By , July 28, 2012 1:59 pm

I’m in a bit of a rut… just like the title of this post suggests, I cut my hair every six months whether it needs it or not. That may seem like a long time to go without a haircut, but it’s not really. I get it cut short (probably because I’m frugal and I don’t want to pay for more hair cuts than I need) and don’t touch it again until it’s long enough to get knotted, and hangs in my eyes. That takes six months. Any more frequent and I’d just be cutting it for fashion’s sake, and I’m too utilitarian for that.

The first time I had my hair cut this trip, it was done by a professional in Utila, Honduras. He just buzzed it short and charged me $5. It wasn’t exactly my favourite haircut of all time, but it has lasted me until now.

The Professional Haircut in Honduras

The Professional Haircut in Honduras

This time around I resolved to cut my hair myself. This decision came around for a couple of reasons. First, I had thrown out my beard trimmer when I started the Camino de Santiago. It was too heavy to mail, it was broken, and I really didn’t want to carry it on my back. So I needed to replace it. What I found was a beard trimmer capable of cutting hair, so I had the tools.

Second, I couldn’t find a place to get a haircut for less than 10€. That seemed like a lot when I had my own set of clippers.

The Process

The clippers came with an instruction manual that explained what height to set the combs to for the various parts of the head to achieve a men’s haircut. It seemed pretty easy to me, so I snuck outside by myself and started cutting with the clippers in one hand and a small pocket mirror in the other.

When I thought I was looking pretty good I headed inside to show off my work.

The Results

You can take a look a the photos yourself. After the laughs, I was sent back out for touch-ups. It seems me and the instructions used different jargon. I had thought that the “nape” of the neck would refer to everything below the bump at the back of the head that is at about the same height as your ears. It turns out, the nape is the part of the neck below the hairline. So I shaved a bit higher up than I should have… Fortunately, as my grandfather used to say,

The difference between a good haircut and a bad one is about two weeks

Two weeks later, it looks okay again.

3 Responses to “Mike’s Biannual Haircut…Oops!”

  1. Mary Ann & Terry says:

    Sorry about your hair Mike!!!! Terry feels sooooo sorry for you too, he sends you a big man hug!!!!!

  2. Terry says:

    Mike – just stumbled on your site today and I am having a great time [ with the wife over my shoulder ] catching up on the adventures. And yes, it is an entirely different Terry from the previous post -ha. Just wanted to say – I’ve tried the same “self-styling” with almost equal end results. 🙂 Best of luck on future cuts, and we’ll keep following the adventures from here on out.
    Saludos from Texas, USA

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