One of the things I started doing during the pandemic is at-home haircuts. Early on we invested in a nice set of electric hairclippers and since then I’ve gotten pretty comfortable cutting Alex’s hair. It’s been a great learning experience because I’ve always loved cutting hair!
Last Summer we bleached and dyed our hair (pink for him, blue for me) and it’s been really interesting to see how much of the colour has stuck since then. We only re-dyed our hair probably one time since then and Alex’s has pretty much faded all the way out, leaving his hair with the slightest pinky tinge. My hair, on the other hand, is still very much blue. I haven’t topped up the colour since I ran out of my special blue shampoo back in November and the colour has faded from a pure blue to more of a turquoise. I’m not sure if I’ll dye my hair another funky colour or just let it grow out and eventually chop off the ends. It would be cool to try an emerald green on the ends but the thought of the colour fading to a swampy green really puts me off of it.
Anyway, today I gave Alex a (long overdue) haircut! I think it really suits him and he looks great. Basically I sectioned the top of his hair away from the sides and back. From there I went cut the sides and back with the clippers and a number 4 guide all the way around. After that was done I worked my way through a number 3 guide all the way down to a number 1, making sure to move down incrementally so there weren’t any harsh jumps from the top to the middle to the bottom. It’s actually pretty easy when you think about it in steps: the top section is the highest number guide, and the bottom is the lowest number guide. Then you can take the guide off and tidy up the edges at the nape of the neck.
After the sides and back were trimmed I let down the top section of hair and used scissors to cut the hair just above the tops of Alex’s ears. I usually like to section the hair down the middle for this part so I can work on each side evenly to make sure they’re the same length. Once the hair is the right length then I’ll go in with my scissors and clean up around the ears since I’ve never had great luck maneuvering the clippers in those areas. From there all you need to do is comb the hair and see how it lands. If any sections look a little heavier than others, I usually point cut or angle the scissors to help add subtle layers, but other than that you’re good to go!
The great thing about hair is that it grows back (for the most part!) and if you’re not too worried about how it looks if you cut it a little less than perfect, you can always wait a week or two to trim it up when it grows out.
