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Home » Cutting my own hair

Cutting my own hair

The New Neo Posted on by

I’d already been due for a haircut when the whole COVID thing hit – in fact, overdue. I have the sort of hair that’s hard to cut well, and so I’d been putting it off.

Turns out that wasn’t the greatest of ideas. Of course, it doesn’t really matter how I look because it’s not as though the world sees much of me right now. But I have to look at myself in the mirror, and I’m also tired of looking really wild when I go out for my walks and pass people from 6 feet away.

When I was a teenager I had a little business cutting the hair of friends in both high school and college. I also cut my own hair for years and years. It was easier back then. I sported mainly a blunt cut, and then set it on rollers, and it always looked fine.

Now it’s more challenging. There’s more curl and more layers and a far more complex arrangement, although rollers are no longer involved.

But I didn’t do a half bad job, if I do say so myself.

My scissors was smaller than his:

Here’s a photo of the back of my hair. No apple necessary. The back’s the hardest to cut yourself, especially without a mirror.

Don’t be too cruel.

Comments

Cutting my own hair — 68 Comments

  1. Could go with a buzz cut then you won’t have to worry about it again for months.

  3. I’m HATING life right now in this respect. I just moved to Arizona, so I couldn’t go to the person who’s cut my hair for over 30 years. I had been dragging my feet, because I hate having someone who doesn’t know how to cut it do the job. I had also been reluctant to go in a hair salon and have someone that close to me since I have some of the underlying conditions. Now I can’t get it cut, and my trimmer is someplace in a box in a storage shed. I have hairy ears, eye brow hairs that are as long as an inch, and it’s driving me CRAZY. I normally keep a fairly short, clean cut appearance.

  4. neo,

    Being bald the hair problems of people have offered much needed amusement to me the last couple of weeks.

    Women and their worries over getting their hair coloring has given me much material for smart ass comments.

  5. Not a Mr Makeover thread, but anyway. My wife was cutting her own hair for about five or six years. Her hair is not curly and it generally seemed to work, except when the Sonic Hedgehog resulted from tine to time, especially during the late summer. She has been getting it done by a professional for a few years, but the recent asymmetrical hair styles are not attractive IMO. She cuts my hair and that’s fine with me (I’m not picky and not there’s much to work with). We use a Wahl trimmer not the sheep shears BTW. The poodles have their own set of trimmers ….

  6. Next edition: Toe clippings, up close and personal…

    Next edition: Belly button lint… the inside story…

    Next edition: How I rediscovered flo-bee

    Next edition: Ear wax, jelly or powder?

  7. Artfldgr:

    Hair is a perfectly acceptable and not the least bit disgusting topic, one I often write about.

    Those other things are not. So I won’t be going there.

    Fortunately.

  8. Griffin… i used to have long hair… long strawberry blonde red… the color everyone wants but supposedly had a hard time dying… eventually i decided, i have had it long, and i have had it normal… i even tried a mullet once (for a week then cut it)… sold my hair for wig twice… but the one thing i will never do is another high and tight… never had one in my life and wanted to see, and that was that… i looked like a comic book version of Sgt Slaughter ready to do the world in… people got out of my way, small children cried…old women wanted to hit me with an umbrella but were scared… no… crew cut, 6’2″, 235 lbs… made me look mean…

  9. Well my wife has missed her weekly hair, nail, eyebrow and massage appointments. My bank account is not complaining.

  10. They were funny… and if you say so…

    [i think they are only disgusting if someone actually DOES it, not jokes about it]

    and the flo-bee was a device for cutting hair using a home vacuum… originally from the 70s, and still around

    https://www.flowbee.com/
    The FLOWBEE Vacuum Haircut System allows you to create the most popular haircut styles. FLOWBEE can cut your hair from 1/2″ to 6″ long in any 1/4″ increments. Simply select the desired spacer depending on the length you want your haircut. Then attach the spacer to your Flowbee. Haircut styles of your choice are easy & clean. Longer than 6″ haircut is possible by simply adding more spacers.

    [and the ear wax is the difference between Asians and Caucasians… seriously… but i didn’t expect people to know… ]

  12. Art, you remind me of the old hippies, save your ear wax, take your belly button lint and make a wick to use with your ear wax candle, back to nature and all that stuff.

