Yesterday I gave Mr X a haircut. I've been giving him haircuts for nearly a year now. And I haven't gotten any better at it. It's probably the equivalent of about 6 or 7 haircuts but I just don't seem to be able to get the hang of it. It's a good thing I didn't choose to become a hair stylist or anything. (I can't even do my own hair either - that's why it's straight now, because the best I can do is run a brush through it. Up do? forget it. Ponytail? Scraggly. You get the picture.)
The haircuts I give Mr X turn out okay for the most part (one time I had to buzz cut everything because I accidentally took a chunk out of the front of his head) but in my opinion the professionals to a better job. Plus it's much faster. They can do in about 10 minutes what it takes me a painstaking 30 to do on my own. And no matter how many times I cut his hair I get nervous beforehand. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem doing it, it saves money after all. But if he's got a big event to go to and the pressure's on, I'm a wreck. Case in point: The buzz cut mentioned above happened right before Mr X went on a trip to Vegas with his brothers. He didn't seem to care but I was totally upset that I 'ruined' his lovely hair.
My hairstyling prowess has a long history:
I gave a friend a haircut in high school and the result got him severely grounded.
I once told my brother I could fix his bleached out blond tresses (the top was bleached lighter than the sides from the sun for some reason) and his hair had an unnatural orange-y hue after that. He had to make an special trip to my professional stylist at the time to get it fixed.
Some time later that same brother trusted me to cut his hair again and I ended up having to shave his head entirely.
I tried to give Mr X highlights (he's such a good sport, isn't he?) once and he ended up resembling a spotted leopard. He was NOT happy about that one at all. That might have been because I was laughing so hard at the resultant mess.
I have to say that I'm impressed by Mr X's bravery in the face of my dangerous skills. He always give me the benefit of the doubt, tells me I did a good job and he never gets mad at me (unless I rudely laugh at him). What a sweet and patient man he is!
(Oh and kudos to my brother Dan for his bravery too.)
7 comments:
i've been cutting kevin's hair since we were engaged--over 9 years--and the money we've saved doing it that way is worth the groans i give everytime he says "i think i'm ready for a haircut". easily over $1000. but for some reason, i just dread it! and i still get tense and nervous to do it, as if i'm going to completely mess up. but these guys have good hair. jeff's is like kevin's kind of, right? the bit of curl will hide a lot of mistakes. that's nice. i'm sure you're not that bad. maybe stay away from the chemicals though...
Wow! Your Mr. X is not only a good sport--he likes to live dangerously too! (I kinda admire him for that)
Remind me never to go near you if you've got scissors in your hand when you come to visit Nic & Gil. . .
Actually, I kinda admire you too--(at least the attempt at haircutting) I've always been afraid to do it. . .
However my dear hubby considers himself a pro at everything and used to try to cut my kids hair for them when they were little. (Nicole can tell you the horror stories with that)
I let him 'mess them up' once or twice and then always took them to professionals after that. . .
It was just too humiliating for us to go out in public and have someone point at my children and say: 'Oh look! They obviously let their dad use the barber shears again.'
I did my spousal unit's hair for a while; it was easy. He would just ask for "the #1 blade all over". Can't mess that up. Now, he just does it himself and I check to make sure he didn't miss any spots in the back. I have to check because... one day he came home from work (having cut his hair the night before) and had a good sized chunk of longer hair sticking up in the back right quadrant of his head. I immediately starting laughing and said, "Didn't anyone at work say anything to you?" Gilbert was semi-mortified and made me fix it right away. Then he said, "No wonder it's hard to get people to take me seriously sometimes."
Mr X's hair would be much easier if it were 'the #1 blade all over' but he's got it shorter on the sides than the top and then you have to blend it all together. And plus he's just got so much hair anyway...But I shouldn't complain about that part cuz I like his hair :-)
Don't worry I've learned my lesson regarding the chemicals, Mindy.
remember the really bad haircut i gave mr. x in san diego? you know the one that i kept messing up the hairline and it got shorter and shorter... until there was about an inch of REALLY white skin on his neck that used to be covered by hair -- that one was really bad. mr. x would always say "you know it's not a good thing when the person cutting your hair is laughing."
the worst haircut i ever gave stu was while we were in minnesota watching the rocky marathon on TBS one night. i just kept buzzing and buzzing until stu look like he should be on america's most wanted.
Ha ha, I DO remember that haircut you gave Mr X. Thanks for reminding me! Somehow that comforts me.
Did you take pictures of Stu's America's Most Wanted look? I hope so...
that haircut i gave him SHOULD comfort you. man it was bad. but it was really funny. he really is a good sport.
next time you see us, ask stu if you can see his minnesota ID card. he's also sweaty in the picture, which helps complete the look.
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