Trim the Fat Tuesday: The Haircut

You may or may not know this about me, but I have short hair:


It's my default style, and most of the years of my life it has been more or less this length, give or take a few bobs and a stretch of luxurious long layers courtesy of my pregnancies. It's super easy and makes the most sense given my personal combination of fine, straight hair and laziness.

Still, what you get in ease of styling (typically a product-free five minutes of blow drying), you pay for in upkeep. Short hair needs to be cut every six weeks, and when it's fine, it needs to be cut by a real pro (for which I happily pay a premium). 

But it's been short for the last five years, so clearly there's room for a change in both style and cost if I

Decrease my trips to the hair salon to just once every two months.

This pretty much requires me to grow it out, because there's no way to keep a pixie-ish 'do looking decent this way. That's okay — I could stand for a change, and this gives me a good little push in the (dreaded) growing-it-out direction.

(By the way, if you have suggestions about styles for stick-straight, fine hair, post links in the comments! I'm open to new ideas, especially since I haven't actually given this all that much thought. I'm also wide open to any suggestions about getting through the awkward middle stages. I haven't done this in a while.)

Moneywise, the simple change from getting a haircut every six weeks to every eight weeks saves me about two trips to the salon a year. At $50 a pop (not including tip, which I typically just filch out of the entertainment envelope), I save $100 a year, or roughly $8 per month.

That's not huge, but it's better than nothing. Also, I already cut Tiegan's long hair for her, and I suppose if I grow mine out really long, she could cut it for me and I could save a lot more money. I used to cut Jonas' hair for years, but now he suddenly wants to get it done "for real." That's okay — I'm only on the hook for his upkeep for another eight years, and boys haircuts are way cheaper (which is kind of unfair).

Although, I must say, I got really good at his hair. Maybe Kirk would let me take a scissors to him too? I'll keep that on the back burner in case we start running out of money-saving ideas in a few months…

Savings per month: $8

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