  13. Neo: Looks like you did well.
    I’ve been cutting my own hair for years. #3 blade in the winter, #2 in the summer.
    My wife is about ready to let me cut her hair.
    I actually cut hair well, but she’s never seen me do anyone’s but mine in the 30 years we’ve been married.
    She would not get my hair style just because it’s all she’s seen me do. 🙂

  14. Ha! I was due for a haircut too when the stay at home started. So, I am a bit overdue for one.

    Of course, my problem now is that I sort of have the “balding hippy” look. If this continues for a while I could grew it long enough to have the “comb over” look!

  15. I have been cutting my hair since shortly after high school. I suppose it took a few years to get the technique down but now it is easy and I don’t need to spend money on a haircut.

  16. Anyone, male or female, who cuts their own hair is INCREDIBLY brave.

    I can see maybe trimming your own bangs; maybe the sides. But – how on EARTH do you manage to cut the back???

  17. I talked to a guy who was remodeling my neighbor’s house. He had this luxurious crop of ear hair. He’d even styled it. I’m not kidding. I remember thinking that this is the last Boomer statement: earhair. Flow it, show it, as long as God can grow it. And for just a moment, I thought, yeah–ear hair. I can do this.

  19. In response to A Nonny Mouse. After doing what you described, comb your hair straight back, gather it together as if forming a Colonial era queue, and saw it off instead.

    If you have lank hair, it works just fine. And with the additional touches you mention, you should not look like you just fell off the set of Mutiny on the Bounty.

    It’s not going to get you through a board meeting, but if you like living rough anyway …

  20. I gather you don’t trust your son or your gal pals. You can let it grow out for a while. You’re a girl.

  21. Embrace the ponytail!

    I’m beginning to think you’re wrong all the time and about everything.

  22. Art Deco:

    What makes you think I’m anywhere near my son?

    And what makes you think I’m seeing “gal pals”?

    But no – I can cut my own hair far better than they could, even without geographic distance or social distance. Even the hairdressers have trouble cutting my hair – it’s very quirky.

    What’s more, I had let it grow very long. It was looking awful. That’s what “I’d already been due for a haircut when the whole COVID thing hit – in fact, overdue” meant.

  24. I’m jealous. I have enough arthritis trouble that I can cut others hair, but can’t do my own. I had an appointment for a haircut and they called and canceled when the lock down order hit here in Seattle. Can’t really do a pony tail until the layers grow out, so I’m rocked the old fashioned kerchief for now.

  25. Love the video’s huge old shears, connected at the end, not the middle. Plus the thunder and wind in the background, as I’m reading.

    Was glad he didn’t cut his own ears … tho a tiny hint of disappointment. Like a car race with no car crashes.

    Your graying hair looks fine. Mine is already moving from salt & pepper to more silvery white, in some light with a hint of dirty yellow. And it’s getting more fine, less thick. My wife cuts it with our third clippers, but we’re still not satisfied. Somehow the pro clippers don’t seem to require a stop & clean every minute or two, but all the home clippers do.

    Our second son, 23 today! (18th), has long, curly hair too – quite a bit like Brian May (Queen). It too often looks greasy, tho, since he doesn’t like to shampoo clean it too often. But the curly masses of hair seem similar.

    How can we talk about hair, don’t you know people are DYING, even as we speak?

  27. Art Deco, why assume I’m supporting that idea? The linked article is rather self-serving in that it reflects the thoughts of a professional stylist who doesn’t want clients thinking they’re just fine doing their own hair-cutting.

  28. Art Deco, why assume I’m supporting that idea?

    I dunno. Maybe because you endorsed it explicitly.

  29. I’ve seen a couple of live sheep-shearing demonstrations. It’s quite an art.

  30. I usually go 2 months between hair cut and beard trim. Though last time I went 3 months. Looks like at least 3 months or longer this time. So what.

  31. Estoy Listo on April 17, 2020 at 9:07 pm said:
    …Flow it, show it, as long as God can grow it….
    * * *
    Hard to believe its been 50+ years since that debuted.
    Never saw the stage show, but could sing a few of the more general-audience pieces. “Aquarius” and “Sunshine” may go a long way toward explaining our current crop of Snowflakes. The SJWs didn’t get the message from “Easy to Be Hard.”

    “Frank Mills” is still one of my favorites —
    “But he wears his hair Tied in a small bow at the back”

  32. It’s pretty. Lovely grey. Beautiful curls. I always wanted curly hair. Guys thought Elaine on Seinfeld had beautiful hair.

