magazines while in a hairdresser's chair, you can just as easily flip through a textbook.

This whole series of threads is bizarre and disturbing, and not wanting to get a haircut is actually the least of it. Thinking eating is a non-essential extra that should be minimized as much as possible is not particularly conducive to survival. When trying to cut out everything else in life except doing math and physics problems, even the things that keep one alive and healthy, and denying oneself all social interactions, well, that sounds like a rather obsessive sort of behavior. Perhaps a visit to a psychologist or psychiatrist is required.

Surely you wouldn't call Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth obsessive. They were two of their era's most famous time and efficiency experts.

Of course, considering the book about about them and their family was called Cheaper by the Dozen, it's pretty obvious how they were spending all of the time they saved.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

My dorm-mates tell me it looks funny but whatever. I think that in the future when everyone has realized that "hair styles" make no sense, people will watch old movies and make fun of people with nicely-trimmed hair.

You mean the way they make fun of physicists with funny hair here and now, today, this minute? And they're not even watching movies?

 

[turbo]

I have had the same barber for over 25 years. I was one of her very first customers when she got her license. I went to my friend's wife's shop to get my hair cut and she was too busy so she sent me to "the new girl" in the back room. The "new girl" was cute, smart, and very independent-minded, and she cut my hair perfectly - just what I asked for. I've been going to her ever since. Because I am extremely sensitive to fragrances, she cuts my hair outdoors, so it gets fairly long in the winter until it's warm enough to work outside. She used to come to my house to give me haircuts in the winter but, we've moved about 30 minutes away, so that's not an option. She charges me $12 for a haircut, but I always give her $20 because she's been so accommodating.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Here's how it goes in the Snyder residence. I shave my head once a year in the spring. I just did it a week ago. Once it grows back in, I go to the barber through the year to keep it trim. I bring my son with me to a barber who discusses sports while he hacks away at our heads. It's a man thing. He really gets rather excited about matters that certainly don't raise my hair. You have to admire someone who continues to work so long after senility has set in. My wife has her hair done too often to suit me. Because of the short duration of these perms, there isn't that much difference when it occurs. However, it is in my best interests to notice it when it happens or the potatoes get cold along with everything else. Warm globally, cool locally. On occasion she has me trim her hair at the neckline in the back. This is great. I can complement her on her great looking hair and she has no idea how ridiculous it looks. My daughter does her own hair with a lawnmower, hair blower, and catalog from Sherwin Williams.

 

[turbo]

My wife has me trim her hair between cuts - about 1" every couple of months. She doesn't like to pay a beautician more than a few times a year. It's pretty ridiculous, because the going rate for womens' hair cuts are about double the rate for men. I've never figured that out, nor why a dry-cleaner might charge more to clean blouses than to clean dress shirts...is it because the buttons are on the wrong side?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

is it because the buttons are on the wrong side?

I don't think the fact that the buttons are on the wrong side has anything to do with it. They also charge more to dry clean my wife's t-shirts than they do for mine.

 

[turbo]

I don't think the fact that the buttons are on the wrong side has anything to do with it. They also charge more to dry clean my wife's t-shirts than they do for mine.

Sounds like the women are getting shafted pretty regularly. They also earn less money on average for the same jobs. My wife has been at her job 15 years now, and is the most experienced cutter in her department (she cuts out leather and synthetic materials for shoes), but there are still guys in her team that make more money than she does, despite the fact that all they know how to do is cut, and my wife is also an experienced stitcher (arguably the hardest job in the shoe manufacturing process) and routinely moves down the production like to help the stitchers get caught up when they fall behind in production.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Sounds like the women are getting shafted pretty regularly. They also earn less money on average for the same jobs. My wife has been at her job 15 years now, and is the most experienced cutter in her department (she cuts out leather and synthetic materials for shoes), but there are still guys in her team that make more money than she does, despite the fact that all they know how to do is cut, and my wife is also an experienced stitcher (arguably the hardest job in the shoe manufacturing process) and routinely moves down the production like to help the stitchers get caught up when they fall behind in production.

This is the stuff lawsuits are made of. Are you in the US?

 

[turbo]

This is the stuff lawsuits are made of. Are you in the US?

Yes, we are in the US. She's not going to rock the boat because I have a medical disability, and if she was fired 1) She would have to find another job and 2) The insurance company at her new job would refuse to offer me health insurance coverage due to my pre-existing condition.

 

[Moonbear]

I've never figured that out, nor why a dry-cleaner might charge more to clean blouses than to clean dress shirts...is it because the buttons are on the wrong side?

Tell them they're your shirts when you go to the dry cleaner. If they charge less, ask why they charge more the weeks that your wife wears them.

I don't go to dry cleaners that have different prices for men's and women's shirts. I'm okay with them charging different prices for plain shirts vs fancier ones (i.e., something with lace or frills or something that makes it harder to clean or press correctly), but if it's by the gender of the wearer, I find another dry cleaner. They don't all charge different prices, and I'm not even sure that's legal anymore.

 

[Moonbear]

The insurance company at her new job would refuse to offer me health insurance coverage due to my pre-existing condition.

That's not allowed. If she has had continuous coverage, the new employer's insurance can't deny you coverage for a pre-existing condition covered on the previous employer's insurance (you would have to pay for the COBRA coverage between jobs though).

 

[Poop-Loops]

I haven't had a hair cut in 3 years.