Take a Risk and Cut Your Own Hair

I’m a pretty routine oriented person. I eat the same foods every week, I take the same roads, I do the same workouts, and I consume the same content. I’ve been trying to get away from this and begin experimenting with new things, because for all I know, I’m missing out on a lot. I always want to have new experiences, but wants to result in much if they aren’t acted on, and that’s something I’m looking to change.

Due to the current on-going pandemic, my hair has gotten a little bit out of control. Being Italian and Jewish parents makes for some thick hair. I don’t know about any one else, but length and my thick hair do not collaborate. By the time the initial shutdowns began in the US, it was about time for me to get a haircut. I didn’t think of this, so here I was, about eight weeks into my four week haircut cycle and it was not flattering.

So how can I fix this? I had two main options: wait it out, or cut it myself. I had never cut my own hair before, but I had seen videos (my favorite being this one from MMM) and it was tempting. As someone who is pretty frugal and likes to optimize parts of my life, it was appealing, but as someone who has no experience modifying their appearance in a way that lasts for about a month, it was pretty intimidating.

That’s where the quarantine brought about an opportunity! I can cut my hair, and even in the absolute worst case scenario, I could buzz my entire head and within six weeks I would be right back to normal. Six weeks would normally have been a pretty good deterrent of me to do something like this, but there’s a really good chance I’m still going to be isolated and working from home by then. Also, there is a pretty good solution to most bad Men’s haircuts: a hat.

The actual process of cutting my hair was pretty nerve racking, but thankfully I’ve spent the past six-ish years working on finding the best and simplest haircut for myself. I’ve had some bad haircuts in my past, and one reason for that is because I didn’t know how to describe my haircut to my barber for the longest time. Well, after a long time, I’ve gotten to the point where my entire haircut doesn’t require scissors, which means that it’s really hard to mess up my haircut. Also, this means that even someone with absolutely no experience in cutting hair can be successful. After taking my time and being as careful as I can be, I ended up with a pretty decent haircut!

Ok, so are we done with haircut talk?

The main thing I wanted to talk about with this post is that it’s good to try new things and we should be focused on experimenting and learning. New experiences lead to personal growth, new skills, and good stories (a personal objective). Does this mean that I’ll continue to cut my own hair in the future? Maybe, but probably not. It was pretty nerve racking, and I (hopefully) won’t be in quarantine forever. That said, I’m glad I did it, and I would be even in the case where I was writing this with a buzz cut. I got to feel a sense of accomplishment for doing something I had never done before, I got a new experience and anecdote to share, and I learned a new skill. These are all positive things that have only improved my life.

But what about the situation where I royally messed up? I would have learned from my mistakes and gotten a funny story and some pictures for my friends to keep as ransom.

It shouldn’t have taken me this long to do it

I’m glad I’ve finally dome something I’ve thought about for quite some time, but it shouldn’t have taken the isolation and boredom of quarantine to lead me to finally going thought with it. Even in the negative outcome, I could have worn a hat most places, and I could have embraced my mistakes in places I couldn’t. If anything, it would’ve been a funny little story to tell my coworkers and I would’ve gotten a laugh from my friends. Going forward, I want to do more things I don’t feel comfortable doing and embracing the negative outcomes when they occur.

As soon as this quarantine is over, you can catch me bombing on stage at the nearest open mic.