Hair Raising
It’s been a strange couple of weeks.
Other than Mike venturing to the end of the drive to take the recycling boxes out we haven’t left the premises for over a month now. Everything is delivered, including the groceries, and left at the gate. It’s been a time for establishing a new routine and getting used to the ‘new normal’. After much heart searching we decided to suspend work on the greenhouse area for now, other than the stuff we can finish off ourselves. If I’d thought all this confinement would give me endless days relaxing in the garden I’d have been wrong. It’s an anxious time for all of us and the usually therapeutic effect of immersing myself in blooms has yet to cut through. COVID-19 can be a truly horrible thing to have, as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has found out for himself. I wonder what he thinks of ‘herd immunity’ now.
In some ways nothing has changed, in others everything has changed. We mostly stayed close to the house before. But when you can’t go out, how often do you come across things that you really, really need? Usually there is a workaround. Given the level of suffering being endured in the world most of our challenges are trivial in comparison. Take yesterday morning for example:
Him: “My hair needs cutting.”
Me: “Of course you’ll know that I’ve never had any training in hairdressing in my life.”
Him: “Isn’t there an online course you could do?”
Me: “Unlikely. It’s a practical sort of thing. The only way to learn is to launch in with the scissors and give it a go. Trial and error..”
Him: “But it’s Husband’s hair!”
Me: “It’ll grow back. And when it does I can always try again.”
The hairdresser’s chair..
Me: “Whoops..”
Him: “Could we have less of the ‘Whoops’.”
Me: “I’ve nicked my finger with the scissors!”
Him: “I didn’t ask for a henna rinse.”
Mike stood in front of the hall mirror. I asked him what he thought: “Well, it’s better than it was..”
So that’s alright then. I think. There’s just one problem remaining. Who cuts the hairdresser’s hair?
I’ve already hacked into my fringe. Twice in fact. In an effort to avoid blocking the bathroom sink I thought I’d done a really good job of catching the hair and dropping it into the bathroom bin. Well no, it seems. It sticks to the sides of the bin apparently and is a right bugg*r to get out. And the second time I may have approached the cutting task a little over-enthusiastically. But at least my fringe is no longer floppy. There is nothing worse than a floppy fringe.
The rest of my hair is heavily layered. For expediency I decided the best course of action was to grow the layers out. It’s not straightforward. As they lengthen the layers are doing funny things. Some are pulling inwards and creating a flattened effect around the top of my ears while the layers below that want to flick out. It’s created a shape not entirely dissimilar from Darth Vadar’s helmet. The trick I think, unless anyone can advise differently, will be to just keep trimming the baseline until everything ends up at the same level. Except. How to reach the back? Won’t someone else have to do that? Dear god..
Him: “I could stick some masking tape to the back of your neck, to ensure an even line?”
Me: “Mike, just get on with it..
..1cm off. Straight across the back, ear to ear..
..EXCLUDING EARS!!”
Sigh.
My hubby ordered clippers from Amazon and the 3 boys in the household have been merrily buzzing away at each other! Me, ponytail to the rescue!
Hi Ali! Great to hear from you and glad all is well with the family. I am imagining the male contingent all with crew cuts now. It’s so much easier to be a bloke, in so many ways!
My sister cut her son’s hair and he now looks like a dog with mange. I’m happy to use the clippers on the men in our family but unwilling to let them wield scissors anywhere near my hair and I speak as the person who always says to the hairdresser “Do whatever you want, I don’t care.”
Hairdressers tend to know what they are doing!
I dread going to the hairdresser. I rarely know what I want and if I do generally get told it’s a physical impossibility.
LOL! That had me cackling!
My father-in-law asked mother-in-law’s opinion as to whether he should grow a beard. I am told he went away with her response and his tail between his legs – I guess that was a “no” with embellishments!
Not had to do that so far with husband although I got a lot of practice with my son’s hair years ago – I made him do his fringe because he was fussy! I grew my layers out ages ago and now I have a long plait – not quite as long as it was in my youth, or near Bob Flowerdew’s, but getting there. I trim my fringe regularly – same as you over the bin and it does still get everywhere, even if it is wet (but less messy – let it dry and vacuum). My hair isn’t curly and it isn’t straight although one side is more wavy than the other. It never looked nice short and never suited me. I used to perm it into submission – but in the end the hair fought the perms. It has a mind of it’s own, so the only way to tame it is to tie it back. It still breaks free occasionally but that is just the newer growth. It will obey (in Dalek voice)!
