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COVID-19 may have brought out our inner chefs and teachers but it was difficult when I had to try and be a hairdresser to my kids!
Everyone knows that COVID-19 has made us women wear many different hats at the same time. Teacher, cook, working professional, cleaner, the list is endless. But the one that I was least prepared for was that of a hairdresser to my children. This one alone has given me several hair-raising moments.
At first, like many others, I too was optimistic that this would all be over in a matter of weeks and that we would be back to normal. So I waited and let the children’s hair grow out.
For a while it looked okay, stylish even. And then it grew with a vengeance and a mind of its own. It also became increasingly clear that hairdressers would be off limits for a while longer.
Having dealt with one of my children hating the hairdressers, I thought this would be easy. I pulled out the old hair clipper that we used for him as a toddler, only to discover that it didn’t work anymore. So I went online and bought an inexpensive one because obviously this wasn’t going to be a long term thing. Or so I naively thought!
This hair clipper proved to be one of the worst things I had purchased. After charging for 24 hours, the battery lasted a mere 10 minutes which is nowhere near enough time to do a proper haircut.
I had barely started getting warmed up and had done a very cautious trim of one child’s hair when the battery chose to die on me. Luckily, this didn’t look too bad. However, the next child refused to be subject to this clipper for fear that the battery may run out half way through the haircut.
This time round, I spent some time reading reviews and bought a high end hair clipper used by professionals. The very best. Convinced that this magical clipper was going to make the haircuts look like they belonged in a magazine, I was determined to do as much homework as I could.
So, I watched a few videos on Youtube, where hairdressers deftly show you how you can easily cut your child’s hair at home. I wondered why they would do that. Isn’t it bad for business? I soon found out why. After you cut your child’s hair yourself, you will need to eventually visit a professional to clean up the mess!
It looked fairly straightforward at first. You effortlessly collect a carefully sectioned lock of hair between the index and middle finger of one hand using the comb you hold with your other hand. Along with a pair of scissors and then decide how much you want to cut and just snip.
Take it from me, this is a trick! Don’t fall for it. Firstly, figuring out which hand to hold the scissor in and which hand to hold the hair in is anyone’s guess.
You would think holding the scissor and comb and cutting is the harder thing to do and opt to do that with your dominant hand. However, you will soon find that neither of these things is easier than the other. So you may as well flip a coin. What I did after a few failed attempts was to abandon this method altogether and just use the clipper all over.
It’s not that this method is foolproof either. What no one tells you about in this method is what a big role the uniqueness of each person’s head-shape plays.
In my own family, each member has a head-shape like no other. Thus, offering a unique set of challenges on how to manoeuver the clipper for each person’s special skull topography.
If not expertly done, this method results in patches where the hair appears shorter than the rest of the head. I wish I could say that once you do it a couple of times it gets easier. It doesn’t.
What I did learn while tackling this hairy situation (apart from how to give a decent enough looking haircut) was that good hairdressers aren’t paid nearly enough.
Always start from the back of the head. Even if you mess it up, the child in question will not be able to see it properly. Sometimes the only way to salvage a situation is by starting afresh with a clean shave, I mean clean slate and most importantly, invest in a smart hat.
Picture credits: YouTube
A freelance finance professional who writes.
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