A Hair Off Our Budget

As you know by now our family is on a mission to save money. When we took the leap into this lifestyle that included making some changes in how we spend our money. It also brought on new "hobbies" or "things I now do."

Around the time when Jonah was born Trent wanted to get his hair buzzed. I opposed this idea because  buzz cuts don't look just awesome on everyone. In my mind there is a fine line of looking like a chemo patient and looking like a Chia Pet. It's not a good look. Trent was head strong in this idea of his. Most triathletes have their hair buzzed and he wanted to look the part.  I made him wait until after Jonah was born because I didn't want to look at pictures of our son's birth and him with stupid hair for the rest of my life :)

A week or so after Jonah was born Trent walked in the house with a big smile and his hair almost gone.  (He actually looked good.) I asked the normal wife questions (Where did you get your hair cut? How do you like it? How much did it cost?). When I got to the cost question I was shocked that it cost him $22. TWENTY-TWO DOLLARS? For what? Someone just took clippers all over your head for about 2.5 minutes.... this must have been one heck of a haircut or a very well trained, expert hairstylist. In my mind this was ridiculous. Especially thinking about him getting his hair re-buzzed ever couple of weeks so that I wouldn't have to look at Chia Pet Trent hair. That would calculate to about $44 a month or $528 a year.... for a SIMPLE haircut. (At this point I know what you're thinking, "Holly, how much do you spend on your haircuts?" Let me tell you, women's haircuts are not cheap. I've tried going to a cheap salon and my hair has never looked worse. I get my hair cut every two months. Each cut is $45 which is $270 a year.)

I began asking the usual money saving, thrifty questions: How can we fix this? How can we save $528 a year? Is this something I could do myself? Why yes, it is something I could figure out to do. I told Trent he could keep the buzzed hair if we bought our own set of clippers and I learned to buzz his hair myself. He said deal and so off we went to Bed Bath & Beyond (with our 20% off coupon that comes in the mail almost weekly).  The clippers cost about $40, but with our coupon we spent roughly $32. The upfront cost was approximately a haircut and a half. 

I set up shop on our kitchen floor. I put down an oversized towel, Trent sits down and I go to work! I've been cutting Trent's hair for about a year and our closing line to each haircut is, "I think this is the best one yet!" The first couple of times we by no means perfect or even close to perfect (who knew there is actually a science to running clippers over a head?!?!). I asked my hairstylist for some tips and now we get close to a perfect cut every 2 weeks. Maybe after sometime and I learn how to fade hair (there are videos on YouTube) then Trent can choose to have his hair styled a different way... but until then Trent will be the one with the buzzed hair!

Before....

After!