Any Advice for Hassle-free Home Hair-cutting?

I bought electric hair clippers from the drugstore, and it works great. About $40, but paid for itself after the 1st haircut. Then I trim around the ears, either with sharp scissors (a little scary with my squirmy special needs 3 year old) or the trimmer from my husband's electric shaver (less scary). I do it before a bath (to get the hair off of them), and vacuum up the hair from the bathroom right after.

I started cutting my son's hair as well as my husbands's hair over a year ago. Sometimes I mess up, but I'm getting better at it. I watched how to videos on www.expertvillage.com, they have a bunch of them showing how to cut hair... good luck

L.,
I have been a hairdresser for over 20 years now. Go to Sally Beauty Supply and get the Wahl clippers that include all of the attachments numbered 1-8. Along with the numbers 1-8 on the attachments, they also show how long the hair will be when you use it. For example, using the number 8 will leave the hair 1 inch long.
When I started out, I was taught how to do a buzz and eventually learned how to fade the sides and the back so that is blends. This is how I was taught:
Cut the entire head with the attachment that you choose. Then if you want the sides and back shorter, use the next number down only on the sides and back. You can even go shorter in the back by using the next attachment down from the one you just used! By continually using the next shortest attachment, you are "fading" the hair from long to short and you won't get those annoying lines that you may see on other haircuts! You have to make sure that you are starting out with the longest attachment first, or it will not work! Practice makes perfect! If you have any questions, just message me!
Good luck!

library surely has the info u need. shoot them an email if u dont find success on this site.

I cannot tell you how much money I have saved by cutting my two sons' hair! however, they only have buzz cuts. that is what they want..my oldest is now 20 and youngest 14. they have had their hair like this for 6 or 7 years! I was reluctant to let them, but it was their choice. we purchased a set of hair clippers with the attachments etc. for around $20. it was the best $20 bucks I ever spent. when my oldest went away to college, we bought a second set. he took one with him and gets his roommates to help with the haircut!

I totally agree with your thoughts on this, but personally I have not had success doing it myself! You may have better luck and I hope you do. I tried to cut my sons hair twice and both times were a disaster! I ended up paying 20 bucks for someone to fix it and it was still a mess. I did however, on the second attempt, purchase the Wahl clipper set and it was great. Pretty quiet and it actually comes with a set of instructions with pictures on how to cut hair. Mine even came with a cape! I should have been all set! but Im just not artistic and I believe you need at least a little artistic flair to be successful! Give it a shot though! If your kids are game, go for it! Good luck!

I cut hair before attending beauty school and now I wonder what I was doing (and am amazed it looked good). Good for you for getting tips.

If you can, find a friend who is a stylist and have them give you lessons. I've done this with friends and it has helped them.

Good luck!

Hi there,

I'm not sure where you live but I live in Bartlett and I do hair out of my basement. I charge 10 dollars for kids cuts and I have been doing hair for 12 years. I have 2 boys of my own and I do their hair and I do many other kids. Let me know if you are intersted. I have many toys in my basement for the kids to play with.

E-mail me if you are intereste.

M.

Great idea! We've been doing that since the first hair cut! We got a hair clipper from Target, I think. They actually had some instructions in there about how to use it. We set him in his high chair and use the plastic drape in the pack. It takes two of us-one to distract him and help hold his ears back. Use the clipper with various sized attachments to adjust for length. Down low, around the neck, you cut short, medium in the middle, and use a longer attachment for slightly longer hair on the top-it works great. And, at this age, if you mess it up a little bit, it grows so fast so it doesn't really matter! Have fun!

You are right about saving money this way! We use electric clippers instead of scissors. I go over his whole head with a size 7 or 8, moving the clippers in the opposite direction from how the hair lays, then trim the back and sides with a 3. A tricky part of the cutting is smoothing the edge between the long and short hair. That will take some practice. After everything's cut, I trim along his neck, behind ears and sideburns with the razor edge. Use the scissors to trim any strays or the top of the ears.

My son is 2, and he gets SOOOO crazy wiggling sometimes. This is by far the hardest part of the whole event!!! I plan his haircuts when I don't have anything to attend (i.e. an event where there will be pictures) for 5 or 6 days. Many times it takes me 2 or 3 days to finish the haircut the way I want. I know that sounds silly, but the alternative is a fighting, crying little boy who hates haircuts. I sometimes distract him with a lollipop. Hopefully you won't run into this issue since your sons are older.

Make sure the clippers are clean or sometimes the hair gets pulled. Good luck!

