Getting Into the Tao of Hair

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Two years ago I walked out of a barber shop, ticked off at the whole barbering trade and swearing I'd never pay a professional to cut my hair again.

I was so mad at the butchering I'd just received that I planned a one-man campaign against the haircutting trade: I would learn everything there was to know about cutting hair, get really good at it, cut anybody's hair the way they wanted it cut and do it for free.

I was hoping that other people would pick up on the idea and, together, we'd put the barbering and hairstyling people out of business. It was a mini-gesture of dissent against the technocratic society that insists we have to go to an expert for everything we need rather than learn to do whatever needs to be done ourselves.

My roommate at that time was holding down a straight gig and had to keep his hair beaten back to a reasonable level, so I began to learn on him. My first efforts were major disasters, so I went to the library to see what there was on haircutting.

Most of the barbering books I found were written in 1843, but I did pick up some information: How to hold the scissors, how to aim them, what a blunt, shingle and layered cut was. Modern treatises were available for women's hair styles, but most of these were more concerned with how to use human hair as a raw material like plastic (endless information on setting, teasing, lacquering, gluing, etc.) than with giving simple advice on cutting.

So I learned by doing. (See step-by-step instructions here.)

I've now hacked away at men, women and children and I'm just getting into the tao of hair. This article is an attempt to lay some of the things I've learned on anyone who's interested.

Hair grows out of little holes in your head: The only place it's alive is at the root, in those little holes. The stuff that waves in the breeze is made up of dead cells and anything you do to it will have no effect on the live part down below.

Cutting your hair will not make it grow faster. If you have really long hair and want to cut out the split ends, go ahead. Keep in mind that you're only improving the appearance, not the "health" of the hair.

Most shampoos on the market, like so much else pushed at us in the consumer society, are junk. The weavers of Northern India have hair that is never cut their entire lives. They keep their heads clean by massaging sawdust into the scalp and brushing it out. (I've never tried this. If you do, let me know how it works.)

A mild castile soap will do anything that the most expensive shampoo will do. My personal preference is for tar soap, a mildly medicated product (dating back to my grandmother's time) which leaves you smelling faintly of pine forests. Books like Joseph E. Meyer's The Herbalist list many natural plants which may be used as shampoo. If you're into a rural trip, experiment with some of them.

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