  33. I made sure to go in for my last haircut the day San Francisco was shut down, which turned out to be a week before my state was shut down. I (correctly) figured after California started reacting hysterically because Trump said the word “hoax” and it was used with great success out of context as the premise for his next impeachment, the rest of the elite blue states would follow suit in a political game of one-upsmanship. I remember feeling bad when the woman who cuts my hair asked if I thought businesses would be shut down like in California and I responded that I couldn’t see it happening here, because deep down I knew the salon space she saved up to buy less than a year ago was going to be lost as was her life savings. But she’s an avowed Trump hater, so I’m sure she’ll just view her loss as collateral damage in the only struggle that matters.

  34. Wife cut her own hair yesterday,as it was 7 weeks since it was done for her professionally, and she could abide it no longer. I’d noticed it was different but not radically so. Sonic Hedgehog is at bay for the time being.

  35. I’ve cut my own hair for decades. When it looks a little too long, I grab some hair and cut some off. It’s not so much for the money savings, as the savings in time. Instead of driving to a barbershop, which may involve a round trip of a half hour to an hour, I just take a minute or two to grab and snip.

    Hair at my neck line will be several inches long as a result. But I have lived with that well before before I started cutting my own hair.

    Neo’s very curly hair looks like a challenge. In addition, most women would not tolerate the loose standards I have for cutting hair.

  37. OldTexan, i was going to save my hair, weave it into string, knit pillows and fill them with belly button lint…. (yup, familiar with those 70s jokes)

  38. Neo, I have very thick, coarse, slightly wavy hair. I ordered a pair of thinning shears from Amazon. I think I used your portal, but not sure. I took out a big handful of hair—about the size of a softball. It feels better now, but the length is the same, which is ok with me. It’s the mass from the crown that drives me crazy. I’m sure it’s uneven, but not visibly so. My hairdresser can fix it in a month or so.
    Toy

  39. AesopFan, loved that album too… as i live in ny.. used to hang out at the Waverly diner near 8th street… go to 8th street playhouse doing rocky horror floor show with sal and the bang gang la ra’s… (sal can be seen in the movie fame, we can be seen on the famous audience participation album… riff raff in the album is not the author and rif raff from the movie)… i could never guess whether the line in frank mills was the diner or the movie theater… figured the movie theater… wash square park was a big all night hang out… drug market… the playhouse went down when the owner got aids, and then proceeded to give it to everyone he could out of spite… so many died… that was when i had the long red hair… down to my waist…

    The stories i could tell…

    the disappearances were the hardest… whatever happened to cassie?
    will neer know…

    later i used to hang out spider room at limelight with the A-listers… its how i became a celeb photog… I already knew the super famous and in crowd… could never figure out why i was there… brains and all… was there when Alig did his thing (murdered someone in the club kid scene). still remember the last days of 54… the huge purple head over the bar, and the down stairs room… (i also remember the hellfire club and trapeze club but that is a bit too risque for this crowd to know what that was like)

    but i remember the years they dropped and dropped…
    i wasnt gay or bi, but they just dropped and dropped..

    even now with covid… some famous photogs i used to work with died early on
    its a very social business at that level and people are jammed in close…
    my friends.. are gone..

    Anthony Causi
    NYPPA honors Post photographer with ‘Anthony J. Causi Memorial Prize’
    https://nypost.com/2020/04/15/nyppa-honors-post-photographer-with-anthony-j-causi-memorial-prize/

    ah well… Milos Foreman does that to me..
    loved comparing his movie with dangerous liaisons..
    to see them one after the other is to experience the feeling that the actors dont matter… they seem so important… then you compare the two films and realize its the director… the actors are just living scenery…

  40. And a special acknowledgment to artfldgr: I’d never been aware of your humorous side before! I’m delighted!

  41. I trim my beard and what I have on my head weekly. It takes less than 15 minutes on the lowest setting.

  42. I worry a bit about my current barber, who’s obviously out of work at the moment but is hopefully surviving. She’s very nice. My hair will keep her busy enough once we reactivate around here. I’ve not tried cutting my own hair in quite a while and always found it chancy when I did.