Hi L.,
I have 2 boys, 4 and 5 1/2 and I started cutting their hair at home after my first sons visit to the beautician when he was a year old. I too found it ridiculous that I was paying $20 for her to cut his hair when it looked terrible because of all his wiggling. I figured I could make it look terrible and keep my $20 each time :) You're boys are older so they may be able to sit still but I can put them in front of a movie and it keeps their attention while I cut their hair. I do use scissors and it took me a few tries before I figured it out but for me it was just trial and error. My boys were younger too so they didn't care what it looked like.

On the top I comb their hair straight forward to their forehead, I form a mohawk between my fingers and start there and cut the top part long ways. As I get to the sides, I cut up and down and I cut the sides shorter (the width of my finger as I pinch their hair between my fingers to cut). As I transition from the top of their head to the sides I taper it a little to make it blend together. I do have clippers that I use around their ears and on the back of their neck.

I hope you decide to to it, it's definitely worth the time and money! If you do it, for the first time, cut long. Whatever length you think you should cut, give it an extra 1/3-1/2 inch. You can always cut more off but you can't put it back on! :) You can also sit them down before they really need a haircut and just take a tiny bit off, just to get the feel for it and a little experience without a dramatic change. The clippers didn't work for us, buzz cuts looked terrible on my boys. Good luck!!

i do not trust myself to cut my sons hair so i found a beauty school in the neighborhood and got his haircut for 2.75. it was great and although it was a school they were really good with him and his moving around!

I cut my husband's hair and my five year old's hair. My husband gets a buzz, so that's easy. My little guy has a bowl-cut on top and tapering on the sides, so that's a little more complicated. I set him in front of the computer or television with a video on so that he'll hold his head still; otherwise he's a wiggle-worm.

I learned to cut from my mom who always cut my dads/brothers hair. She used a Wahl clipper set and so do I. I invested in a couple of good hair-cutting shears, however, because the scissors that they include in those sets are never very good.

You can find some pretty good on-line videos to help you in your quest. One really useful thing to look for is instructions on how to hold the scissor-comb-combo. You can pivot the scissors back and forth in your hand from "ready to cut" to "rest" positions. This is a fantastic skill and I highly reccomend practicing it to make your cuts go smoother.

Good luck!

R.

Hi! We recently bought the buzz clippers. It's good because you can set how short you want their hair. My husband does it and the first time was kind of tough, but now he is much better. You have to make sure it is even all over obviously. I don't know anything about cutting with scissors though. I hope this helps.
A.
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A beautician I am not, but I have tried clipping my husband's hair at home with special razor kits. He likes it, but I never did. I have heard that special hair cutting scissor should be used, because regular scissors can cause slipt ends.

Just another suggestion a number of years ago (my husband started turning gray at 25 yrs old) I talked him into letting me dye his hair. The box said brown/black. Followed the directions to a tea. It came out JET BLACK. It even dyed part of his hair line. 5 years later they still make fun of him at work. He looked like a ken doll.

About 19 years ago I had my husband highlight my hair - another story. He said from that night on go have a professional do it.

Best of luck. Remember, it always grows back.

J.

Wife to David - almost 21 years, mom to Robert 9 and Olivia 4.

I have no training for cutting hair, but I watch when my hair is cut... I notice that the hair is pulled up from the scalp and cut at the same length all over, unless there are layers in which the hair is divided and cut in the same fashion, but various lengths. I started with my bangs and got comfortable with that. Once I got comfortable with that, I cut my 2 year old's hair all over. I just start long so that I can go shorter if I mess up. I think I've gotten pretty good at it. I'm not fast, but I'm cheap. :-)

i did this for the first time last month with my two boys (2 and 3 yrs old)
i went to my library's website and searched for books with kids hair cut (and variations) and got a few books. skimmed through them, bought some scissors at sally beauty supply (or on the internet if you have the time) and got to it.
the hardest part was getting my little ones to sit still so i could see what i was doing. ugh. but the cuts turned out surprisingly well. (i mean, not worse than some of the hack jobs i have paid for...)
good luck!

I've been cutting my husband's hair with a Wahl clippers for seven years now. Just last year, I decided that I really needed to learn how to scissor cut the top, because I decided that the longest guide was too short for his thick, coarse hair. He liked it, but I didn't.
I went on youtube.com and found a lot of posts showing barbers cutting short hair. I believe the one most helpful was an older barber giving a woman a short hair cut...not too short.
It's definitely a skill you have to work hard to acquire. Eventually you'll get a feel for the length of their hair between your fingers. You're basically using your fingers as a "guide". The more fingers you stack on topy of their heads, the longer the cut. My middle finder, ring finger, and pinky finger together leave the hair about two inches.
Good luck! It'll take a while the first couple times too!

I love Wahl Clipper home hair cutting kits!!!