What beauty maintenance do you pay for and what do you DIY?

[mommybunny]

With hairdressers and spas reopening I thought it would be interesting to know what beauty maintenance people feel confident enough to do themselves and what they’re always happy to pay to have done by someone else.

For whatever you DIY, please share tools/guides/products you use!

I will always pay for:

Haircuts (I am far too clumsy with a pair of scissors in my hands)
Eyebrow waxing/shaping (my brows are fair and fine and my eyesight is crap)

DIY:

Hair colour (my hair is naturally fair - see eyebrows above - and I just spritz the roots every couple of weeks with John Frieda Go Blonder lightening spray. I can’t afford the time or expense of the salon visits!)
Nails (Essie Gel Couture - again, can’t afford regular salon visits as my manicures never last even a week)
Self-tan (isle of Paradise drops in moisturiser)
Leg hair removal (a cheap disposable razor from Boots every few days in the summer)

I DIY all of it.

Haircut, I do myself. I learnt by watching YouTube tutorials.

I also do my own highlights/balayage. I buy a box colour and pull through some strands or paint the colour onto foils myself.

Mani and pedi I do myself. I just use a fast drying nail varnish to finish.

Eyebrows - I pluck them at home. I find this the most difficult of the DIY jobs though! It’s quite time consuming to get them looking right.

I don’t have facials or anything.

I fake tan myself at home sometimes, but I hate doing it.

For body hair I have an IPL machine, so I just shave occasionally.

I think that’s it!

I only pay for haircuts and occasionally for colour. I used to pay for loads of stuff but have massively cut back. It's too expensive and time consuming.

I shave for hair removal. I don't do anything with my face other than skin care and I don't wear make up.

I'm also giving my hair a much needed break from bleach now. I was doing it at home, (I'm already blonde, so it isn't too bad doing it myself), but it's damaged from too much bleaching, so I'm going au natural 😬.

I don't pay for anything. Mind you I don't do much myself either. I think I'm on the wrong board...

DIY:

Eyebrows - pluck & tint
Self tan
Hair removal (legs shave, bikini I use Veet)
Mani & pedi
Sometimes I colour my own hair

Outsource:
Hair cuts (sometimes hair colour)

I may have to learn how to cut my own hair! That would save me some time and money. Once the bleach is all grown out, I'm planninh to grow it out anyway into something super low maintenance.

@PollyThePony

I may have to learn how to cut my own hair! That would save me some time and money. Once the bleach is all grown out, I'm planninh to grow it out anyway into something super low maintenance.

It’s so easy to cut as long as it’s longish. It’s really freeing to be able to DIY! I definitely recommend it.

Professionally I get my eyebrows and nails done once a fortnight (obviously not during the 3 lockdowns). That’s it, I don’t get anything else done.

I get my eyebrows waxed which makes them look so much better. In the lockdowns I've been plucking stray hairs and pretending I know what I'm actually doing with them (I don't at all). End up ruining the perfect shape my amazing lady finally helped me achieve.

And I get my acrylic nails done. I know most people on here especially hate them, and they hate long ones even more. But I love them. For me they have to be long, about an inch from the free edge, or the end of my finger. When I get a new set applied I don't get the tips cut at all, and every infill I never get the length shortened, so they get longer as they grow. And always nice colours with designs and glitter. During the lockdowns I just leave them on. They obviously grow out but they last without breaking and have minimal lifting. (They lasted 15-16 weeks in the 1st one. 6 weeks in the 2nd one. And this time they have lasted 16 weeks, 16 weeks old Wednesday 14th April). For me the longer the better so I love them. I'm not me without them. My appointment has been booked for Thursday 15th April for weeks now.

I don't get my hair done regularly, or at all really. When I was around 13 I got my hair permanently straightened, not a blow dry it was called Japanese Permanent Hair Straightening. I loved it. From 14 to 16 I got blonde highlights a few times. Then when I was 16 I got my hair bleached blonde, completely, bleach on the scalp everything. I loved it but everyone else hated it and said it didn’t suit me. Even the hairdresser didn’t think it a great idea. I got my roots done a few times but I couldn’t afford to maintain it and get them done regularly. I ended up letting it grow out completely. I did it naturally, I didn’t want to dye over the bleach so I didn’t. It took 2 years to grow out completely. Since I promised myself I would never ever colour my hair again in any way, as the bleach dried it out.

The last time I had my hair professionally washed trimmed and styled was august 2012, the day before my mums wedding.

I only ever went to the same place and had it done by the same lady. She knew exactly what I wanted and liked (I always had exactly the same thing every time). She used to say "usual"? And I'd say "yes". I trusted her 100%.

I moved 250 miles away in 2013 and never bothered to try anyone else, especially for a cut or trim. Even when I got married I didn't have my hair professionally done as the hairdresser didn't turn up on the day as she 'couldn't be bothered', her exact words.

I first took my son to a local barber who came highly recommended in 2018. She's brilliant. She can cut ladies hair but she doesn't usually do it, only occasionally for certain people, and it's only a basic dry cut or trim. She did mine a few days after she did my sons hair for his birthday in September 2018. So I went 6 years without having anything at all done to my hair professionally. She was brilliant and wasn't too scissor happy like some can be. I got it trimmed again a year later again around my sons birthday in September 2019. We joked that I'd have a trim once a year. With everything that happened I haven't Ben since September 2019 and won't be going for ages yet. It doesn't bother me at all as I don't need to go. So now all I have is a simple dry cut to trim the split ends.

I wash and condition it myself, leave it to dry naturally if I can, and I straighten it myself (I have what I call 3 levels of straightening, 1 where it's a very quick going over while it's in a ponytail to take the frizz out. 2 where I section it and do it but quicker and not as carefully or as good, that's if I'll be putting it up after. And 3 where I do it properly with proper tiny sections and I take my time, like a hairdresser would. That's if I'm leaving it down).

I shave my legs, arms, underarms, and down below fully every day. I like to be completely smooth all the time, and doing it daily in the shower doesn’t take long at all. I’d never get waxed, prefer to shave.

I don’t do anything else at all, professionally or myself. I never have and never will.

I pay for everything except hair removal, I can do that myself!

@mommybunny

I’m so envious of those who do their own eyebrows!

Why do you say that? It's really not hard to do your own eyebrows

@nancywhitehead

Maybe eyebrows aren’t hard for you, but as I said in my op my brows are fine and fair, my eyesight is crap (so shortsighted without glasses or contacts the length of the tweezers is too far away from the mirror, but too longsighted with contacts) and I’m extremely clumsy at the best of times and struggle with getting them symmetrical.