Heavenly Homemakers

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How to Cut Hair at Home

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During this crazy time of life, many of us are learning to cut hair at home. Even after the quarantine, maybe we can use these skills to save money!

How to Cut Hair at Home

Through the years, I’ve cut many a head of hair! Matt and the boys just line up and we get ‘er done! We’ve saved thousands of dollars through the years. I’m not a pro, but I get the job done.

The past couple of years, our older boys have gone to a salon for their cuts, and Malachi even got a perm! I’ve welcomed this break from cutting everyone’s hair since we started adding foster and adopted kids to our family.

But here we are back to needed everyone’s hair cut at home again – at least for now!

In case you need to figure out hair cutting at home right now, I wanted to remind you of the simple tutorials we have shared here through the years!

How to Cut Long Layers

Paula shared a wonderful tutorial here for how you can cut long layers in just 5 minutes. Ever since she shared this, I’ve been cutting my hair this way. I LOVE how much money it saves me but I especially love how much time it saves. I cut it after a shower, and I go on my way. No making appointments, no arranging for our littles to be cared for so I can go to the salon. I LOVE IT!

How to Cut Boys’ Hair with Clippers

I’m a scissors girl, but clippers would probably be much easier. If you have boys and they need a hair cut – check out this great tutorial on How to Cut Boys’ Hair with Clippers.

How to Cut Boys’ Hair Like a Pro

Don’t want to attempt clippers? Check out this amazing tutorial on how to cut boys’ hair without clippers. This truly makes it easy!

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Gratituesday: The Hair Cut Conversation

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This morning, I found myself growing grumpy with stress. I hate it when I do that to myself (and to my family). As if letting myself become tense and overwhelmed really helps me get through the day? Um….nope. And yet, as I was reading World History to the boys, in the back of my mind I was creating a long “to-do” list of everything else I needed to get done. In doing so, not only did my school time with the boys become not fun, my tension level kept increasing. (Why? Why do I do this to myself?)

One of the items on my “to-do” list:  Give Matt a Hair Cut . It needed to be done before he left for his soccer team pictures at 2:45. But before that I needed to do this and that and that and this (Blah, blah. You don’t want to hear about my to-do list.)

By the time I finally broke away from my other tasks and met Matt outside for his hair cut, I had worked myself into a bit of a crazed mental frenzy. I gave him a half smile and admited to him that I was feeling like a bit of a basket case. I’m sure he loved handing over the scissors once I’d confessed that. ;)

He (bravely) sat down and we began the hair cut. I’ve done this cut plenty of times, so it only took about twenty minutes from my “busy schedule”. Guess what I accomplished during that time? Yes, a hair cut. But guess what else? I got to have uninterrupted conversation with my husband. Now there’s something that hasn’t happened for a while. 

It was just what I needed. Time to reconnect. Time to process. Time to shift my focus off of myself and onto my husband. I suddenly became very thankful that this chore was on my “to-do” list.

And shucks, as an added bonus, we saved money on a haircut too. What a deal. ;)

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How to Cut Boys’ Hair Like a Pro, part 2: Clippers

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Continuing on from yesterday’s post about Cutting a Boys’ Hair Like a Pro, please welcome again Cheryl from Moms in Need of Mercy as she guests posts more about cutting little boys’ hair with clippers!
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As moms in need of mercy in all walks of life, when we can find ways of doing things ourselves instead of paying someone else to do them for us, we can save lots of money. Replacing a $10 haircut a month with one at home will save $120 dollars a year–and that’s just for one son. How’s that for inspiring!

When we talk about cutting our sons’ hair ourselves, I find clippers less intimidating and more forgiving than scissors. Stick the guard on (I use a longer one for the top and front, a shorter one for the back and sides), slide it carefully through the hair, blend with scissors, voila–you have a fairly decent haircut. But since my friend Liz is the trained cosmetologist and I am just the amateur, let’s go with what she says when it comes to clipper cuts!

Whereas with a scissor cut, you start with damp hair; with a clipper cut, the hair needs to be perfectly dry.

