Ready to learn how to cut a boys’ hair like a pro?

Remember how I promised to show you how I give my boys’ haircuts…and then just at the moment I had my long-haired boys all lined up for haircuts and pictures…my camera batteries died? While we’re waiting for my boys’ hair to grow back for the photo op, Cheryl from Moms in Need of Mercy offered to guest post on this subject for us! And she got her PROFESSIONAL cosmetologist to help us out!   
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When thinking about giving your son a haircut, do you:
a) shudder at the thought of what it might look like if you did it yourself,
b) reach for your scissors with a glint in your eye,
c) reach for your phone to make an appointment for him,
d) wish you knew more of what you were doing, so you weren’t just “winging” it (come to think of it, he kind of looks like he has wings when you’re done)

Haircuts, even for boys, are expensive. As often as their hair grows, this adds up to some serious cash. And while there are a number of cool boys haircuts to choose from at the barbershop, if you know how to cut your son’s hair at home, and you know how to do it right, both of you will be pleased.

If you’ve ever wanted professional lessons on how to cut his hair by yourself, my friend Liz–a licensed cosmetologist–agreed to show me (and you) the tricks of the trade. Normally, these lessons would cost you a partial cosmetology school tuition, but we are bringing them to you free! Now go pour yourself an ice water on me, and let’s get to work!

As you can see from the above picture, cutting hair successfully is all about the angles. To begin, you may want to start with the neckline. (Liz thought that beginners may want to start at the top. This way, you can set the top length as your guide and blend down from it, rather than having to cut everything again if it doesn’t blend properly when you get to the top last).

But let’s say you start at the neckline. Working on the back of the head, starting from the area of the top of the ear down, use your water bottle ($1 at the Dollar Store/Walmart/Target) to spray the hair down and cut at a 45-degree angle, slanting toward the neckline. You will hold the hair according to this angle and cut along your fingers, as you can see in these pictures.

Once you have worked your way across the back of the head, you can use your scissors to carefully go straight across to form the base of the neckline. As you can see Liz demonstrating, you want to make sure to hold the hair down firmly so you cut it evenly.
Liz says if you are right or left-eye dominant, it could make your haircut slant. So when you finish the neckline, get eye level with it and check that it does not slant. If it does, correct it!

Just as your child’s patience has about reached its limit, you will reach the top. Reassure him that you’re almost done and you’ll give him a reward for sitting so nicely (or not so nicely!) when you’re finished. Take the hair from the center of the top of the head, lift it up, and cut it straight across. If the very front of the forehead looks too choppy when you’re done, you can point-cut it. This is where you will use the point of your scissors to cut small points in the hairline (you don’t want it to look like candy-corn) :)

If your son has cowlicks at the top of their head (mine do), you can leave the hair longer here to compensate. The extra weight will help prevent it from sticking straight up and you can work the look into several cute little boy hairstyles. To accomplish this, you will want to angle the hair slightly toward the front.

Now you’re just about done! The only thing left is to check the cut to make sure it’s even. You should be able to run your fingers through the hair, pull up various sections, and have the lengths line up evenly (angling in places, but with no long hairs jutting out). It should be well blended. Correct any mistakes you find, and try again in another 3-4 weeks, depending on how quickly your son’s hair grows!

Click here to see how to give a clipper cut as well as how to properly use clippers to help take out some of the bulk in a standard haircut.

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For the past month or so I’ve been on the edge. Ask anyone who lives near me. They will tell you that I’ve barely been able to complete a sentence, much less hold a conversation. 

This time of year is always the busiest for our family. Soccer is in full swing, both for Matt’s college team and for all four of our boys. School has started. The tomatoes, green beans, corn, apples, peaches, peppers, and grapes are all demanding to be dealt with right now. 

Throw in the fact that I also had house guests and a couple of out of town trips to take in the midst of this. 

Oh, and I also have a website. 

AND, Matt is in the midst of a job transition which I will hopefully tell you more about soon.

I’ve seriously been tense. Don’t get me wrong…I’ve enjoyed every last bit of my month of crazy activity. I just have a lot on my plate…plus I have raisins stuck to my floor under the kitchen table and I just can’t seem to get around to prying them off.

It may not come as a surprise then for me to say that lately my children have been driving me crazy. Suddenly their noise seems noisier to me and their hunger seems hungrier and their needs seem needier. 

While trying to make my way through some big messy pots and pans one day last week, and feeling the pressure of everything else I needed to get done over the weekend in the midst of a soccer tournament…my boys were wrestling and building a fort (at the same time) and bringing more toys into the living room so that their fort would be complete. I also noticed a big bowl of soup “cooking” on the living room end table. The soup appeared to be something like a gallon of water with bunches of pepper sprinkled into it. Great. Just what I needed. MORE messes.

With a big sigh I thought to myself, “These KIDS are driving me CRAZY!!!”

I hid myself in my kitchen with my hands in the dirty dish water and tried to take a few deep breaths to get ahold of myself. 

It was then God helped me realize that really and truly, it wasn’t my children that were driving me crazy. They were being good. Building a fort with lots of blankets and toys isn’t naughty. Neither is wrestling around on the floor, since they were just doing it for fun and no one was getting hurt. They were just providing themselves with their boyhood daily ration of wrestle time. And the “soup”? Water and pepper clean up easily enough. And oh yes, these boys are old enough to clean it up themselves.

It wasn’t the kids that were driving me crazy at all.

No, the problem was really my own heart.  My lack of peace and joy were driving me crazy, not my kids.

While I thought I had been giving my stress and overwhelmed self to God the past few days, I really hadn’t been. Oh I’d been praying, you can be sure of that. But probably my prayers of “God, please let a friend call and invite my kids over to play so I can get some work done around here” didn’t really count as me taking time to sit at Jesus’ feet and reflect on what HE needed me to do for the day.

It’s amazing what a heart transplant will do. Once God helped me figure out what the real problem was and I spent some time asking Him to transform my mind and heart…my life and household were suddenly much more peaceful and enjoyable.

Suddenly the kids weren’t driving me crazy anymore…yet they had not changed anything about their activity (or hunger or neediness). 

I’ve decided that “These kids are driving me crazy!” is another lie Satan wants women to believe.

Next time I feel like my kids are driving me crazy…I’m going to do a heart check. 

And then I’m going to crawl into a fort with my kids and enjoy a nice bowl of pepper soup.