Haircuts

[Chad]

I'm in the clippers with no guard, lowest setting, group. Real barbers rule. My wife takes the kids to those "super cuts" type places and for $15 - $20 they get all kinds of uneven sideburns and clipper lines. I cannot believe how shitty most of them are, and they go to school for quite a while to suck that bad.

[chasea]

I need to hear more about this. Have always had friends/girlfriends/wife cut my hair except one time I went "pro" and she wanted to mess with my unibrow. As that is a part of my Italian-American heritage I had to tell them no. Now that I'm a Dad, though I have to admit I hope my son doesn't inherit it.

Take the tip of your index finger and place it between your eyebrows. All that can go. Next, brush your eyebrows up. All the extra long hairs can be trimmed with scissors. Take tweezers to anything too far north, pushing into forehead territory. Draw an imaginary line from the tip of your nose to the end of your eyebrow. Tweeze whatever is reaching too far out, toward the temple.

Taper. You never want to go the scorched earth route. Additionally, don't touch anything below the eyebrow, between the eyebrow and the eye. Doing that looks unnatural, and you'll creep everyone out.

Should only take 2 or 3 mins tops. Clean it up once a month or so.

[Chris]

Take tge tip of you index finger and place it between your eyebrows. All that can go. Next brush your eyebrows up. All the extra long hairs can be trimmed with scissors. Take tweezers to anything too far north, pushing into forehead territory. Draw an imaginary line from the tip of your nose to the end of your eyebrow. Tweeze whatever is reaching too far out, toward the temple.

Taper. You never want to go the scorched earth route. Additionally, don't touch anything below the eyebrow, between the eyebrow and the eye. Doing that looks unnatural, and you'll creep everyone out.

Should only take 2 or 3 mins tops. Clean it up once a month or so.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but back to this stripper who cuts your hair...

[chasea]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but back to this stripper who cuts your hair...

Ex-guitarist's ex-roommate. She cut all my friends hair when I moved here almost 5 years ago. I have A LOT of hair and something like a dozen cowlicks. If someone does a good job, I have to stick with them until one of us moves or dies. So she stays.

She cuts in her kitchen or makes house calls.
She's relatively inexpensive.
She works odd hours.

[maunahaole]

Plus you get the bonus of smelling like vanilla and being covered with glitter after the cut.

[soupless]

Am jealous of you guys that d.i.y.
I look like that Addams family kid with clippered hair. Plus my scalp is ugly.

[maunahaole]

I went DIY over 10 years ago. I'm pretty thin on top and the hair that I have left is fine and not very dense on my scalp. I can't keep it in place even if it cut to less than an inch long. Using product makes it look even more sparse than it is. I'm fortunate in that my dome has a good shape to it. Eyebrows are totally nuts. Since I do not own a comb, I dont have an eyebrow brush. When I cut my hair with the clippers, I mow the eyebrows down to one length. Mrs. Haole will get the uni with wax or tweezers when it gets out of hand.

[ElvisMerckx]

Should we (DIYers) post pics of our work? Or is that a topic for a separate thread?

[Octave]

Definitely in the DIY camp, here. Though, I've got a foxy lady (not a stripper) who helps clean up the back of my head from time-to-time. Not buzzed, but use electric clippers for the sides and simple hair-scissors for the top. Side-part with buzzed sides. The side-burns and back get the electric clipper treatment, usually a no.2 guard. Until I was living with the aforementioned foxy lady, I was going a clean buzz all around, easier to DIY. Once she moved in, the cut got more interesting because I could get a bit of help. I've never seen much point to a barber-shop, social or functional, so I've been cutting my own hair since high-school, long or short (protip: it's gotten better over time, don't expect to look like Leo in Shutter Island on your first attempt).

[Chance Legstrong]

Should we (DIYers) post pics of our work? Or is that a topic for a separate thread?

will it be a pro or con to DIY?

[ElvisMerckx]

will it be a pro or con to DIY?

I'm secretly hoping for lots of cons.

[defspace]

I'm a DIY guy myself - looking for some tips.

How do you take care of the hair around the ear and neck? Without fail, the perimeter of my hair ends up longer than the rest. The extra long stuff gets trimmed up with scissors - but only the bits I can see/reach.
I shudder to think what I look like from behind.

[Chance Legstrong]

this thread is scaring the shit outta me
good thing most of you are all helmet police

[fmbp]

My mother in law is a receptionist at a hair salon. When my wife and I lived in Milwaukee, I always got my hair cut by one of the ladies that worked in that salon. She did a good job, and "my money was not good there." Years of free haircuts. I'll take it.

We moved to Houston - I got my hair cut by the Mexican lady at the little salon across from our apartment complex. She did a good job. All the stylists spoke Spanish.

We moved to Los Angeles. Little Armenia/Thai-town area. Got my hair cut by the Armenian lady down the street. She did a good job. I was typically the only English speaker in the place.

Now we live in Iowa City. Could be for the long haul. I've been going to Cost Cutters. This is not a long-term option. The stylists are very much hit-and-miss. I need to find a person, and I'm due for a cut.

[ElvisMerckx]

I'm a DIY guy myself - looking for some tips.

How do you take care of the hair around the ear and neck? Without fail, the perimeter of my hair ends up longer than the rest. The extra long stuff gets trimmed up with scissors - but only the bits I can see/reach.
I shudder to think what I look like from behind.

The trick is three mirrors. The mirror above the sink, a medicine cabinet mirror that's on hinges, and a hand mirror. The free hand holds the scissors or clipper.

[Chris]

this thread is scaring the shit outta me
good thing most of you are all helmet police

No kidding, and I started the thing. I get giving yourself a buzz cut, but I am fascinated that some people cut their own hair with different lengths involved. That's amazing to me.

[chasea]

I'm kind of amazed that so many people would be ashamed to be seen riding anything other than handmade tubulars with tan sidewalls, yet have no issues using a Flowbe on their heads.

DIY haircuts came up a few times in the old thread about the ways in which we're cheap. Someone dig up that old gem.

[Nierman]

For years I've been curious as to what a Mr Clean cut would look like on me - I often wish the clipper head would fall off during a trim and mess things up so bad I just go for it... no nasty scars or moles that I'm aware of, but I'm afraid my non-freckled scalp would contrast nauseously with the rest of my face like I was wearing a swim cap. Came closest to committing to baldness when I shattered my right elbow a couple years back, but still cut it weekly -- slowly -- with the left hand. I already do the left side of my head left-handed - but the reach-around was a challenge. Yes I just said a challenge. Character through trials and trimulations.

[Chance Legstrong]

The trick is three mirrors. The mirror above the sink, a medicine cabinet mirror that's on hinges, and a hand mirror. The free hand holds the scissors or clipper.

the red stripe on a barbers pole was of course for blood letting...so i get this

No kidding, and I started the thing. I get giving yourself a buzz cut, but I am fascinated that some people cut their own hair with different lengths involved. That's amazing to me.

terrifying

[Nierman]

the red stripe on a barbers pole was of course for blood letting...so i get this

"I ain't got time to bleed."

I can usually get mine done in around 5 minutes. I take my time on others'.