  44. Watching that video gave me chill bumps- at several points it look like he was about to cut his ear off!

    I got a haircut 3 days before the shut down of the barbershops here in TN. I am due for one now, but wouldn’t start looking really shaggy until 2 weeks from now. If the shutdowns continue, I will probably just shear it all off down to a 1/4 or 1/8 inch.

  46. I have religious respect for those who can cut their own hair; my wife belongs to that kind of supernatural creatures, but she’s special in everything: she graduated with top grades and is currently teaching Latin, Italian and history in high-school; before that, she’s been a stay-at-home housewife for 20 years, doing all sort of stuff at the same time. She’s even been the major of our little (1000 ppl) village in 2013, resigning when our son Andrea got the cancer – you can see “Her Majesty” interviewed here:
    https://tinyurl.com/y82wd6lb

    Some years ago she used to cut all the family’s hair: nothing special for us males, the five of us went for the Marine Corp style, but I’ve always been amazed by her self-confidence on herself. Fifteen years ago she adopted her current short style, which is certainly easier to maintain than Neo’s curls.

    Incidentally, I’ve initially been attracted to this blog by Neo’s picture with the apple; in particular, by her visible eye and hair, which I find – honestly – beautiful.

  47. Love your curls, Neo. My sister has curls like that.
    I cut my own bangs between my semi-annual haircuts and I highlight it, too. But I’d never have the courage to cut the ends – more power to you. I’m grateful because I’m really lucky with my hair, it’s pretty and it does whatever I ask it to do. The only bad hair day I’ve ever had was the year I had no hair at all from chemo. It all evens out eventually!
    But shutting down hair and nail salons and barbershops is ridiculous. Facial salons, too. The sanitation rules are strict and social distancing between clients is built in. The stylist and their customer can wear masks. People need haircuts and stylists need income. Just dumb.
    I can do my own acrylic nails, too, but I like to treat myself to the pros – they are so much faster. It leaves me more time to get back in the garden and wreck them! I begged my nail tech to fit me in just before they closed down and was the last customer in the shop. Just had to redo them myself this week. I watched one of Jordan Peterson’s biblical lectures to make the time go faster. Kind of a strange juxtaposition of thought/activity… Not sure how much more of this quarantine I can take!

  48. Neo, your hair is lovely! Good job on the cut. I have two friends blessed with curly hair who have styles similar to yours. Nice. In my case, I had the perfect 60s and 70s hair — long and absolutely straight. I’d comb it after my shower and it would dry, perfectly straight, on the way to work. Now it’s got some funky kinks because it’s turning silver, but as long as I blow it dry it stays straight for 3-4 days. It will just get long, no worries. My husband is a different matter. I’ve recommended that, when it gets somewhat longer, he pull it back into a pony tail like the Highlander. That would cover the bald spot! He rolled his eyes at me.

    Molly Brown, I think you’re right. Stylists could wear masks and wipe down the arms of the chairs between customers. They already sterilize the equipment between customers for other reasons. Let them work!

  49. Not everyone appreciates it a much as you do A_Nonny_Mouse…

    Quite irreverent, off color, sarcastic, usually too many hidden references…

    With a hey Nonny nonny
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVNo40LA7yc

    😉

    Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
    Men were deceivers ever,
    One foot in sea and one on shore,
    To one thing constant never.
    Then sigh not so, but let them go,
    And be you blithe and bonny,
    Converting all your sounds of woe
    Into Hey, nonny nonny.
    Sing no more ditties, sing no mo
    Of dumps so dull and heavy.
    The fraud of men was ever so,
    Since summer first was leavy.
    Then sigh not so, but let them go
    And be you blithe and bonny,
    Converting all your sounds of woe
    Into Hey, nonny nonny.

  50. We interrupt this thread for a news report..

    Everything we thought we knew about the beginnings of the coronavirus pandemic could be wrong.

    A bombshell report by scientists from the University of Cambridge has cast doubt on previous beliefs about when and where Covid-19 first broke out.

    While coronavirus was previously believed to have originated in a wet market in Wuhan at the end of last year, new research suggests it may have actually came from further south – and began spreading among humans as early as September 2019.

    The team of researchers has published its extraordinary findings – which have yet to be peer-reviewed – in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, outlining a “network” of infections that has thrown existing knowledge into doubt.

    “The virus may have mutated into its final ‘human-efficient’ form months ago, but stayed inside a bat or other animal or even human for several months without infecting other individuals,” University of Cambridge geneticist Peter Forster said on Thursday.

