Table of Contents

  1. Where’s the nearest barber?
  2. DIY Upskill
  3. Leveling-up
  4. …Try, try again
  5. Every 6 Weeks
gray-hand-tool

Where’s the nearest barber?

Part of embarking on this new adventure is learning to give up the convenience of specialists all around you to cater to every whim and need (e.g., doctor, mechanic, plumber, and of course barber). In this case, I will become Andrew’s new barber, every 6 weeks.

For about a year now, I have been cutting my own hair. A large part of this had to do with the fact that my stylist of 5+ years moved back to South Korea, and I couldn’t find a suitable replacement. Every hairstylist I have encountered has done a hack job, and I vowed that I could do better than any of them. 

DIY Upskill

So one Saturday morning, as I was browsing through Pinterest (one of my all-time favorite apps, btw), As we talked about in Eye of the Storm, I discovered Pick Up Limes a couple years ago and in particular their pin on DIY Long Layers Haircut.

I watched it a couple times and headed straight to our bathroom with a pair of crafting scissors and started to snip away.

Fifteen minutes later, I had myself a new do.

Mizutani Twiggy
Mizutani Twiggy

Andrew shook his head at this, and decided if I was going to be serious about doing this again, that I would need proper equipment. In short order, an exquisite pair of Mizutani Japanese-forged scissors arrived on our doorstep so that I could cut my hair properly.

The second haircut went a lot more smoothly, thanks to the sharp blades. While I may have nicked myself a couple times, I was pretty pleased with the results in the end.

andrew-haircut-before

Leveling-up

It’s one thing to cut my own hair because long hair is fairly forgiving. For good reason, I was more cautious with cutting hair that framed the face, as every flaw and mistake could be readily seen.

A few years back, Andrew and I also had decided to shave our cat’s fur in the spring. Our older cat Oreo in particular has issues with mats, and it pains me to have to give him a sedative in order to get him into a car and transport him to a vet in order to be shaved. There isn’t one step in the whole process that doesn’t seem cruel and unusual to me.   

So we decided, we would shave Oreo at home. We did the research and settled on an electric clipper set that was fairly quiet and well-reviewed. On one sunny Saturday morning we got everything set up for the grooming event… 

Oreo, however, was not a willing participant in the event.

Needless to say, that should have been predicted. As mentioned previously, I am a notorious saver and I hate, hate, HATE wasting anything. In this case, it killed me to have a perfectly nice clipper set and let it go to waste. Andrew, however, was a willing participant in this event.

We got set up in our bathroom, and I happily shaved his head. After about 10-15 minutes, the deed was done and when Andrew looked at himself, he was not enthusiastic. 

I may have cut off too much hair.

There’s an old picture of Andrew he carries around with him since it is on his green card. His head is closely shaved and it gives him a rather militaristic look. I gave him much the same look to his chagrin and that of our daughters, Emma & Silvia.  

andrew-haircut-during

…Try, try again

We all love Andrew’s locks, and so it was with some caution that I consider cutting his hair once again.

Luckily, there is Legit Mom from Youtube to the rescue, and I can once again study a 15 minute video and put it into practice on my willing and loving volunteer/victim.

And then, be able to do it again every 6 weeks…

After
After

Every 6 Weeks

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many retail services including salons and barbers are closed. While you may opt to go native, we thought you might also find it helpful to try this out for yourself or for your family. 

If you would like to delve deeper into our adventure as it unfolds, please consider joining the Serenade Wind Crew. Our sister site provides more information on what it means to be part of the crew, unlock the pirate’s booty, and receive other exclusive access and benefits.The first 50 members have a gift waiting.