My hair was long enough to sit on in my teens. Then I went for the permed look but never really got the hang of maintaining it and it always looked a mess. Perhaps that was my hair fighting back too. Short has always been the lazy option for me. Fingers through it with a hairdryer for 2 mins in the morning. Job done.
LOL! Rebellious hair! Medusas unite! As I sat in duck poo this morning it was bath time and I didn’t bother tying it back – it dried so fast. Although I do resemble Worzel Gummidge, but nobody to recoil in horror and husband is used to seeing Cousin Itt! He said he preferred it. Pffft! And so funny you should mention cutting husband’s hair – mine has requested his be done on Saturday! No peace for the wicked! LOL
Well the best of luck is all I can say. Mike has done further work on his own hair this morning so I may have lost my job. I deliberately didn’t cut too much off the first time. I figured you can always do more trimming but you can’t stick it back!
Jessica, I did this to Kevin at the start of our self-imposed isolation (he has severe asthma and is down one kidney due to renal cancer, so whether or not the NHS deems him extremely vulnerable, I certainly do!). Like you and Mike, we have been confined to the cottage and garden but we started on March 7th – the day after I did my first (and last) duty at Lanhydrock for the new season.
It was obvious that unless I did something to his wavy grey hair, Kevin’would soon resemble an affable highland bull. Following several YouTube searches, I found a middle-aged bloke from the USA cutting an equally middle-aged wavy-haired chap’s hair. Result! I watched this video four times before sitting Kevin down in the bathroom, hair freshly washed, and set to. Isn’t it amazing how far cut hair travels? He was smothered, I was smothered, the cats did a runner as soon as they saw the scissors.
Kevin is still talking to me, so I can’t have done that bad a job. As for my hair – it is currently in a layered bob and I’m growing it out – I’m thinking of digging out the mob cap that I sometimes wear when I’m the kitchen room guide at Lanhydrock. You and Mike keep safe now x
I like the sound of an affable highland bull! But then I was always fond of highland cows, they are usually far less frightening than they look.
Yes, cut hair everywhere. That was one of the reasons I chose the dining room. A simple job afterwards to run over the floor with the hoover. Except that we had to brush each other down first!
You also keep safe. We must have started self isolating on pretty much the same day. And we’ll continue until we deem it safe to emerge, though goodness knows when that will be. At least our part of the country seems to have got off fairly lightly so far.
Well done. Jackie will have a go at mine soon
Good luck both! I shall look forward to seeing the end result.
Oh holy cats! That comic routine sounds like the conversation around my house. Thankfully, I started cutting my husband’s hair with what he affectionately calls the dog clippers. Well, yes, they are dog clippers and I did by them to trim the golden retriever’s fur but that sweetheart will not sit still and allow himself to be trimmed. So the clippers were sitting there in the drawer and the husband asked me to cut his hair. I learned to stop saying oops each time I felt it! Anyway, two years on and I have to say I don’t do a half bad job and a quick one at that all for no cost. But my layered hair, like yours, is another story and I’m getting tired of having to put it up all the time to keep it off my neck as I work in the garden. Not sure I am brave enough yet to try cutting in myself and the husband has given me a flat no in that department!
Hi Felicia and welcome!
Working in the garden is exactly why I’ve kept my hair short in recent years. I cannot stand having it flopping into my eyes especially if there’s anything over and above the slightest breeze. I did smile reading about the dog clippers. Well, there was no point letting them go to waste now was there?
LOL, masking tape, that’s hilarious. When my mum became too frail to visit the hairdresser I used to wash and set it for her, and a hairdresser visited every month or so to trim it. One time she couldn’t make it I thought “I will trim it myself, how hard can it be?, I will just trim the same amount off each layer” – wrong!! It wasn’t too bad and mum didn’t notice but I was glad when the hairdresser did her magic. Cutting hair is an art.
Mike uses masking tape for everything. I did wonder whether he intended getting the spirit level out as well..
