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April 27, 2020 1:02 PM   Subscribe

Cut your own hair. Dye it pink. In quarantine, there are no rules. [Vox] “Besides those who need to trim their hair for practical reasons, people have always impulsively cut or dyed their hair in moments of crisis, whether in an attempt to shed a former self or get over a breakup. It’s a common trope in film and TV, where dramatic haircuts act as stand-ins for emotional change (see: Hannah Horvath on Girls, Mulan in Mulan). As Joseph Longo writes in Mel Magazine, “It’s a rite of passage for queer people, specifically naive white gays like myself, to reach for the peroxide bottle when facing a minor inconvenience. It almost always makes things worse.” I’m not sure if anyone cut their hair during the black plague pandemic in 1347, but I bet some of them did. There’s a new pandemic now, one that requires us to stay home and distance ourselves from everyone except the mirror. Enter: the quarantine haircut (or the bleach, or the buzz).”

• A Hairstylist Ruthlessly Reviewed Your Quarantine Haircuts [Vice]
“They say we will emerge from lockdown changed, somehow. That we will cherish our freedom, hug each other more and realise the true value of sun-soaked evenings with loved ones. Basically, when this is all over, they say, our lives will look like a beer advert. In reality, most of us will probably come out of lockdown with sallow, sun-deprived skin and bad hair. Because it would seem that if lockdown has motivated us to do anything – besides making bread and getting really into jogging – it's to dabble in the necessary evil of DIY haircuts. I asked people on Instagram to send me pictures of their self-inflicted quarantine hairdos, before getting hairstylist Miguel Alaiz to review the attempts. TLDR: maybe hairdressers should have been deemed an essential service in Spain.”
• Cutting Your Own Hair Will Only Make This Worse [Vice]
““Like most people in times of crises in the past, I have been wondering if I should get bangs,” my friend Rachel Rabbit White said. A poet in Brooklyn, Rabbit White said she’s been on the verge of a quarantine makeover since day 10 of social distancing. “There’s this aspect of isolation where we’re all just looking into the mirror, like, on every level? Metaphorically, as well as literally, staring at ourselves on FaceTime.” Soon, she said, “it started to seem like a conspiracy. Why don’t I have bangs? Why do my friends say I shouldn’t get them when bangs equals attractive?” It’s a natural impulse to have as we enter week three (or four? 22? 47?) of social distancing. With at least another 30 days of self-isolation ahead of us, if not more, the question of what to do with our hair will become louder and louder as the days drag on. If you’ve been starting to wonder if you should give yourself a little quarantrim, let me stop you right there so I can tell you the same thing I told both of my friends: No. Don’t. Please stop immediately. I know your hair looks bad right now, and it’s only going to get worse before this pandemic is over. But just suck it up, and wait it out until you can see your regular stylist.”
• Photos: Men are cutting their own hair in quarantine. It’s not pretty [Los Angeles Times]
“There’s something going on with American men in coronavirus isolation ... something akin to the communal visions people were having of Devil’s Tower in Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” One by one, many of us, alone, without prompting — motivated perhaps by a reasonable fear that we’ll never see our barber again, perhaps by garden variety mania brought on by our world going to pieces — have unilaterally decided that it’s high time to cut our own hair. [...] Among my middle-aged dad friends, and scores of others I’ve heard about, the idea has become a virus of its own, filling these men with the belief that they have the chops to give themselves a passable trim. Dissecting this impulse has been interesting to me. It’s a bit of a bouillabaisse of nascent male insecurities and wish fulfillment, all seasoned to taste with the anxiety accelerant of familial isolation.”
• ‘I feel like a criminal’: Hair stylists, trainers and nail techs risk it all with house calls as coronavirus lockdown intensifies [The Washington Post]
“Two weeks ago, Alex was seeing 10 to 15 clients a day at a Portland salon, drawing steady income and living the life he’d wanted since he was a teen, who dyed his hair in the bathroom of a Dairy Queen. Back then, he wouldn’t have thought he’d have to risk breaking the law to do his job. Or that he’d have to risk his health and the health of his customers. Or that he’d have to support himself by cutting people’s hair in bathrooms again, as he did to pay his way through cosmetology school. But this is what a global pandemic has required of Alex, turning a common job into a high-risk one. After his salon manager texted him and his colleagues that they were out of jobs, Alex placed an ad on Craigslist, stocked up Sally Beauty Supply and began crisscrossing Oregon’s largest city in violation of the stay-at-home order by Gov. Kate Brown (D). “I feel like a criminal,” said Alex, who asked that his last name not be used because he didn’t want to get in trouble for his barbering services. The coronavirus recession is rapidly reshaping the economy, creating a black market of hair stylists, nail technicians and trainers catering to Americans who still want to look put together when even simple grooming could spread the virus.”