    “Then, it started infecting and spreading among humans between September 13 and December 7, generating the network we present in [the journal] Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [PNAS].”

    Researchers analysed strains of the virus using a phylogenetic network – an algorithm that can map the global movement of organisms through the mutation of their genes.

    While trying to pinpoint the exact location of patient zero – the first human case of coronavirus – early signs prompted them to look further south than the city of Wuhan, where infections were first reported in December.

    “What we reconstruct in the network is the first significant spread among humans,” Mr Forster said.

    He and colleagues from several institutes analysed more than 1,000 full genome sequences of the virus.

    By counting the various mutations of the virus, they were able to get closer to figuring out when the first human was infected by a strain closest to a virus spread among bats.

    They found hundreds of mutations, indicating that the virus may have been spreading quietly in host animals for years before finally infecting humans.

    A coronavirus typically acquires one mutation a month.

    There have been unverified reports that the virus originated in a Wuhan lab where researchers were doing work into diseases in bats, but the new study doesn’t support that.

    “If I am pressed for an answer, I would say the original spread started more likely in southern China than in Wuhan,” Mr Forster said.

    “But proof can only come from analysing more bats, possibly other potential host animals, and preserved tissue samples in Chinese hospitals stored between September and December.

    “This kind of research project would help us understand how the transmission happened, and help us prevent similar instances in the future.”

    Phylogenetic networks are generally considered reliable means of tracking genetic mutations, but the method is limited by its sample size and having to assume a mutation speed that may not be accurate.

    A virus can undergo transformations in unpredictable patterns during an unprecedented outbreak such as this one.

  53. Thanks to everyone who issued compliments!

    And for those who asked about cutting the back of the hair – I do it mostly by feel, and every one or two chops I look at the back with two mirrors. But the way my bathroom is set up, I can’t look and chop at the same time. Curly hair is both forgiving and unforgiving. It’s unforgiving if you cut it too short – mine sticks up and out in unpredictable ways if it’s cut too short or if parts of it are too short. But if you avoid that, it’s forgiving in the sense that you don’t have to cut it exactly even. Even if you do cut it even it doesn’t look even, because the curl is ever-changing and each day is different, although there are basic patterns.

    Here’s an old post of mine on the subject of curly hair.

  55. Nice work, Neo — and the touch of gray enhances the curls. My oldest son had a headful of gorgeous curls as a small boy (and of course, his younger sister’s hair was straight . . . ) I used to love to cut his hair. All you had to do was uncurl a lock, snip off the end and let it bounce back — repeating as necessary until the mass of curls looked fairly even all over his head. You could be pretty random with the lengths, and the curls would just absorb it. (Of course, he was a very little boy, so high style was not essential.)

    Mr Whatsit and both of our sons own clippers and cut their own hair. I envy their independence! My hair is wavy and thick and very difficult to cut well, so I will not be emulating them or Neo — I don’t dare. I was able to get it cut in mid-March, at the last minute before New York shut down the salons, and I had it cut shorter than usual to buy myself some time. So, I should be okay for a few more weeks.

    I have been worrying about my stylist, who cried while giving me that last haircut and telling me about her fears for her business. But I spoke with her the other day and she’s doing okay after negotiating some temporary forgiveness with her bank; she should be all right as long as this doesn’t go on TOO much longer. But this is New York — so who knows?

    “Frank Mills” is a wonderful song! I owned the album way back when, learned the song and still occasionally sing it when I get the chance. It’s like “Cain’t Say No” from Oklahoma — a story song, a character sketch and a great joke.

  60. om:

    I’ll never let him take my apple away from me. He’ll have to work around it.

  61. neo, oddly enough, my stylist works half-time cutting hair and half-time doing massage. Or worked, past tense, I guess. She just recently graduated from massage school and got licensed after lots of years cutting hair — and she has student loans. This thing has to end sometime soon. Too many people are hurting too much, and the small business people I know have not been able to take advantage of the federal “help” for small businesses. Too much red tape, from what I hear.

  64. WOW, Neo..!!!
    It’s lovely & about how I’d guessed it looks. I’m a May 1944 guy married to a 1945 (July 4th!!) girl of Sicilian lineage: 4’11”, 95-lbs & stunningly cute. Shortcut gray hair that folks oooooww & aaaawww over alot.

    Yours is a Very Close Second!! Congrats!!

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