Posts Tagged ‘hair cut’

Cutting My Family’s Hair

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

I’ve cut my children’s hair for years, not because I wanted to or because I was any good at it. No, I did it to save money. I bought a hair cutting kit back before I had kids, when I was working to put my husband through university. We were low on money, and whenever I cut my husband’s hair, he looked like a peanut.

As soon as my husband was out of school and got a real job, he didn’t want me to cut his hair any more. After all, he had to make an impression. He didn’t want to look goofy. Whenever I gave him a coupon for a hair cut, he would tell me, “If I’m going to get a bad haircut, you might as well do it.” Oddly, I wasn’t hurt. He was right. A cheaper place always cut his hair just as bad as I did, so why waste the money? His point was that he didn’t want to look goofy, so I haven’t criticized him for letting him get it cut at the mall. Once you find one person in particular who does it right, you end up going back to that person. That’s what my husband did.

Now as far as the children were concerned, I would always cut their hair, because who cares what they looked like? I homeschool, so it’s not like kids are going to make fun of them. However, I recommend having the children watch a video while you cut their hair, because otherwise if they start crying, they get hair in their eyes and mouth, and they start spitting. Suddenly there’s snot, and you just want the nightmare to be over with.

Of course, I’ve saved over a thousand dollars over the years, so I just hold on to that idea as I chop away with the scissors. For some reason the kids’ haircuts looked good most of the time. Or maybe after cutting hair hundreds of times, I was finally finding my groove.

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Posted in Creative Finances | 6 Comments »

Selling my Hair

Monday, June 14th, 2010

selling-my-hairI chopped my hair recently because I got an offer on it. Yes, selling my hair is actually something that I’ve done! I can remember back to the first time I sold my hair about 11 years ago. I had just found out that I was pregnant with my first child, and I was working two jobs to put my husband through college. I was a full-time teacher, and on the evenings and weekends, I worked at a Victorian shop.

Well, one day, a man came up to me and offered to buy my hair for $200. My hair was down to my waist. He told me he was a doll maker, and that my hair would be worth $300 if it didn’t have so many split ends. I asked him to give me five minutes to think about it.

I had always had long hair for as long as I could remember. When I was four, my parents cut my hair short, but other than that, my hair had always been quite long. My husband had never seen me with hair shorter than down to my waist, but I badly needed that money. It was vanity for me to keep my hair when I could make an easy $200. I decided to do it.

I insisted on having the cash in my hand before any snipping took place. He accepted my condition, and he snipped my braid off with a pair of scissors. He said, “Thank you,” and walked away.

My hair was crooked. When I looked into the store mirror, I wondered what my husband would say. We had no cell phones back then (we still don’t), and he was in classes, and the opportunity would have passed if I had waited to ask him.

Later that night when he was back from classes, I called him and told him to come to the store. I wanted to show him something.

When he came in, he just looked at me. I immediately handed him the $200 cash. He said, “There’s a story here.” I told him what happened. After I concluded, I held my breath until I heard him say, “I have a wise wife.” I felt relieved! It reminded me a little of the story, “The Gift of the Magi.” I felt like a character from a literature book.

Ever since then, I have been growing my hair down to my waist and chopping it off. When I was pregnant and nursing for six years, I took prenatal vitamins. My hair was thicker and had fewer split ends. I grew it out twice during that time. Yes, I manufacture hair. Isn’t that funny?

But this time seems different. I finally got a really great haircut. My husband thinks it’s super cute, so maybe I’ll keep it this way. Who knows?

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Posted in Creative Finances | 21 Comments »