• At-Home Beauty Experiments With Jonathan Van Ness [NPR]
“ I think my first and biggest thought, it's like you don't want to make a mistake on your haircut that, like, you're going to spend all of quarantine plus some growing out, right? So I think it's like, don't bite off more than you can chew. For people with really short haircuts, it's like focus to the stuff that you can see if you're not a professional. Only do, like, the hair around your ears if you, like, happen to have like a small T-Edger or like clipper at home, just do that like, you know, right up to the top of your ear just to kind of clean that up. That makes a huge difference. Don't cut into, like, your fringe. Don't, you know, do your bangs, your fringe or whatever you call it at home. And for people with like, you know, clipper barber short haircuts, don't cut into your hair line, only the hair that, like, falls outside your hairline so that you can make the mistakes minimal - unless you don't care and you just want a full-on GI Jane it for quarantine and you're really going to embrace that, I guess that's totally OK. But if that is not your speed, then bite off little bits and don't do so much 'cause really that's what you get in a world of hurt is where you, like, break out your clippers or you, you know, you break out your orange kitchen scissors and you're like, I can give you - give myself a haircut. And it's like, no, you can't. And, no, you shouldn't. I mean, you can, but you shouldn't.”
• Isolation Is Changing How You Look [The Atlantic]
“Quarantine cuts people off from their daily life in ways that are both immediately obvious and imminently catastrophic. Millions of people lost their livelihood, their social-support systems, or both in the course of only a few days. As isolation becomes normal, though, its toll begins to emerge in more subtle ways, including on the body itself. Suddenly barred from hair and nail salons, waxers, barber shops, clothing stores, and Sephora, people have found it much more difficult to maintain the routines that structure their appearance. The last luxury I allowed myself before committing to an indeterminate period of isolation was getting my roots colored. It felt deeply silly to be concerned about my hair, among all the other, more pressing fears I had about food supplies and job stability and the safety of my elderly parents and asthmatic brother. But as I talked with friends and watched strangers on social media in the days after my own salon trip, I found they were doing similar things: going to the barber, getting acrylic nails filled in or removed, making one last appointment to get their eyebrows threaded, buying clippers to fend for themselves.”
• Locks down: buzzcuts become the coronavirus craze du jour [The Guardian]
““The next few months are a perfect opportunity to try something new and low maintenance,” says GQ style and grooming director Teo van den Broeke. “There’s no one to judge you at home, so why not remove one extra stressor – namely your hair?” If you’re going for the look, he suggests trimming your head once a week: “I’d advise using a high quality scalp and hair conditioner. Given that you’re likely to be spending a lot of time in centrally heated environments over the next few weeks, your scalp is going to need a lot of extra care.” Hair and makeup artist Krystle Gohel recommends do-it-yourself kits from Babyliss and Whal.Technique is important: “The higher the clipper number, the easier it will be to blend,” she says, adding: “If you haven’t got someone to help, then position yourself in front of a mirror and have a large hand-held mirror to check the back, just like in a hairdresser.” Gohel advises getting someone to help with the back hairline and around ears.”
• How Buzz Cuts Became the Viral Hit of a Lonely Spring [Vanity Fair]
““I don’t know if you’ve ever seen sheep shearing, but that’s actually what it used to be before 1919,” said Steven Yde, vice president of marketing at the grooming company Wahl. He was describing the old-fashioned “monstrosities,” with a hulking engine and long attachment, that barbers used during World War I to buzz soldiers’ heads. An enterprising Leo Wahl returned from duty in France and patented the first handheld clipper, which hit the market in the waning days of a global pandemic. His great-grandson, Brian Wahl, now oversees the business, with a handful of global manufacturing sites and a 1,300-employee factory in small-town Sterling, Illinois. “We’re literally out of stock everywhere across the United States,” Yde said, still incredulous as he recounts the sudden boom in demand. “To get a Wahl clipper right now is like trying to find a nugget of gold.” (In an origin-story twist, the closure of off-base barbershops and the need for social distancing has spurred several branches of the military, including the Navy and the Air Force, to temporarily ease grooming standards; a recent video showing a crowd of Marines lined up for regulation haircuts sparked concern that bubbled up to the Secretary of Defense.)”
posted by Fizz (95 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
How oddly comforting to see this here today!
I generally wear a pixie style and am currently a little over a month overdue for a haircut. To others I'm sure it doesn't look too bad, but it's starting to drive me bonkers.

