Do you cut your family’s hair? A true story and why you can do it too!

If you don’t cut your family’s hair…you ought to give it a try.  It’s not that hard…really, trust me!  Sure you may make a mistake the first couple of times, but what makes you think the professionals don’t make a mistake…they just don’t point it out!  Luckily…it’s hair and it grows back. I have cut my kids hair since they were born.  My son’s I’ve been doing 27 yrs. now, and my daughter’s for 13 yrs. now.  My daughter has only had her hair cut professionally once, and that was when her grandmother took her to the salon for ‘girl time.’

I had no intentions of being a mom who cut their kids’ hair, but it happened to be that I had no other choice after my son had brain surgery at 3 and 7 weeks of age. The first surgery was to remove a mass on the ventricle in the brain…but he hemorrhaged severely before they could remove it all.  The second surgery was for an intra-cranial shunt placement, which is what was supposed to happen the first time around.  Needless to say, between the two surgeries, he was left with very low muscle tone and couldn’t hold his head up.  In addition, he was hypersensitive to having his head touched.  So how was I ever gonna get his hair cut?  I could barely touch his head to wash his hair.

Working with his pediatrician, I was given a prescription for choral hydrate, which is a sedative.  I would give him a dose of choral hydrate, wait for him to go to sleep, and then cut his hair while he was in his crib.  I would cut one side and then flip his head over to do the other side and pray that they came out even!  I cut his hair this way for many many years.

As he got older, he gained more head control and became much less sensitive to having his head touched. That’s when I decided I wanted to invest in a cheap set of hair clippers to see how he would tolerate them.  I worried he may not like the vibration sensation they make or the noise.  I put his favorite show on…Barney and began clipping away.  This helped a lot as the show diverted his attention a bit from me cutting his hair. I was so pleased that he took to them; however, not without him moving his head here, there and everywhere…but that was okay, I could work with that.  Of course, I didn’t want the scars from the surgeries showing through, so I was real careful to choose an attachment that was a bit longer, which is suggested until you get used to how short the short attachments really can be!  I would also cut the front of his hair with scissors as I didn’t want a whiffle cut (not the style when he was younger).

Cutting hair with clippers is very easy and some brands will include a video.  I have owned several pair of clippers over the years and I don’t buy the expensive ones.  I probably wouldn’t have owned as many as I have, if only I had read the directions and oiled them like I should have!  Regardless, I have saved myself a ton of money, solved a problem before it became one (which was I had no wheelchair transportation for him for many years, and the one van we had for a few years died a few years ago…so there’s no taking him out to get beatified now) and I gained knowledge in cutting hair.  Now all the men in the family come to me to get their haircut.  I even trim beards, eyebrows and mustaches!

As for my daughter…it’s easy enough to taper bangs, to taper the back of the hair, to cut it short, and even thin out the bangs for a different look with hair thinners.  I actually will thin out the top of my son’s hair too, as he has very thick hair.  Women…you would die for his hair!  It’s thick and when it grows out…it gets these nice soft waves throughout…I pay a lot of money for those waves!  His hair wasn’t always wavy though…that part didn’t come about until he went through puberty and surely not a trait from me!

So, if you’ve ever thought about cutting your family’s hair and haven’t yet…give it a try!  You may surprise yourself and be a natural.  You can save yourself a lot of money and a lot of time not running to the salon or barbers.  As for yourself…go ahead…go to the salon!  You deserve that special treatment 🙂

To give you an idea of what I would buy if I were on the hunt for a new set of clippers:

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=onfisayomo-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B0026IBSVE  http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=onfisayomo-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B00006IVENThe set on the left has the barber comb (tapered comb), which I really like using.  The set on the right is color-coded but doesn’t come with the barber comb (nice for someone like me who can’t see anything these days w/o magnifiers).  Each comes with a cape (which you’ll want), a nice case and a 4-star rating. Don’t be intimidated by all the different attachments…some you may never use but it’s really good to have them in the event you may need them.