Cutting hair is indeed an art. I’ve watched my hairdresser often enough to think I knew how to do it. But the moment I started on Mike’s hair I realised I didn’t have a clue.
Greetings from the USA .. hair cutting at our house and many others is a topic as well. Man buns have been discouraged. The men have gone to the clippers and keeping it short, the women are ponytailed. Thank goodness for gardens!!!!!
Thank goodness for gardens indeed. We need them now more than ever. And being country folk we can get away with a little eccentricity in the hair department!?
My hubbie purchased clippers last year so that I could cut his hair for him, as he found visits to the barber very traumatic, especially as the one he went to was run by Eastern European chaps who insisted on setting fire to his ear hair, often without giving him prior warning. ‘And why do they insist on trying to engage me in conversation?’ he would also lament. ‘I only want a quick trim. Not a chat.’ So far, I’ve treated him to quiet haircuts (apart from the occasional – ‘That’s turned out shorter than I expected.’ I have never set fire to his ears.
Dear god again! Setting fire to ear hair? Whatever is the rationale for that?
I will mention it to Mike though. He did ask me to trim his but I drew the line at that. No way was I going probing into a restricted space with a sharp pair of scissors. If and when it gets long enough to protrude I might then have a go. Or alternatively go looking for a match..
LOL. Just trimmed up my DH’s hair last week. My advice: do it on a nice weather day–outside. The birds will appreciate the debris for their nests. DH survived. Hair looks fine and he no longer looks like Nanook of the North. But there is NO way I will let him loose with a pair of scissors on my hair. Like yours–mine is short, layered with arbitrary waves and curls. More Chewbacca than Darth Vader. Just have to refrain from looking at the back too often. I have a lovely hat to wear–should I ever go outside again. Luckily, I am retired and no longer required to work zoom and my grandchildren don’t care what I look like on facetime.
Outside.. now why didn’t I think of that. It would save all the hoovering.
I read a story last night about a chap who had tried to shave his head but the batteries ran out on the shaver before he finished. Thus he was left doing a video conference the next morning with only half a head done. Apparently he got away with it by positioning the camera at an odd angle!
We have decided to stick as we are and just see how it grows. Mr TT has not had long hair since university days when he looked a bit like Eddie Shoestring, I have a photo which he would rather I did not share. It was good of you to provide a chuckle or two, not that it is very nice to laugh at one’s good friends’ expense, but I can see us getting to that stage eventually. My waves are taking over and I have flicks in various directions. Perhaps I will make an Alice band or try a Princess Anne style scarf.
Stay well both of you, love TT xx
I am looking at it as an opportunity to experiment, on the basis that no-one (other than Himself) is going to see the result for a while. I’m quite liking the longer look, more feminine than the pixie I’ve often resorted to in the past. Give it another week though and my view could have changed entirely!
PS. Mr TT has also had a chuckle and says had you thought of hedge trimmers? I think that is REALLY mean of him!
You’ve got me thinking now. A year or so back I bought a baby Stihl trimmer, battery operated, for the low hedge round the lawn. It’s brilliant. So light and easy to use..
I was just about to get a badly needed haircut when we started on our personal lockdown, before our state issued the order. I’ve cut my bangs twice and did find a cute how-to video for that. Luckily I was pretty much doing it right. But the rest of my hair is a mess that is going to have to be pulled into a pony tail. When I can get it cut again properly, I think it will be like tree pruning. It will take a few visits to return the mess to its original look. My husband is kind of excited that maybe he will finally get a hippie ponytail! I know how lucky I am to be complaining about my hair at this moment. Stay well and keep gardening.
My hairdresser is going to be earning her money the next time I go back for sure. It will be a full on restoration prune!
It’s a scary time without a doubt. We are both lucky to have green space around us and the prospect of the better gardening months to come. You two stay well.
I’m feeling ever so lucky to have hair already long enough to cut myself! Enjoyed this greatly and think Mike should be the one checking YouTube vids on hair-cutting?! 😉 Your hair salon is looking lovely with that brick floor though the chair may lack a few comforts… You two stay safe and well, Jessica! xxx
I am quite happy that Mike is NOT checking YouTube for hair cutting vids. There is no-one other than me he can practice on. Perhaps we should have had a dog. As I understand it cats are less obliging. And I doubt Ptolemy, or the deer, would be that keen either!