I've thought about shaving my head/getting a buzz type cut and thought this might be the perfect opportunity to try it, as chances are it'll have time to sufficiently grow out if I don't like it. But for the life of me I can't find decently priced clippers anywhere.
posted by Halimede at 1:25 PM on April 27, 2020 [7 favorites]


How timely. I literally just finished giving myself a haircut 20 minutes ago. Verdict: tolerable.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 1:26 PM on April 27, 2020 [9 favorites]


I'm a 49 YO cis het white guy with a full head of very thick, wavy hair that is about 50% white now, making it look a fairly uniform gray. It's also grown out and pretty shaggy as I was overdue for a cut when the lockdown started. SO I'm letting it grow and seeing what happens. The grayer I get (more white hairs) the more frizzy it gets, especially with the rise of humidity (spring has sprung!).

So I have a "mighty boosh" of hair right now. I've been toying with the idea of bleaching it all white, snow white like David Byrne or Jim Jarmusch. I'd sorta like to be "just white" versus really gray. But I haven't looked into it too closely. My guess is this is a very messy project and going DIY is a little off putting.

Right now, with my mutton chops, I look kinda like a mid-70s era Evel Knieval. But skinny-flabby and no motorcycle or jumpsuit.

Has anyone here bleached their own hair pure white?
posted by SoberHighland at 1:29 PM on April 27, 2020 [4 favorites]


I have been obsessively watching Brad Mondo for weeks now! Also, I am wondering how I might look with a buzz cut. I wonder if these two things are related.
posted by blurker at 1:30 PM on April 27, 2020 [2 favorites]


My barber had a stroke, and he's the only person I'd trust to cut my hair. So I was badly needing a cut before this was all happening. My hair is now seriously huge: somewhere between Flo of Flo & Eddie and Reggie Watts …
posted by scruss at 1:32 PM on April 27, 2020 [3 favorites]


I had a moment of compulsively cutting my hair about 3 weeks ago (for me that was 3-4 weeks into lockdown). I very carefully combed my hair so it would be smooth (I am blessed/cursed with hair that is dead flat), and held it down on one side and cut it in a straight line, and then I thought OH MY GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE but it was too late so I had to cut the other side. It's weird, but satisfying the compulsion was a genuine relief. I almost felt high for several hours afterwards.

It looks OK actually. I mean it's obviously not salon fresh or anything, but I rarely am anyway, so whatever. I have moderately long hair (I cut off about four inches and it's still about two inches past my shoulders) which I think helps mask the slight choppiness.

This past weekend I dyed it blue but I planned that and had help (I mean it wasn't a sudden I CAN'T CHANGE MY LIFE SO I WILL CHANGE MY HAIR thing) and it looks great.
posted by joannemerriam at 1:41 PM on April 27, 2020 [4 favorites]


I'm using this video as inspiration as I watch my super-short pixie grow out. It gives me guidance and confidence.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 1:42 PM on April 27, 2020 [2 favorites]


We have Wahl clippers at home, bought several years ago to fight a lice infestation (ah, elementary school). I have been tempted to buzz my hair because I don't really care much, but I live with my husband, so I am not the only one who would have to look at it. He wouldn't stop me, but we're under enough stress as it is.
posted by ceejaytee at 1:42 PM on April 27, 2020


I don't judge anyone who feels the need to look a certain way on Zoom because there's all sorts of legit reasons for that (even if I wish they weren't legit, like horrid attitudes about how women need to look).

