April 2020 brought along many unexpected challenges for us all. Along with the toilet paper and cleaning supplies sell-outs came a shortage of operating hair salons. I only cut my hair every couple of years to donate it, so the inability to get into the salon wasn’t an issue for me.
My boyfriend, on the other hand, really struggled with these closures. As his hair got longer and longer I told him I could cut it for him, but he refused. He waited as long as he possibly could before breaking down and getting a haircut by yours truly in his mother’s kitchen. The problem was, we only had access to some dog clippers with no guards, a couple combs, and sewing scissors. To get him to go along with this desperately needed haircut, we decided that he could cut my hair once it was time to donate it again. With the deal in place, I cut his hair with the dog clippers, and it turned out completely fine.
The original plan was to cut my hair in January, but it grew faster than expected and I could not wait to get rid of it. I made a plan to cut it the first week in October, but I got impatient so that didn’t hold up either. I called my boyfriend on a Wednesday afternoon and asked if he could come over to cut my hair.
“Yeah, I can do it tonight. Do you have scissors or should I bring a knife?”
After telling him he absolutely could not cut my hair with a knife and sending him a quick 2 minute video on how to get a haircut even, he was on his way over. Despite the high risk nature of the decision to get a major haircut by someone who just asked if they could do it with a knife, I got my hair ready in braids and measured it out for donating. After doing that, I sat in a chair in the middle of my kitchen awaiting my fate while he quickly zoomed through the how-to video I sent him.
“Okay, let’s do this,” he said.
I originally measured out 8.5” to donate, and I ended up with 10” getting cut off. Luckily, when measuring I was thinking ahead and factored in an inch for error, so he was pretty close to the actual target. With the help of my roommates’ opinions, he was able to cut and even out my hair without the need for an emergency trip to the hair salon. Even though my haircut is not at all perfect, he did a surprisingly excellent job and I now have another cool story to tell people.
Making the crazy decision to cut off so much hair sooner than anticipated added some much needed excitement to my life during the dull times I currently find myself living in. It has given me a change I find refreshing, especially since it feels like nothing has changed or will change for months. Even if it’s not getting your haircut in the kitchen, I encourage everyone to take a risk and throw a little spice back into your life!