Have any short-haired dopers cut their own hair or had their SO do it?
Is it easy? Hard? Does it look OK? How’d you learn how to do it?
I’ve been cutting my own hair for over three years now. Every weekend I cut it. It’s not hard at all, but it takes a mirror. I prefer to have a mirror to the front, and a mirror on the side (like a medicine cabinet). I can get a better idea of what I’m doing with two mirrors. If I only have one mirror, I have to do the back completely by feel. But now I’ve been doing it enough, that it’s not too much of a problem. And I’m saving like 9 bucks or more per week. So that adds up!
And I think I do a pretty good job.
Good enough, anyway.
Oh… I learned to do it completely by practice. It took a couple times to get it decent. It all started after I got like 3 or 4 bad hair cuts from the barber. I was just fed up. I figured that I could do something that shitty on my own. For Free!!
So that’s what I did. Instead of getting a shitty hair cut from the barber on post and paying 9 bucks. I just gave myself a shitty hair cut for free. Eventually, it wasn’t so shitty anymore.
It didn’t really take too long to get decent either.
I did it back when my hair was short, and people would sometimes compliment me on it. It actually doesn’t take that much, once you’re used to it; by the end (I did it for two and a half years) I could do it entirely by touch, except for evening the sides. One mirror for that. Took about three tries to get it right, six months to a year to be able to do it without looking.
My hair is pretty long, so I can only say sorta…I do cut my own bangs regularly, because I like them ultra-short. The minute they hang in my eyes they’re getting chopped.
The back I can’t cut on my own, though.
My husband cuts his own and my son’s hair with clippers. I trim my shoulder length hair.
once or twice a year, I hate my hair and cut it. It usually looks ok. I trim my bangs once a month. My hair is, most of the time, just below my ears.
My mother was a professional hairdresser early on. She doesn’t cut the back of her own hair. Says its too easy to screw up.
Both of us hack away on the front of our hair, and she’ll cut my back for me. I think it depends on what sort of short you are going for. If you can throw on the #4 clippers and get a good cut, thats easier than wearing a short precision wedge in the back. (Both my mother and I have our hair cut very short in back and longish on top - not a lot of margin of error). And what kind of hair and head you have. My son’s hair is so course I can’t cut it with clippers - it needs to be professionally done (his hair eats clippers). Brainiac4’s head is such an odd shape that he tends to be very loyal to professional hairdressers that can work around the odd lumps (he has the skull of a Neanderthal) - no way he’s cutting his (or letting me near it - he won’t even let my professionally trained mother near it.)
I layered my own hair a while ago. This is what it looks like, still a little wet, and this is what it looks like now, grown out several months. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but then I’d gone from medium-long, straight hair to “ooh, my head feels lighter!”, so it was a bit of a shock. I’d say for doing it myself, it didn’t turn out too bad.
I might even do it again. If I get fed up enough.
Granted, my hair isn’t short, but I will say this: it’s not as bad as it seems. It’s a little scary at first, because, shit, you’re about to attack your own hair with scissors! I just took a deep breath, repeated the mantra “It Will Grow Back”, flipped everything upside down and snipped away. I would think that short styles would be pretty simple.
Good luck. 
<modest cough>
How you doing?
Can I buy you a drink?
…I cut my own hair all the time. It’s long, with bangs, so it’s not too hard to trim the bangs, and then do something I got from Glamour magazine back in 1980-something for the back. (Bend forward, brush hair down, twist into a, er, twist, and trim ends.) Unfortunately, now I’m very self-conscious about going to a snobby salon and having someone be snide about my years of home-cutting, so I rarely indulge in a good cut.
I find it kinda scary and thrilling to go into the bathroom with the hair-cutting scissors–I have a fairly good pair from a friend who used to cut hair–and sometimes it doesn’t turn out so well.
Must have saved thousands of dollars on salon charges, only rarely do I mess it up. If so, no one to blame but myself.
Butch clippers. I use the 3 mm length and just run it over my head a buncha times. Been doing that for about 20 years. Works great if you like pretty short hair
Butch clippers. I use the 3 mm length and just run it over my head a buncha times. Been doing that for about 20 years. Works great if you like pretty short hair
I cut my pubes when I was a kid, but the distinct lack of style I brought to such a simple task, where everything’s at a manageable height, persuaded me that I had no future with my hands up above my head and relying on mirrors.
Every five to seven days - but I just buzz it, so that probably doesn’t count in real life. It’s been more than four years since anyone else cut my hair.
I use the clippers once a fortnight.
Lordy, you’re a dude? Well, all right then. My husband cuts his own hair all the time. It’s easy as pie. He uses a decent set of clippers and trims it up short all the time. I don’t think he’s been to a proper barber in years and years and years. And he looks great. Usually I come in and check him over for even-ness or stray hairs, but he’s pretty damn good at it by now. He says it’s not hard at all. He mentions that there are different settings on the clippers for how long or short you want it.
He allows himself to get a little shaggy sometimes, but he has no problems at all cutting it short again as soon as it starts to annoy him. He’s offered to buzz me a few times; he thinks it would look cute. Yeah. I’ll tell you when that happens.
All my best haircuts have been self-administered, and I haven’t visited a barber in ages. It’s a great way to save money too.
The easiest way is to start with the longest attachment and taper down. I start with a #8, which is 1" (I think), and trim my entire head. Then I’ll use a #7 to trim the sides and back, followed by a #6, etc., until I’m using a #2 just around the ears, sideburns and neck. The end result is a very clean looking fade that lasts at least a month with minimal touch-ups.
You’ll need to use mirrors to see the sides and back at first, but after awhile you’ll be able to do almost everything by feel.
I have a long and ugly history of cutting my own hair.
When I was about four, I had a long blonde silky mane down to my butt. Mom decided to trim it up, so she told me to go into the bathroom and she’d be right in. While I was waiting, I decided to comb my hair. Unbeknownst to me, the comb I chose had a recessed razor in it…
Mom took it hard. She called up my grandpa, crying so hard she couldn’t speak. He got upset and started yelling, “What’s wrong, Cathy? Dammit, what happened?” She finally managed to speak my name, “Julie!” then went on blubbering. Papa thought I’d been killed. He dropped the phone, grabbed his keys, and was headed out the door by the time Grandma got on the phone and got the rest of the story.
Then there was the time in high school when I was growing out a frizzy perm. One day I was so sick of it, I put it in a ponytail and whacked the ponytail off. We damn near had to shave my head to fix that one.
Then there was the Mullet Period. I could cut the top and the sides but couldn’t reach the back. Fortunately, it was the eighties.
So…after about thirty years of giving myself bad haircuts, I have finally mastered cutting my own bangs. I do it about once a month, or whenever they start poking me in the eye. The rest of it has grown out long, and gets trimmed about once a year by any handy family member.
When I had longer hair I would bob it of in a straight line. The only reason I could get away with this is my hair is thick and wavy and any imperfections are hidden in the clutter.
I tried. I sat down at the beach with a pair of scissors and went nuts. Then i sat down and watched my little cut off curlylocks fly with the wind, to the horizont, along with my dignity.