But oh boy you are bad and should feel bad if you write an article shaming people for cutting their own hair. The economy ain't so bad you gotta stoop that low.
posted by straight at 1:44 PM on April 27, 2020 [35 favorites]


I have been obsessively watching Brad Mondo for weeks now!

Me too! While I am not doing any DIY haircuts, even though I could really use a trim, I've made the decision that at some point in the future, I will donate my hair (it's down to the small of my back) and get a funky haircut and professional dye job with multiple colors. Inspired very much by some of the things I've seen in his videos. So, not exactly a quarantine hair situation, but I'm not sure I'd have made this decision without having been in quarantine.
posted by acidnova at 1:45 PM on April 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


I've been shaving my head for a couple of decades now, pre-rona I'd go maybe a week or two, and use electric trimmers to trim it off and then shave off the rest with a razor. Since quarantine I'm shaving every two or three days.

I did all the fun stuff with my hair when I had enough hair to do fun stuff with. Bleached it, dyed it let my weird drunk friends cut it, etc. Now, having like 76 wispy strands of purple hair sticking out of my otherwise bare scalp seems like a lot of work without much payoff.

That said, I highly recommend doing fun stuff with your hair if you can, whether or not there's a plague going on.
posted by Cookiebastard at 1:46 PM on April 27, 2020 [8 favorites]


I keep asking my kids, 5 and 8, if they want to change their hair colour or cut their hair really short or do something to it and they keep saying no. I'd have thought all the anime they watch would have influenced them but I guess not.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:48 PM on April 27, 2020 [3 favorites]


I last got my hair cut and dyed in mid-February. They just announced that our shelter-in-place is extended until at least May 31st. I'm seriously considering buzzing it down to, say, a 4 on the trimmers (2 on the sides), and then texting a pic to my hair dresser.
posted by hanov3r at 1:48 PM on April 27, 2020


Hey Halimede -- I'm in the same boat as you, but managed to find a nice though pricey set of Wahl clippers on Amazon, which are supposed to arrive Wednesday of next week. Depending on where you live, maybe we could share? (send them back and forth, I mean.) Hit me up via MeMail if you're interested.
posted by Kat Allison at 1:53 PM on April 27, 2020


I really shouldn't try bangs. I will look like a poodle. I want to though. Should've done it right away.
posted by geegollygosh at 1:58 PM on April 27, 2020


Please do not attempt (bleach) on your own

Injecting it when you're with others is fine as long as you're at least six feet apart.
posted by bendy at 2:05 PM on April 27, 2020 [8 favorites]


I was lucky enough to have a style that was basically "long bangs tucked behind the ears and hair that you can wear curly in the back" which can grow out for a while before it gets too crazy. I haven't had short bangs in years and that was a good call on my part. It also works well with headphones, which I spend a lot of time wearing on Zoom calls these days.

My female friends are mostly using ponytails and head wraps. My male friends look pretty bad tbh because they tend to middle age and so it's scraggly growing out but balding which is not a good look for anyone. Also too many quarantine beards not getting trimmed. It's a festival of unkempt hair on these video calls.
posted by emjaybee at 2:08 PM on April 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


I chopped about 5 inches off a few weeks ago because I was already waaaay overdue when this hit. I'm thinking about getting a home dye kit but have past hair trauma/perms/bad home dye jobs etc so I'm hesitating. I guess it really doesn't matter now though.
posted by Bacon Bit at 2:13 PM on April 27, 2020


I thought about dying my hair, but then my wife reminded me that, as she is severely asthmatic and sensitive to the chemicals, I'd be sleeping outdoors.

So I'll just have weirdly long hair when it's over.
posted by mephron at 2:14 PM on April 27, 2020


I started giving myself haircuts in college - I'd agreed to be a "hair model" for a hairdressing school so I could get a free haircut, and I was so horrified at the result (but too timid to demand anything from the student stylist, who was trying so hard!!) that on the way home I bought a $40 pair of clippers from Shoppers Drug Mart and haven't looked back since. It helped that my hair was varying shades of purple/pink during the first couple years, since I could pass the whole thing off as "experimental". At this point I've gotten pretty decent at it, even managing to pretty reliably get a decent fade on the sides/back without help.

