Learning to cut your own hair, for fun and profit. I got the inspiration for this first from a friend who has been doing it for 10 years, I never knew although I am fairly oblivious to fashion. Also I remember from my childhood an uncle who always did this, my parents made fun of him, and gladly paid 15$/person for haircuts. I used to be in the same camp, but my way of thinking has changed. Where we live now haircuts are about 20/person with tip. Myself and my son need a haircut about once a month. My brother also gets one about once a month. Together this is 60/month or 720/year or 7200 over 10 years, add in compound interest and we are probably forgoing 10-15,000 dollars on haircuts alone over the next decade.

Given all that I decided to try an experiment. The steps are as follows. 1. buy a set of clippers, I found a set on Amazon for around 30 dollars made by Wahl, that was fairly well reviewed. 2. Watch some videos on Youtube on how to do self haircuts, for men it’s fairly simple. 3. Try it out, have a broom ready to sweep up afterwards.

The results were not bad, I have given myself a total of 2 haircuts so far (40$), and my son one (20$) so the clippers have paid for themselves. Now its obviously not pro-quality haircuts, maybe I would make an exception for picture day or something but for most intents an purposes the quality is reasonable. My wife and daughter will still be going to the salon, but I feel I have made at least a dent in some unnecessary spending. I will be doing this from now on and invest the savings. I will be looking for other DIY things where I can have a larger impact on spending.

Link to the clippers we used.