Dogs are quite nice for their own sakes, of course, but I can’t recommend them for hair-cutting practice. My sis and I periodically attempt to trim her mini Schnauzer’s exuberent mop. Let’s just say we usually make it a three day job and quit on day two…
Now that sounds like quite a handful!
I somehow got stuck cutting my husband’s hair years ago (decades now!). Despite the practice I’ve racked up, I can’t say I’ve mastered the skill. You’d think as his hair got thinner, it’d be easier, wouldn’t you? And then there are the “Andy Rooney eyebrows” he’s got. And when do men start growing little hairs on the tips of their ears? The truth is he doesn’t care much what it looks like as long as it’s kept short and neat. I, on the other hand, am quite nervous about giving him the scissors to have a go at my hair, and it looks like I’m going to have to come to terms with going dishwater blonde as all those foils my hairdresser used to add highlights are out of the question…
My hair seems to grow very quickly so I’ve had to abandon highlights given the negative cost/value ratio. And anyway, it is also rapidly acquiring natural highlights of its own. Not as much grey as Mike though.. looking at that photo!
I take the nail scissors to the the front every so often. I don’t know what’s happening at the back, I can’t see it! Stay safe everyone XX
Nail scissors are good for a fringe. My hairdresser tends to leave it longer than I’d like (she clearly isn’t a gardener) so I’ve often resorted to a little surreptitious trimming. But not having had a proper cut since February things have become more challenging!
You keep safe.
For some strange reason, we are still allowed to go to the hairdresser in Australia, so I’ll still be able to get my hair cut and I’ve had grey hair for years, So a colour isn’t a problem. I’ve cut MrMG’s hair for decades, so nothing will change for him: the five weekly hair, ear and neck trim! Are those really hair cutting scissors you used?
How can you maintain social distancing doing someone’s hair? It feels really strange for me to have longer hair again. Before we came over to Australia last time I had it cut really short so it would last eight weeks..
The scissors are the general purpose ones from the kitchen drawer!
Golly gosh! I think you were brave to take on Mike’s hair. I think men’s short hair or curly hair is far harder to get right than the fuller heads women have. I cut mine last week, just by running my fingers through and lifting the hair up from the scalp. Then it’s just a matter of cutting as close to your fingers as you can. The back is way more difficult, but it is do-able. I’ve been in lockdown for a week longer than the rest of New Zealand, and it’s going to be at least a fortnight, probably 3-4 weeks more, so in all 11 weeks, so I really can’t cope until then. And, when it comes to it, at the moment a dreadful haircut isn’t the worst thing that could happen to us! Keep safe, keep well, be kind.
You’re right of course. A bad haircut should be the least of our worries. Thanks for the tip, I shall try it. I’m thinking it will be easier as my hair gets longer. Then I’ll actually be able to see the back layers as I lift them up!
New Zealand still seems one of the safest places. But I’m glad you’re taking the virus as seriously as it needs to be. It’s a horrible thing to have by all accounts. I worry about how long we’re going to be under lockdown here. For those of us in the vulnerable category it could be months. By then I might even be sitting on my hair as I did in my teens!
I admire your sense of can-do adventure, reflected in both your meticulous, magnificent home restorations and now, haircuts.
Our solution here is hats.
It’s California weather here at the moment, evidenced by the fact that I am contemplating a rain dance. And I could have definitely done with a sunhat today, way too hot for dividing huge rootballs.
We have trimmed each others hair! It was either that our come out at Christmas? With pony tails!
You could always plait it. Worcestershire’s own Bob Flowerdew..
My father asked me to cut his hair when I was fifteen, I did it for the rest of his life after that. I always cut hubs hair too but….cut my own today and simply can’t get the back straight. There’s no way I’m letting hubs near it. Loved this.xxx
The back is the problem isn’t it. Mike did a reasonable job to be honest, even without masking tape!
I’ve cut husband’s hair with clippers for years, so no problems. I hate hairdressers, who always cut too much off, so it’s shoulder-length, and when it needs a trim, I pull it all back and cut an inch off. Seems to work, although you couldn’t really call it a style. My hair is quite wavy though, and I don’t think I’d be brave enough to do this with straight hair.