In Liz’s professional opinion, using a guard higher than a number four (or a half-inch) is just about worthless. She says the clippers will miss so many hairs that you might as well just use your scissors and follow those angles that we talked about in yesterday’s post.

So plug those clippers in, and let’s get to work!

As you can see, Liz is starting in the back at the base of the hairline. It may look like there is no guard, but Liz is using a #4 (1/2″) snap-on metal blade. This is definitely not for the faint of heart!
Look closely at this picture. You can see that she uses her finger to hold the hair down. This way you won’t leave behind any stragglers. She is also “scooping” up with the clippers (like a plane pulling up for take-off) to start putting an angle on the hair for blending.

So we work around the head this way and wind up with that “dog at the groomer’s” look. Wonderful, isn’t it? Depending on how your son is behaving that day, you could stop there, or do the right thing and finish it. :) Making everything even is the art and science of blending, which comes later.

Once you’ve clippered the back, you will move on to the sides. The highly trained pro that she is, Liz continues to use a half-inch snap-on metal blade (for safety, I use the plastic guard that came with my $30 Wahl set from Walmart). Remember to tuck the ear down as you cut or clipper around it.
Ok, so we’ve gotten rid of a lot of hair! Now we move to the front and switch to using scissors. Here Liz is figuring out how much to take off the top so it will blend well with the back and sides. Once that’s decided, you will then pull the hair straight up and cut across horizontally to your desired length. These cuts don’t have to be perfect. In a minute, you’ll go back through and even everything up.
Do you see all the various hair lengths in this picture? As we talked about yesterday, you always want to include hairs from the last cut you made in the section of hair you are currently cutting so that they function as your guide. You can see that Liz is cutting the hair to match the shortest lengths (from the previous cut she made). She is also angling the hair toward the crown to compensate for my son’s cowlick at his crown. Continue to work through the crown this way, using the short hairs as your guide as you pull new sections and cut parallel to the head.

The next step is to blend the sides and back by pulling the hair straight out and cutting it parallel to the shape of the head, as the pictures below illustrate.

Ready to try advanced techniques? Use your clippers to blend the haircut. You will use your comb to pull out the hair and then clipper along the comb. A key for success here is to position the blade of your clipper in the middle of the comb and work up (or over). Move your comb down to get hairs below the mid-point. Otherwise you will end up with tell-tale clipper marks in your haircut.

As the cut becomes more blended, you can see that Liz is using a 45-degree angle toward the neckline to blend the back. Depending on the length of the top, you may need a tighter angle (closer to the head) or a wider angle. Think of putting a pen vertically against the back of the occipital bone. You would want the hair to blend nicely to that line.
If you don’t feel comfortable using clippers for blending (I don’t!), feel free to use your scissors. Again, Liz is using the 45-degree angle to blend the back, as you can see here.

Now for a few final notes:
When boys are wiggly (when are they not?!), use a firm hold on the hair. This way, if you’re holding the section you want to cut tightly enough, your little (or not-so-little) bundle of testosterone can move around like he’s on a mechanical bull, and you’ll still be able to make a precise cut without cutting him.
Finally, Liz said the biggest mistakes she sees in home haircuts are 1) leaving the sides too bulky and 2) cutting straight across the neckline (and the forehead too). To remove bulk, you can use your clippers with a guard and follow the techniques we described earlier (using your comb, clippering along it). Here are a few pictures of Liz taking extra hair out of the neckline and sides:

And one last picture of “point-cutting” the forehead (cutting small points on the ends so it breaks up the “straight-across-the-forehead” look):

Now that you’re armed with hair-cutting know-how, do you feel like you’re ready to get to work?
Remember, practice makes perfect! I hope you found these tutorials helpful and that you feel confident enough to give it a try. Think of what you could do with all that money you’ll save. Go give it a try!
“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” –Philippians 4:13
Head over to Moms in Need of Mercy and give Cheryl a BIG thank you for guest posting all of this wonderful information!!!
How to Cut a Boys Hair with Clippers
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