When my brother was two years old (1956), my mother took him to the barber for his first hair cut. She came home swearing that she was going to cut his hair from that day forward – I guess David wasn’t very cooperative and the barber suggested where Mom could buy her own electric clippers! In 1968 when I was married, my mother handed over the scissors and clippers, and suggested I might want to learn to cut my new husband’s hair! For about 15 years I cut Steve’s hair, until he reached a management position where looking good was an asset to the company and his future!
So, for a collective 25 years, at the current rate of $15 a cut once a month (for a man), our family saved $4,500 from our household budgets by acting as our own barbers. And during the wild days of hippies and back-to-the-landers, just not cutting hair at all was one way to save money.
Depending on your job and your personal neatness factor, you can still live on less by eschewing barbers and hairdressers, and making hair cutting a family affair. This 1970 article in MOTHER EARTH NEWS MAGAZINE, Getting Into the Tao of Hair, offers some pointers on cutting men’s and women’s hair. (You might want to consider practicing on a youngster who isn’t too picky yet about his/her looks.)
We’re all trying to find ways to save money these days, is cutting your own or your family’s hair one way you cut costs? If so, tell us about it in the comments section below.