Getting your hair cut

Ah yes!  Hair...... l once had quite a lot of that.... but it all fell out when I was about thirty; however, I can grow excellent facial hair.

Bald and Bearded Ben

You made me laugh. Well done! And thank you.

I don't particularly mind getting my hair cut. It's more waiting in the queue which grind my gears.

I wanted to get a hair shaver, and beard trimmer, at TK Max today. All I ended up getting was an ear and nostril shaver, for me, and a facial hair remover, for women. All to avoid, cashless, Argos. 

I may get hair scissors at a local Chemist. 

Speaking as a hairdresser, there are a couple of reasons why hairdressers ask about things  like holidays and xmas, one simple one is that it's an easy opener when you don't know someone so well and talking about something pleasant helps a client to relax. The other reason and if you ask any hairdresser, if they feel able to be honest, they'll all tell you, it's because clients talk about their horrible illnesses and grusome opperations in great detail. Client's also tell you things they really should discuss with their doctor, a therapist or even the police, its a strangely intimate relationship between hairdresser and client, you're touching them and for a lot of people hair is seen as quite intimate. We have to stand close to you you, sometimes closer than either of us are comfortable with, we might not be able to reach if we didn't stand close, you can't do a proper haircut at arms length.

Being in a salon and having your hair done by someone does mean you need to talk about your hair, one of my first questions to a new client was, 'how much time do you want to spend doing it every morning?' This may seem daft, but theres no point in going in with a picture of a high maintainance style and not being prepared to style it at home every day or two. Finding out what products you use, how often you wash your hair and stuff like that is also important, you'd be amazed at the numbers of people who're convinced they have dandruff when in fact they're not rinsing all the shampoo and conditioner out of thier hair and its dried and gone flakey. A hairdresser can advise you on how to wash your hair, like if you have long hair with a greasy scalp and dry ends and what are the best products to use.

I never used to like going to have my hair cut, because it was long and hairdressers saw me as a blank canvas and me asking for an inch or so off the ends seemed end up with 6 inches off the ends. This leads to a viscious circle of people's hair being in poor condition with split ends and dryness, so the hairdresser cuts it off to healthy looking hair, at which point the client freaks out and never comes back.

Hair grows between one quarter and half an inch per month on average, once hair leaves the scalp it's dead, a bit like nails, you can keep it in good condition, and thats about it, you can do things to help your hair grow from your scalp more strongly. If you have a shoulder length bob for example the ends of your hair are going to be 3 or 4 years old and if you take in the top of you head down to you shouders then you can double that.

I still don't like the dentist, although I cope with them better, don't need sedation and haven't hit anyone for years, I still don't like it and hygenists are just plain freaky! 

Yep with you there.

I cut my own now. Totally hated paying for something I never liked , they cut too much off and get too close 

I have long hair easy to cut a straight line at the bottom!

I remember one comical experience.

It was about 20 years ago, so I was in my early 30s.

One of my masking/avoidance techniques was that I'd learned to answer the most likely answer that would shut down the conversation. I was very good at it like some kind of automated heuristic A.I. But the lady cutting my hair was very chirpy and happy and genuinely interested in what her customers had to say - so my automated answers went badly downhill and I was constructing the biggest web of lies that I have ever produced. All due to me trying to end the conversation.

Like most of you, I am rubbish at lying, but this was avoidance so was a bit different (a bit like when autistics falsely cop to crimes to the police just so that the interrogation will end). She just really liked chatting. I can't remember what I'd actually ended up saying, but it was the biggest load of unlikely porkies and I was so stressed by the end of it.

My wife (girlfriend at the time) though the whole episode hysterical.

I have my hair cut by a friend and former  work colleague of my daughter. Both of them have worked with autistic people. My daughter does most of the chatting with her. The way things are going I don't think I'll need a haircut in a few years time. Mind you I was saying and thinking the same over a decade ago. It's a very slow process.  I seem to have patchy hair on my arms and legs.

Of course, growing up in the 70s, long hair was "de rigueur". If only I had looked like the lead singer in a heavy metal band. Truth is that I just looked like someone who had been pulled through a hedge backwards.

Before I purchased my hair clippers, I was not averse to cutting my hair with scissors either. The results ranged from looking reasonably OK to spectacularly awful. Lol.

One thing I wouldn't recommend though is cutting one's hair with a pair of blunt baby's nail scissors, which is what I did (to my mother's understandable horror) when I was about 4 years old. There had been nothing wrong with my hair, but for whatever reason I had felt a sudden compulsion to cut it... extremely badly.

Totally relate, and spent 50 years hating the barbers every two months. Covid changed everything and I bought my own clippers too.

Just like Whistler, they are also the best investment that I have made. I'm a little more ambitious though and do a #7 all over then a #2 on the sides and it looks like a decent enough hairstyle.

I didn't just hate the barber's, I also hated my own little hairs that get stuck in my clothes and drove me insane. So now I can cut my own hair unclothed and straight in the shower (like some bizzarro geriatric LonelyFans video)

I don't like getting my hair cut, for the reasons you mention. Also the small talk often involves my hair, which feels intrusive- although I've come to realize that it's not intended as such. Women are meant to talk about their hair I think. Anyway, avoid!

Dentists - awful, I hate the whole thing. I recently had to go, the dog having knocked out some teeth - but in fact since I had to go a few times, I got more used to it, the dentist is nice, astonishingly, maybe I can cope? 

These are things that I imagine are easy for most people.

Nice! I also have my own hair clippers, obviously. They are one of the best investments I ever made. I just give myself a "buzz cut" every couple of weeks. Not so easy for some people, who are expected to have more of a "style". Before I got my clippers I sometimes tried to cut my hair with scissors. I'll let you imagine the results!

As a child, I always had a strong dislike of being taken to the hairdressers to get my hair cut. It wasn't that I disliked getting my hair cut as such, although I disliked the itchy sensation caused by hair falling on my face and getting trapped inside my clothes. As I got older, I then developed a loathing of the small talk, which generally seemed to consist of me being asked questions such as, "Any plans for Christmas?" and "Going anywhere nice on your holidays?" Contrary to what hairdressers may think, going away on holiday is not compulsory. Furthermore, why would anyone willingly choose to go on a holiday to a destination they didn't think was going to be nice?

One of the best things I ever did was to invest in some hair clippers, as it now means I can cut my own hair... and on my terms. The only time I would be likely to set foot in a hair salon now is if I wanted my hair cut into a style that I would be incapable of achieving with my hair clippers... and if it was maybe for a once-in-a-lifetime special event.