I have a memory from childhood of sitting in the backyard of our whitewashed farmhouse parsonage in rural Georgia having my long red hair cut by my mom. I'm not even sure how often I got my hair cut at that age or how often my mom was the one doing it. But that memory is so fond to me as an adult, that I have begged my mom a few times to cut my hair. She hems and haws for a few days until I convince her that I honestly do not care if every hair is perfectly straight. I've never been able to make my hair completely straight anyway. Katie observed Mom cutting my hair on the front porch a month or so ago and has since occasionally talked about the experience. She is learning to cut paper and is intrigued by this newly discovered use for scissors. I've tried to make it VERY clear that cutting hair is only a job for mommies and daddies, NOT for 2.5 year olds!! But I secretly do look forward to the day (hopefully not for at least another year though) when I sit with Katie out on the back patio and cut her hair for the first time. I hope it means as much to her as it does to me.
When I first started dating Steve, he was long overdue for a haircut. He has very thick hair and at that point of his life, he wore it quite a bit longer than he does now. He sort of swept it over to the side in a dorky, but lovable sort of way. I smile now thinking about it. Thankfully after I came along, he had motivation to be more "groomed."
I've had the privilege of cutting Steve's hair for at least the past 7 years. The last professional hair cut he had was for a friend's wedding 6 years ago. I was still perfecting my skills at that point and he felt like he should have a "real" cut. The set of clippers we have been using for the past 3 or 4 years is a basic Wahl set that Mom got us for Christmas. Steve's preference is to have the back of his hair a level or two shorter than the top. And I've learned that there needs to be some sort of fade between the top and bottom or he gets what I affectionately refer to as "wings" on the side of his head.
And as you've probably guessed by now, I'm going to brag about the MONEY we save by cutting his hair at home. I typically cut Steve's hair once a month (more like every 3 weeks in the summer), but I'm sure he would only make time to get a professional hair cut every 6 weeks. So let's say he were to shell out $15 (is that the going rate these days?) approximately 9 times a year. That's $135 a year not counting the time and gas it would take to go to a barber. The clippers only cost my mom around $20 and it only takes me about 20 minutes from setup to cleanup!
I've tried to convince Steve that he should cut my hair. He gets irritated that I even mention the possibility because he thinks he would be ruining a "masterpiece." So I guess I'll just deal with twisting mom's arm every once in a while when I can't make it to my wonderful hairdresser. And I can't wait to do a future post about Katie's first cut.
No comments:
Post a Comment