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Stopping Time Is Expensive, Isn’t It?

By Frugaling 20 Comments

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Buzzed Haircut

I started cutting my hair in the second year of college. Nascent tingles of frugality seemed to start that year, and I was looking for a way to save time and money. Buzzing my own hair solved both, as I probably saved $10-15 every time.

Going on my 7th year (and hundreds in savings), I can’t help but notice how many phases I’ve gone through. My hair’s been slicked back, spiked up, buzzed off, and everything in between. I’ve experimented and built up some skills over the years. Each style gives me a different drive.

Ostensibly, based on every kind word I’ve ever received, I look good when my hair is in between that spiky and slicked-back phase. It kind of has a natural tousle. I feel more confident “wearing” that haircut, too. If anything, this is the look I like when I’m dating.

But today, with buzzers in hand, I debate — once again — whether I should buzz it all off. It’s like hitting the reset button on my head — physically and emotionally. Instantaneously, I look like a Marine reporting for basic training. I don’t know that the style suits anyone, but it’s simple to maintain. Rinse off and you’re ready to go.

Each time I cut my hair, I’m forced in front of a mirror for long periods. I scan over every area of my scalp, and trim the sides by hand. It takes careful precision and patience. What starts out as necessary often becomes obsessive.

I start to see how I’ve changed and aged over the years. I didn’t look like this 7 years ago. I didn’t have fraying sides or a mysterious patch in the back when I first started. My hair was darker, too.

Stand in front of a mirror for any length of time, and my eyes begin to pour over every fault. The extraterrestrial divots of bad acne, the crease of a scar from childhood, and discoloration speck sit atop my face. History via epidermis.

I can’t help but notice, and wonder how to “fix” myself. My consciousness asks, “How can I improve this person in front of me?” Briefly, nearly every time, I think about who I want to be and how this physical presentation has aged in strange, foreign ways. Frankly, resisting it is what I’d like to do.

When I think about why I ask these questions and try to improve my physical features, I come back to the same conclusion: I want to be attractive. I want people to like me. I want to be able to date freely, and not have some strange physical feature that makes me stand out too much — that makes me “odd.”

As I probe my mind for why I think this way, I can’t help but reflect on a culture that encourages us to age slower, and if worst comes to worst, reverse it. We value youth and agelessness. Even more, we seem to be quick to ostracize those who are… different.

It’s in the resistance to aging that things seem to go awry. Suddenly, we spend countless dollars on creams, ointments, and cleansers to freshen our bodies. The average markup on cosmetics is about 78 percent. We’re desperate for something that once was us.

I hate to admit this, but I’ve already purchased many of said products before. There was a tanning cream when I was younger, with the hope of making me less pale and gaunt. All it did was make me look more like an oompa loompa. There were tens of creams and remedies and medicines for acne. They just made my skin red like a Skittles package. I went through expensive scar reduction bottles. And then those whitening strips that bleached my teeth to unnaturally white levels.

It went beyond youthfulness, as I wanted to be good enough — to be worthy of attention. The only way I knew how to make that happen was by spending money. There was one colossal problem: this was money I didn’t have, as I was using student, car, and credit loans to finance these adventures in attractiveness. My debt grew with this desire for outer worth.

$10, $20, $30, $40, and $50 at a time, the money drained out of my pockets and into the coffers of beauty and “hygiene” companies. I can’t imagine how much I spent on these products in total, and part of me is thankful to be without an amount. Just imagining how that money could help me and others causes my gut to wrench.

Most of us can logically say that change is inevitable, and resistance is futile. But that’s the tough part, beauty, attraction, and youthfulness are powerful, emotional drives. They push psychological buttons that aren’t rational. Before we know it, we can virtually or physically pull out our wallets and let corporations take us for all we’re worth. Stopping time is expensive, isn’t it?

I slap on a 2 clip and flip the switch. The gentle vibrations hum up my arm, and the sound of a little lawnmower ignites. Momentarily, I hold the buzzer up and wonder if I should do it. Do I really want it to be so short, simple, and plain?

It’s not till the first clump falls off my head and into the sink that I realize what motivates me to do this. I’m saying no to the system that says beauty looks one way. I’m saying no to products that would wash, condition, and spike my hair. I’m saying goodbye to resistance. I’m saying hello to fault, age, and the very probable/highly likely/I-don’t-know-how-it-won’t-happen chance that this hair won’t always be here.

It’s practice for the big day.

Filed Under: Save Money Tagged With: Age, Aging, Attraction, Beauty, Buzzers, Cosmetics, Creams, hair, haircut, health, money, Products, time

How Much Could You Save By Cutting Your Own Hair?

By Frugaling 22 Comments

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I vividly remember the first and only time my dad gave me a haircut. I was in elementary school, and he got the ambitious idea to save on haircuts by doing them himself. We got a stool and went outside, where he promptly destroyed my social life with a botched bull cut/bowl cut that reminded me of Ursula’s tentacles from The Little Mermaid.

My dad was left in the dust, when I stormed off to seek shelter from follicular destruction. Safety was a sidewalk where I pouted unmercilessly. Dad got the message. From then on, we went to a proper haircut place (Notice I didn’t say salon or barber? Not really sure what to call them). It always had clips in the title: “Sam’s Clips,” “Great Clips,” “Sports Clips.” You get the picture.

The haircuts were always mediocre, but at least they didn’t function as a new wave contraception device. Each time cost about $15-17 after tip. To stay fresh and fly, I would go every two months or so. Conservatively, that came to be about $90 per year — but likely more than that.

It wasn’t until college that I got the brilliantly simple idea of cutting my own hair. After wondering what could possibly be so complex about buzzing off the sides and leaving the top a little longer, I decided to try it out. The first thing I noticed was how inexpensive clippers/buzzers run. You shouldn’t expect to pay more than $20-25 for a complete set, which offers different sized clips, scissors, and sometimes a detailing tool. They require little to no maintenance; albeit, they recommend regularly oiling and cleaning. In one to two haircuts they pay for themselves.

Get Your Haircut
This may be appear to be a mugshot, but I assure you it was simply a pre-haircut photo.

I purchased a Conair set, and began weed-whacking through a bushel of hair. I used a 3 clip around the entirety of my head, which made it impossible to screw up. By the end of it, I had already saved $15, time getting to and from a shop, and had an innate sense of pride in accomplishing it.

It’s been about 4 to 5 years since that fateful haircut. Now, I almost exclusively cut my own hair and/or receive assistance from friends and family. The savings are incredible. If you calculate the it at $90-100 a year (in haircut alone, which doesn’t account for time and transportation costs), I’ve likely kept more than $450 in my pocket since the switch. More money in savings, to invest, and pay off debt — what could be better?

The one major downside is that it’s never perfect. I’m limited in styles and sizes. Cleaning up the little, tiny, microscopic hairs within crevices and in between floor tiles is monotonous. I can’t say I enjoy getting to know the difficulties of cleaning hair off of grout. Alas, these are all but minor inconveniences to the half a grand I’ve saved over the years.

To commemorate my latest haircut, I decided to film it using Instagram’s new app, Hyperlapse. Hope you enjoy and let it inspire you to cut your own hair soon!

Check out another article, which highlights 3 popular grooming mistakes that men make!

Filed Under: Minimalism, Save Money Tagged With: clip, clippers, Conair, hair, haircut, savings

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