January 15, 2011 7:04 PM
Boys' haircuts: save money, do it yourself
For some reason, I was a whirlwind of MomEnergy tonight. And if you ever were fortunate enough to have this happen, you'll know what I mean when I say I just had to go with it.
After our family took down our tree and packed Christmas away, I still felt raring to go - and proceeded to cut all four of my youngest sons' hair, trim their nails and give Jesse and Daniel a shave.
Woo,doggies, do I feel like Perfect Mom tonight! Not that it will last long as I'm sure to forget to do something important any minute.
These pictures show the aftermath of cutting a United Nations of hair: American Mutt, Iranian/Mexican, Irish, and Taiwanese. Saving so much money, I prevailed upon Tripp to bring home Chinese carryout after taking Justin to a birthday party.
And just in case you haven't figured out that you can cut your sons' hair and save oodles of money, I'm re-running this:
The best $25 I ever invested was in a Wahl hair clipper kit 21 years ago when I had four sons under 6.Since then, I figure I've given something like 1000 haircuts to those four sons, the four that came later, and my dear hubby, thus saving $9000- 18,000 for the Curtis household. Once in a while I buy a new set of blades.
If I were going to replace my old one - only if it died - I would probably choose the model that comes with a mini-clipper
(If you buy from Amazon, be sure to switch to free Super Saver Shipping at checkout.)
It's really easy to learn to cut boys' hair. The Wahl kit is now 29.99 - with haircuts $12 or $15 it won't take long to pay for itself.
I also invested in a really good pair of scissors and learned to cut longer hair that way.
I don't have the patience to be as precise as a barber, but I developed my own style of grabbing sections of hair between my fingers (without doing the comb sectioning thing) and cutting at a uniform length.
Be brave!
Besides saving money, it's kind of a sweet ritual - a mother/son bonding thing - and one I highly recommend.
Lots of lovely memories.
~~~~~~~~
They also make a pet-trimming kit
Posted in Saving money | Permalink
Comments
I would love to learn how to cut hair for my son and husband, even my two girls hair. Did you take a lesson or check out a book to teach you?
Posted by: Addie | January 15, 2011 7:59 PM
I only cut my daughters' hair once or twice - and kind of lucked out with a bob - shorter in back, longer on the sides.
With the boys, I just winged it. but I think some of the hair-cutting kits come with videos - and you can probably find lessons online.
Posted by: Barbara | January 15, 2011 8:25 PM
I was used to having my older son cut his younger brother's hair. With him gone I need to be brave! You inspired me. I am going to give it a try.
Addie, I found this website:
http://almostfrugal.com/2008/09/05/how-to-cut-a-little-boys-hair/
Posted by: Eileen | January 15, 2011 11:12 PM
I love your blog Mrs. Curtis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Lindsay | January 15, 2011 11:34 PM
After giving my son his first haircut, we ended up just shaving it all off and he was bought a lot of hats. It's important to learn before they have a social life. I got the Haircut for Dummies kit. So far, I've been able to do pretty decent. I take him to barber once in a while to even things out. I'm working up the courage to do baby brother's hair!
Posted by: re | January 16, 2011 8:55 AM
I just started cutting my twin 3 1/2 yo boys hair with a Wahl cutter. As well as my husband's (a former military man). I've been using scissors with the twins, but not getting very good results..the three older girls, no problem. With three girls, cutting their hair for nothing, when it costs $10 a pop at the salon? Ah, no. Think I'll save the money. And now with the twins? Yeppers. Save the pennies. My husband is pretty particular, but following the directions included in the Wahl kit was fairly easy (but I still started with the boys, not DH, who has to go out in public on a regular basis). Seriously, they are not hard. And for the money? It pays for itself. Mine already has (and I've only used it twice--once on just the twins, and last night, on the twins and DH)....I'll get so much more out of it than the $30 price tag...Definitely a purchase I waited too long to make!
Posted by: Rachel | January 16, 2011 4:33 PM
