19 out of 19 people found this review helpful.
Worth Their Weight in Gold (or at least in hair clippings)
Date of Review: Jun 17, 2000
I've never had much confidence in my ability to cut hair. When an old roommate offered to trim my bangs if I'd trim hers, more than just our friendship was damaged -- the poor girl wore a hat for two weeks straight. I certainly never imagined that some fifteen years later, I'd be cutting kids' hair on a regular basis. I should've remembered that "never say never" applies to all aspects of motherhood.
We bought our Wahl clipper set a little over four years ago, after an incident that will live in family infamy as the Easter Haircut Caper. While fifteen-odd guests joined us for a dinner buffet and general moon-baying, my two older kiddos mingled with the grownups, then disappeared into their room for a suspicious length of time and emerged wearing ball caps. The truth soon came out: they'd done a little spontaneous trimming, to the point where pink scalp was visible in patches.
When we finished (discreetly) laughing, my husband vowed never to spend money on haircuts until they were long past the self-trimming stage, and picked up a clipper set the next day. We've been using it on two kids approximately monthly, plus a third kid and several grownups every few months on average, for an estimated savings of at least $800 so far. Neither the clippers nor the kids' tolerance for home haircuts show any signs of wearing out soon, so I anticipate we'll save at least that much in the future as well.
As you can imagine, I was a little overawed by my new responsibility as Head Stylist, so I was thrilled to find that the clippers come with an instructional video which demonstrates how to create several different hairstyles, as well as general tips for operation and cleaning. The written instructions are clear, and the comb attachments are numbered so that you don't have to guess at which to use for which style. Periodic oiling is recommended, but I honestly can't remember if it came with its own oil or not; I just use the same all-purpose machine oil I use on my sewing machine, with satisfactory results.
As long as you can get your customer (victim?) to sit still, it's easy to produce a serviceable haircut. Although I've wound up giving a few uneven ones over the years, on the whole the kids haven't looked any different from their professionally-coiffed friends. And if all else fails, remember the maxim that the only difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is two weeks.
