Ok, I have tried to grow out my hair close to half a dozen times… Every time I get to about 9-10 months after having it cut I cave and get it cut again (or it happens by accident). The inconvinience is somewhat minor, but it starts to look ridiculous and I get sick of pleas from everyone around who has to look at me.
The problem is that my hair is fairly hard (but not too straight, it tends to curl but with probably 3"-4" diameter curls that occur when it’s sufficiently long, otherwise it’s straight), grows seemingly slowly, and is incredibly thick. Right now it’s about 5" long, my last haircut was in April so it grew about 3.5" in 7 months, which is about average I presume. Now it’s getting in my eyes and is generally converting me into a giant anthropomorphic brown dandelion clock.
Now, being a short-haired boy most of my life I know nothing of what the cosmetic arts are capable of, so here is my question: Is it possible to have hair thinned out and shaped without actually shortening the overall length (or perception of length)? It seems people go in for hair cuts or trims to shorten their hair or make the ends pretty. My ends are already pretty, thank you very much, and I don’t want it any shorter! I am simply looking to avoid having objects orbit my hair as well as avoid being a danger to low-flying aircraft. I also don’t want to spend more than $30-$50 on this. Where do I go and how do I avoid a costly mistake?
I’ve had that happen a few years ago - my request to ‘make it thinner but not any shorter’ got somehow interpreted as ‘please buzz it to about 1.5" on the sides!’. I didn’t catch it until it was too late because I was distracted. 
I just want to do it once. If I don’t like it when I feel it’s long enough, I’ll cut it all off and donate it. This time I’m determined, I’m going to try my best not to cut it until it’s at least long enough to donate (~12" or so). I feel that once it crosses this “awkward length” stage it is in right now and I can tie it in a ponytail behind my head when convinient, it’ll be great.