My only worry is that my aging, abused clippers will crap out when I'm like, halfway through a haircut and I won't be able to find a replacement since everyone's bought them all up! Time to start looking up hair clipper maintenance practices...
posted by btfreek at 2:19 PM on April 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


I just bought a few wigs. Luckily my hair was (much to my chagrin) cut into an Annie Lennox style pixie cut in mid March. It’s just now at the length I typically like it. In a month or so it’ll get annoying, so wig time!
posted by Young Kullervo at 2:23 PM on April 27, 2020 [3 favorites]


Another sign that we're living in odd times: How to Cut Your Hair at Home -- Unless you're lucky enough to be quarantined with a hair care professional, you might be getting desperate for a trim. Let us help you avoid a DIY disaster. (WIRED Magazine, filed under "Gear")

That's right, Wired is weighing in on how to cut your hair at home.

Personally, my family went with the buzzed look. My wife was the first, and might have inspired a few other women to go with super short cuts. Then the boys said they'd be OK with going really short with buzzed heads, despite them both being twitchy little boys at the barbers when it comes to the mechanical razor getting anywhere near their heads. I held out another day, mostly because the tired, old razor ran out of charge and choked on my hair as it was running down.

Showering is so much quicker, as is drying off. My wife is already thinking she's getting a bit fuzzy, and her hair is long enough its getting funny flat spots and spiky spots in the morning.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:26 PM on April 27, 2020


I've been cutting/trimming my own hair for years, but my hair is pretty basic. It generally lies there and points straight to the Earth's core unless it gets short enough for the cowlicks to kick in. I cut off about five inches a few weeks ago to save on shampoo.

I haven't colored it in a few months, though. Premature gray runs in my father's family (Great-Grandpa's WWI Army record lists his hair color as "gray" at age 25). Mine came in salt-and-pepper after cancer treatment 15 years ago. I've been wondering if now is the time to finally do something graceful and let the gray grow out
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:29 PM on April 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


My five-year-old’s hair is getting super shaggy and I really want to give him a mohawk but he’s having none of it.
posted by not_the_water at 2:30 PM on April 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


I passed hair-threat level three (William Katt's Pippin) at least three weeks ago, and now my 'don't is evolving into a sort of Gossamer-shaped curl heap. I'm using spiral "spin" pins, claw clips, and barrettes to wrangle hair that hasn't been this big since prom, so yes, I've been eyeing the clippers.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:34 PM on April 27, 2020 [4 favorites]


If you have long hair and aren't, say, growing out braids, I do not want to hear your complaints. Oh no you had long hair and now you have longer hair, how ever will you hold your head up in public. Bah!
Sincerely,
a short-haired curly-haired person who hopes feathered hair comes back in style
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:36 PM on April 27, 2020 [13 favorites]


I was lucky enough to be at my best friends house when our Governor announced that school would be at-home for the rest of the school year. Her girls (8 and 11 yo) started screaming with joy. I thought it was because "yay, no more school" but no. They go to a Catholic school and my friend promised that if school was cancelled, they could dye their hair whatever color they wanted (against the dress code at school). We spent the next hour discussing options.

My hair is already long-ish but the ends are getting sooooo fried. I wouldn't mind getting maybe an inch or two trimmed off just to get rid of the frizzies, but I 'm so nervous. I'm going to read through these links to see if I can work up the courage to do it.
posted by Gray Duck at 2:44 PM on April 27, 2020 [4 favorites]


While zoom-style meetings within my workplace use video to promote that “hey! hi!” camaraderie, I have noticed that in the external, community-type meetings we are now more commonly going with the “video off” option. It makes me laugh.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 2:52 PM on April 27, 2020


Curly haired person with asymmetrically long hair on top and short around the sides and back. I get my hair cut about every six weeks, and my last cut was about a month before the shelter in place. So I'm well over a month overdue at this point.

