Wednesday, April 29, 2009

A Monumentous Haircut

You probably won't believe it, but I actually did it: I gave Dan a decent haircut!

If my life were recorded in a book, this event would have had some foreshadowing. Remember the time when I convince my little sister to let me cut her Barbie dolls' hair, in the t.v. room? (Joanna, the good little saver, always had enough allowance to actually buy additional Barbie dolls. I believe she bought a Skipper or two, in addition to her hand-me-down Barbies.) If you've ever cut a Barbie's hair, you'll know that their luscious blonde locks frizz out a bit when you trim off some of their imaginary split ends. Not so pretty.

Or the time that Mark, Andrew's friend, visited us and needed a trim. He had great faith that I would be able to use his trimmers and create a decent product. He got a trim along his neckline that was a bit high and a bit crooked. It looked better than did the Barbies' haircuts, but not by a whole lot.

Of course, the man I married is too cheap to go out to get his haircut. Fortunately, our good friend Jaynie is a pro at such spatial things as cutting hair. She just chopped away and WALLAH! A nice short FREE haircut for Danny boy! This happened for a good 3 years, without many interruptions. (The one non-Jaynie haircut came from his parents a few weeks before our wedding. Dan wanted a trim; I wanted his hair curly. His parents tried to mediate by giving him a little hair cut. I had to leave the room in fear that his head would have to be shaved before our wedding.)

Then we moved, far far away from Fillmore, NY. Dan didn't cut his hair from August to Christmas, when we went back for a visit. Jaynie to the rescue! But this time? There was not a chance that we could visit NY for a haircut. At Christmas, my sister-in-law Colleen had reassured me that I could definitely handle a haircut. And Jaynie gave me a lesson while cutting Dan's hair. Plus, Dan seriously needed a trim. So last Sunday, Danny boy and I went to our neighborhood goods emporium (aka Wal-Mart), bought a pair of color-coded trimmers and hair cutting scissors, paid for them, and made the drive home in silence, apprehensive of the things that would come.

Well, maybe not that apprehensive. But Dan kept saying things like, "I don't work tomorrow! Maybe I'll shave my head and then sit out in the sun all day so I don't have a funky tan!" Apparently, that was his vote of confidence AND his back-up plan.


So, after watching an instructional video or two on YouTube, I sat Dan down in the kitchen and went to work.



It took a long time, but in the end, it finally looked pretty good (if I do say so myself).



P.S. It looks better now, actually -- better than in that picture. Of course, I still have some room for improvement (as you can see!).

3 comments:

Jill said...

Good job, Hilary! Once you get a little more practice, you'll find it's actually fun to scare your husband during the haircut by saying things like, "oops, well, at least your hair grows fast" and "why don't we tell people that Grace cut your hair?" and so on. :)

Andrew Brautigam said...

The mirror picture is awesome. I love your look of complete terror.

Anonymous said...

I, too, love the mirror picture. :) Your eyes give you away. You are a woman of many talents, my dear!