Going to the salon is challenging and expensive. You may not think it, but cutting and trimming hair at home is easy (particularly for the boys), and it saves a lot of money. Here are some helpful tips on how to prepare your kids for that first haircut and some basic steps to help you start saving.
Prepare Kids for Their First Haircut
Preparation is the key. One of the things you can do to get children ready is to first give each other pretend haircuts. Make believe that you are going to the beauty salon and spend some time working on each other’s hair. If they are fearful of what’s going to happen you could always use a doll as an example. This imaginative play helps set up the expectations of what a haircut will be like. If you can also let you kids see you getting your hair cut, it will help them to see that the process does not hurt and can be fun.
Make a Mental Map of Haircut First
Before even starting, decide how you are going to cut the hair and think through what you will do first, what will follow, and how you will finish. Once you start cutting, you may not have as much sit still time as you would like. So you need to prioritize the parts of the haircut in your mind before the child is sitting in the chair. Any good haircutting/clipper set will have instructions on how to cut hair (some even come with a DVD!).
Tools for Cutting Hair
Make sure you have all the equipment you know you will need. This will typically include:
- clippers (see below on buying advice)
- a towel
- a comb
- scissors
- a spray bottle of water
- hair clips to hold back the hair
Give Them a Mirror
If the child is old enough, I would encourage you to give him a hand-held mirror. Children will sit still longer if they can see themselves, and watch the progress. Playing fun music in the background also helps.
Give Them a Reward
Cutting kid’s hair at home can be a challenge. Just remember to make the experience fun for the kids, and they will cooperate as much as their age allows. Knowing that they are going to get an ice cream after the event will always help smooth the process!
Advice On Buying Clippers
We found 3 different hair clippers all priced around from $50 to $100 that tended to get the best overall ratings from consumers. The first one was the Oster Fast Feed Clipper which is lightweight and compact and has twice the power of magnetic clippers. You can go from size 000 to size 1 with an simple blade adjustment giving the person giving the haircut options. The Fast Feed comes with 4 comb attachments, oil and cleaning brush, and size 000 blade. The motor is quiet, yet powerful enough to cut through wet hair.
The next popular clipper is the Wahl Pro-Chrome Hair Clipper Kit, which features a high-speed PowerDrive motor making quick work of wet or dry hair. The high-carbon steel blades never need to be adjusted and it comes with 10 guide combs and an adjustable taper control. Most of the Wahl kits also come with 2 hair clips, barber’s cape, neck duster, scissors, and combs. They also offer a 5 year limited warranty.
Lastly, we found several comments from salon employees who say they currently use the Babybliss Forefex Pro clipper on their clients and they wouldn’t change for anything else. The taper control lets you get the exact cutting position required on all head shapes.
The best place to shop for these clippers is on ebay or amazon, where you will find these and other products (with plenty of customer reviews) at considerably less than the retail market price.
