Those of you who are mums to boys - do you cut their hair?

[EarlyInTheMorning]

I find my 9YO DS needs a haircut every 5 weeks or so. It's £15 every time and it's such a hassle to find the time to even go to the hairdressers, he looks messy most of the time because his hair grows extremely quickly. I'm thinking about learning to use clippers and scissors myself. Do any of you know of a good tutorial to follow or have any tips for me?

sparkle12mar08, my DS's hair sounds similar to your DS1's. How do you clip it? I mean, how do you get it straight all around and the gradient effect?

No, I used to use clippers when he was younger (under 5) and used to get hysterical going to a hairdresser's but it wasn't a great look, just kept it presentable (I used an attachment that did it all about 1.5 inches long).

Have subsequently got him used to going to the hairdressers and just take him to a walk in salon with DD, you can go in after school and don't normally have to wait, two stylists do them both at the same time and it costs about £17 for the pair of them, so it's quick and easy. Usually go about 4 times a year. It looks MUCH better with a professional cut.

I do now, he went to the barbers for years but only ever wanted it clippered fairly short and simple so now I do his as well as dh's, dd's and my own. It never takes long and looks just the same as the hairdresser does it.

No, I only do a little bit of a fringe trim occasionally. TBH though these days I don't even bother doing that.

DS has had long hair since he was 3 though, surfer dude type style!

So he has his hair cut in to a style when at the hairdressers. I can't do it!

I feel sorry for the hairdresser though as it takes about 30 minutes, as I am quite fussy and they have to fix bits a few times. And they only charge £8. They must hate me.

I start with a no4 guard and do the back of the neck first. Repeated strokes upwards to about a centimetere below where I actually want it. For ds1 that's usually to a line running round the head just a centimetre or so above the ear, blending into the eye line. Then I work my way round to each ear and the front temples, still going upwards. Sometimes depending on how it's sitting I might not do very much forwards of the ears, it just depends. Then I use the scissors to just trim downwards and blend the length into the clippered bit - that takes up the remaining centimetre from earlier. If I need to thin the top a bit I also do that very lightly with the guard on and go with the grain iyswim, that way it takes out odd hairs and thins it but doesn't noticeably take of any length. I only thin the top once every six months or so.