I’d love to get to the point of being able to cut my own hair, which also has a bit of a wave. It would save a fortune as well as all the associated aggro. Who knows, maybe I’ll manage it with enough practice and some small bit of good will come out of all this!
😁 What fun Jessica! The Golfer had just collected over £300 sponsorship for him to have his hair cut (it’s long and wayward) when the lockdown came in and despite not having had it cut for about 15 years he was beginning to look firward to the cut as it was getting in his eyes so I have been forced to make some nominal snips. At the other exrreme mine is (usually) very short and I get it cut every 3 weeks – but he certainly doesn’t want to touch it! Hey ho!
Wow, good on The Golfer!
My hair has been short for years, I can’t stand it flopping around my face while I’m gardening. Strangely and quite unexpectedly this time I do quite like it longer so it’s staying for now. We’ve been here before though.. there always comes a point where it all has to go. And it was quite breezy out there today.. 😉
Well it is done. Husband was shorn today and he’s delighted. Not much I could do with already short hair and baldy bits! If the bit at the top was orange, he’d look like Tin Tin. It was a lot quicker than doing my son’s thick hair – but at least I had the practice with him. He was left to do his own fringe because he was fussy about how it draped down and he could flick it! Husband has no fringe to flick anyway! Hahaha! Well that should last him a little while.
Well done you!
For some reason my hair seems to be growing more quickly these days. The fringe already feels like it needs another trim. Maybe because it’s getting warmer. Or more likely because I’m just not doing it right.
I think with ourselves, we tend to err on the side of caution.
That must be it.. ✂️✂️
Or the fear of being a Dave Hill lookalike! LOL! Love those scissors!!!!
Heaven forbid!
Before long Martyn and I will be back to our 70’s hairstyles. More concerned about the lack of groomer for our poodle puppy if this goes on and the weather becomes warmer. Don’t fancy doing in myself as it would be like shaving a bag of wriggly worms, bathing her is bad enough.
Oh, a new puppy sounds great fun! If it gets much warmer she might be grateful for a trim. I had the shorts out last week, unknown for April.
I ordered hair bands to hold mine back when it begins to gets to unruly.
We are unable to get online deliveries (no slots available) so I reluctantly have to visit the supermarket each week, purchasing goods for ourselves and my mum and mother and father in law (our parents are in the vulnerable category and not allowed to leave the house). The shelves are bare of some items due to the stupid panic buying and up until this week there were restrictions on staple items making it difficult to buy what was required for three households.
Shopping is our big vulnerability too. We had some delivery slots pre booked, as we have always had because in Spring and Summer in Devon they’re at a premium. But when we get to the end of that I don’t know what we’ll do. I can’t get any more at the moment either. It actually makes me quite cross because we too might fare less well if we caught the virus and yet we appear to be barred from ordering online.
Good to hear from you, I was wondering if you are OK! The silence was getting awkward… post at least a ping, so we can get sure you are fine!
As for hairdrassing, all or kids are boys, a simple buzzer does everything for them and hubby. As for me, I wear rasta locks, self-handled. We don’t even have a single comb in the house. 😀
That sounds like the perfect hair solution to me.. I hate all the faffing about with hair. I’d love to have something I can do once and forget!
I’m glad you and hubby are well. I just noticed you were back! Hair is becomming the topic we’re all talking about now. My hair is short layers like you and I’m also letting it grow out a bit, it’s the helmet look I can’t get used to! I feel I want to set about it with scissors but so far I’ve managed to refrain! I cut the dogs hair all the time but hubby won’t let me near his! His hair was longer than mine when we met in the 70’s so it looks like we might be going back to that again lol. Take care. xx
Hi Martine!
Keep going with the hair. Mine has started to progress beyond the helmet stage. Except that the long bits at the sides that used to gently soften the ears now better resemble a pair of ear muffs, clamped tightly to the side of my head. I live in hope that this too shall pass!
Ha, my husband cut my hair and did a jolly good job! I may never have to pay for a hair cup again 🙂
I’m hoping this is the point I will get to as well. Time will tell!