Home Haircuts: Why to Cut Your Family's Hair Yourself and How to Get Started

It is not difficult to cut a man's hair if he has a simple close-cut kind of style. Home haircuts can save a family hundreds of dollars in the course of a year. I've been cutting my husband's hair for him for about seven years. He's gotten so accustomed to having me do it, he refuses to go to a salon.

There are a few reasons I cut his hair for him. First, it can save quite a bit of money. Just about anywhere you go in the mall will charge at least $20 plus the tip, and the less expensive places charge at least $10 plus tip. When we were in college, this represented a pretty large sum of money for us.

My husband says that even though the savings in money are nice, what he most appreciates about my cutting his hair for him at home is the savings he achieves in time. He really dislikes having to take the time out of his schedule to wait at a salon and then make small talk with a stylist in order to look well groomed. It only takes me about fifteen minutes to cut his hair, with five minutes of clean up afterward. We've negotiated that he takes care of the clean up as my reward for giving him the free haircuts.

As for the quality of the cut, my husband has a very simple hairstyle, and he tells me that the cuts I give him are just about exactly the same as the cut he comes away with when a stylist does it. If a man has a simple clean cut look, this is very easy to achieve at home for them.

Learning how to cut a man's hair is simple if you use electric clippers with length guides on them. These are available at just about any department store, such as Target or Wal-Mart, for an investment of $10-$40. Make sure the set you choose comes with good scissors, the clippers, a comb, the length and blending guides, and oil for the clippers. Some of them will also come with a case and a video or dvd for explanation. I think that it is worth investing in a nice quality set with a case, considering all the years they will last, and all the money they will save you in haircuts.

Set up is no big deal. Plan to have the guy get straight into the shower after the cut and you can skip the cutting cape. For the easiest clean up, just have him wear only shorts. Cut on a smooth surface that's easily swept up, like tile or wooden floors. I'm sure it goes without saying that carpet is a bad choice. In warm weather, I've been known to just cut outside and let the hair blow away. It'll keep deer and rabbits out of the garden and birds will make nests with it.

Once you have the clippers, it is time to start. Every man's hair is different and the very easiest style is just to use the clippers to cut the hair to the same length all over and call it a day. This is usually a pretty short cut and generally just called buzzing it. It is possible to blend the sides and back and make the hair look like a salon style, especially with the easy to use guides in our Wahl kit.

When I cut my husband's hair, I start by cutting it all over with the 5/8" guide. Then I use the 3/8" guide on the sides and the back, blending this in by rolling the clippers at the top of the stroke on the blending guide. This may sound confusing, but it's simple once you have the clippers in your hand and get the feel of them. After this, I use the clippers with no guide at all to shape the bottom edge and clean the back of his neck. This is where a steady hand is most important, because you want the bottom edge to be very even. The last step is to use the scissors to trim the long hairs by his ears and even up the front.

I hope my explanation of how simple it is to use clippers will give you the courage to try home haircutting yourself. Most little boys that I know love having their hair buzzed in the summer time, for a quick and cool style, and you can save a lot if you have sons. Investing in a good set of clippers might even be a great way for a college student to make a few extra dollars, if you've got lots of friends who need cheap hair cuts. My older brother paid me for years to cut his hair for him, which is how I learned to do it. With a little bit of practice and a sure hand, you can get great, consistent results every time.