Cutting corners

Our first years of marriage were spent cutting costs and living frugally. It had more to do with two skin flints marrying than actually being poor, but it was amusing to us.

I'd just come from two years of buying groceries for four women for $40 a month (weekend food was not included in that total. Dates, hunks of bread, pizza Hut bread sticks and sauce and the $2 bottomless soup and cornbread figured heavily into weekend eating as a single girl.)

So I didn't like to spent money rashly and $15 to 20 dollar haircut for a guy every month seemed excessive. My soul mate agreed and he was willing to put his ears at risk.

For the price of one haircut we bought a nice pair of hair scissors (not super nice. but I do still use them) and a hair cutting instruction book.

Off we went into barbershop business. I scissor cut it about every six weeks. Sometimes it was pretty awful, but as one coworker of Tad's said, "The difference between a bad haircut and a good haircut is about three weeks."

Tad was willing to trim my hair once, but then decided that it was too stressful and worth paying twenty five dollars so he didn't have to do it again. Besides most of the time I went longer than four weeks before getting it cut. Usually more like eight weeks which made the price $12.50 per haircut if you thought about it enough ways.

I got fairly good at cutting. He has only had one haircut from someone else in the last twenty years, and he didn't really like it.

I've cut the boys hair too, most of the time. I cut three of them just last Saturday morning. I quit on my oldest several years ago when it became obvious that he has the same hair as me that shows every snip and really requires a professional with skills if it is going to be short and stylist (high schoolers have a thing about STYLISH.)