Cutting your own hair?

So it's been a while since my last haircut and the only place I trust to do it is over an hour's journey away. Frankly all I want to do is make it shorter (one even length is fine) at the back and sides, with a bit of an undercut. The length is fine on top. No fancy layering or anything required.

Do you think I should go to the supermarket, buy some clippers, and do it myself? How hard can it really be? Do any of you cut your own hair?

the only place i trust in is in south pasadena, ca... the puerto ricans here in florida keep wanting to trim my beard and they trip out when i say no... i buzz my head myself now!

In the year and a half that I've been regularly having my hair cut (recovering ponytail-wearer) I have had some truly dire experiences... I'm so reluctant to try any kind of new place without more than one personal recommendation!

i been cutting my own hair for years, usually with scissors, but sometimes the electric clippers.. ain't too hard if you got a mirror and arent crazy drunk or something. only a few times have i given myself a truly terrible and embarrassing haircut

i cut my own but don't try anything fancy with blending of different lengths.

had the same clippers (£12) for about 12 years.

occasionally i get my hairdresser mate to cut it 'properly' but he always does something poncy so i prefer to do it myself.

I think I'm going to go for it... if I fuck it up entirely, I'll go to my normal place tomorrow in a hat.

I give myself every other haircut with clippers. I just buzz my entire head with the 3mm guard. It gives me about four months of worry-free hair. I use a hand held mirror + the bathroom mirror to clip the back of my head/neck. I do this with the guard off, and I also go slightly higher around the ears with the guard off.

It takes quite a while for me to buzz my own head. I have to do it over and over to make sure it's all even. Plus, there's really no way to practice when I do it so rarely.

Well, I'm reluctant to give myself a buzzcut if I fuck it up, I really need length on top, my head just isn't shaped for shaving. The one time I did go for a shaven-headed look at 16 (the school made me shave off my mohawk, unsurprisingly) as soon as I was done shaving it my dad said I looked like I just walked out of Dachau...

(it was this incident which led to 5-ish years of long hair... but I'm never going there again)

I cut my own hair with scissors with great results. All you have to do is take your time and really think about how hair works structurally. Two mirrors set up in a narrow corridor helps, ideally you need both hands free. I also reccomend cutting it when its dry after a shower, cutting it wet makes for more trouble. Alternatively, take your time with the front and trust a friend to finish the back.

Now I have settled into a trimming routine. Once every two weeks or so.

Damn it, my last haircut was brilliant, the shortest I'd ever had it but the taper etc. was handled so well, and the girl was good looking, and she kept putting her boobs in my face... maybe I should just go back there.

i got my last hair cut for £5 at the vidal sasson school, where students training to be hair dressers for vidal cut your hair, the cut i got was excellent, nothing fancy or trendy, just short on the sides and back with a bit of length on the top to even it out, a high personal recommendation!

Dude...go back there.

i tried this once. it's quite difficult to do the back of your head well, and it's a really slow process, but it can be done. these days, i just spend the $20.

a friend cut my hair recently, after a couple of beers, did it way too fast, then declared that it was perfect... it wasn't :cry2: thought it would inspire me to go to a hairdresser, but it was over a week ago now

  funkaholic said:

i got my last hair cut for £5 at the vidal sasson school, where students training to be hair dressers for vidal cut your hair, the cut i got was excellent, nothing fancy or trendy, just short on the sides and back with a bit of length on the top to even it out, a high personal recommendation!

Not the one at St. Pauls? My ex's best mate is/was a trainee there.

Sod it, maybe I'll just go back to the shop. But I hate walking around in public with bad hair, I feel so self-conscious.

I've got my own clippers. It's pretty difficult, but not impossible.

If I were you I'd get a housemate to watch and then beg them to tidy it up. But then my hair is probably more of a pain to cut/shave because it grows and falls in random directions.

All the good housemates are gone. Well, except Ben. Ben could help.

The one time I cut my hair myself with scissors I received a lot of compliments about it, however, when it started to grow out over the coming weeks it started to look a bit strange. I guess a proper hair dressers understand how hair will look when it grows out.

I've got the clippers, but I encountered a friend at the supermarket who told me I was probably making a terrible mistake!

Sounds familiar... the only hairdresser i trust is about an hour from here with the train and i can only go every 5 or so weeks. The hair on the back of my head somehow grows insanely fast so I always give it a little trim one or two weeks before getting the full load done

it's as easy as putting a burger in the microwaveoven

  Iain C said:

I think I'm going to go for it... if I fuck it up entirely, I'll go to my normal place tomorrow in a hat.

I was going to say "don't do it brah!", but ya, I guess you can try this, since you plan on going anyway if ya fux it up. Unless you want it ONE LENGTH, this is going to be DAMN HARD for you.

  Iain C said:

I've got the clippers, but I encountered a friend at the supermarket who told me I was probably making a terrible mistake!

did you open them yet? Don't! Go take 'em back!

Well, I've made a decent start. I've decided to go with a #3 all over the sides and back, leaving what I had on top. The sides are more or less taken care of:

Now locating another mirror to do the back. Not a terrible disaster for my first self-haircut, hopefully.

  sneaksta303 said:

  Iain C said:

I think I'm going to go for it... if I fuck it up entirely, I'll go to my normal place tomorrow in a hat.

 

I was going to say "don't do it brah!", but ya, I guess you can try this, since you plan on going anyway if ya fux it up. Unless you want it ONE LENGTH, this is going to be DAMN HARD for you.

I've been cutting my hair meself for the past 10 yrs now, but yeah, if you're gonna do it it's absolutely gotta be one length only, don't get any delusions of being able to do tapers 'n shit. I give myself a complete buzz every two weeks or so, and usually I still have my wife give it a final inspection to make sure nothing got missed (you'd be surprised how easy it is, especially the back of your head).

Alternately, have you considered going with the Flowbee™ instead?

the first thing that goes through my head when you say the only hairdressers you trust to cut your hair is an hour away is, what a complete puff. :p