My hairdresser is holding a "worst grow out" competition (prize is a free cut) as an incentive to not do anything rash during quarantine. She has confirmed that I will be a strong contender.
posted by damayanti at 2:55 PM on April 27, 2020 [21 favorites]


I tend to think that if you've had a few bad haircuts from professionals, you become either very fearless or very terrified of experimentation. I've never dyed my hair (yuck the smell), but I cut mine all the time. I mean...it grows back! The worst case scenario is that you have to try again in a month!
posted by grandiloquiet at 3:01 PM on April 27, 2020 [5 favorites]


Nothing super dramatic going on with my hair, but the longer this goes on the more I look like Chuck Klosterman.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:02 PM on April 27, 2020


I've decided to use this time for one final attempt at the curly girl thing. I figure it's the perfect time to walk around with oily, straggly 2A hair as my scalp adjusts to fewer washes.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 3:03 PM on April 27, 2020 [2 favorites]


My hair grows and stays perpendicular to the surface of the scalp from which it springs forth. Over time, gravity bends it down as it grows longer, but this basically means that after a certain point, a short buzz cut will turn into a weird Asian 'fro that looks like a globular cactus with an abundance of points that, eventually, begins to wilt until the hair on my sides and back are long enough to point down.

I also always knew I had gray and white hair, but for whatever reason the front 1 inch of my scalp is still black, so I could never see it, especially with a buzz cut. Also, the addition of white and gray hairs that are even more bristly appears to have "flattened the curve" (too soon?) and prolongs the eventual weighing down until, I don't know, my side hair is down to my jaw line instead of the bottom of my ears? I am curious at both how long it will take to calm down and what color it will be when it does, so I'm letting it ride.

As for Zoom meetings, the AI for virtual backgrounds crops the spikes out so I look like Lupin III. I consider this a bonus.
posted by linux at 3:07 PM on April 27, 2020 [9 favorites]


I'm going to show that video of the guy giving himself the Aang haircut to my kids. Maybe that'll convince them to do something to their hair.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:13 PM on April 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


My hopes that the pandemic would lead to a resurgence of longer hairstyles on men have been dashed :'(
posted by eviemath at 3:27 PM on April 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


I don't care if anyone thinks I cut my hair badly. I assume they'll just think, "corona-head" and shrug it off. For me right now, walking around looking like Doc Brown in Back to the Future is not something I can take anymore.
posted by SPrintF at 3:28 PM on April 27, 2020 [3 favorites]


Before all this shelter stuff started, I had started to grow my hair out. I'm 61 and it's gloriously beautifully white. I've had a buzz cut with moments of complete shaving since the 90's and I've always owned my own clippers. It was time for a change. Also I've been wanting to dye my hair an unnatural color but working at a service desk in a library convinced me not to. So now I have long(for me) blue hair and goatee. When this is done I'm going to grow the full beard again and go with green. I want to be the green man.
posted by evilDoug at 3:34 PM on April 27, 2020 [10 favorites]


I do not understand why there’s so much shaming about people cutting their own hair, I’ve seen so many social media posts and most of the articles linked above. So many people do it already as a matter of cost and convenience — and it grows back! Who cares if you fuck it up? Why are stylists shaming their clients for it? I get that you can damage your hair by bleaching and dyeing it but...a haircut? Good grief.

I gave my ladyfriend a haircut a few weeks ago with bikini trimmers and the kitchen scissors I use to break down chicken carcasses. It was the first time I’ve ever cut hair, so there was one strip that was hilariously shorter than the rest. We had a lot of fun! I am a hipster and she doesn’t give a shit about her hair and she was teasing me for giving her a “hipster” haircut by leaving the top longer than the sides.

After that experience I actually bought a pair of clippers and some scissors online and she returned the favor and gave me a great haircut. I don’t think we’re ever going to bother going to get our hair cut again. As an introvert who keeps losing hairstylists who move around a lot I’m really happy about this. I no longer have to explain that I’m a high femme who wants a butch haircut and to please not worry about it being “flattering” and I have no problem telling my partner she needs to take more off the back or whatever. One of the few upsides of the new normal right now. So I will be bristling at all the hairstylists telling their clients not to dare touch their own hair.

Actually, one more good thing. I also haven’t worn a bra for over a month and I normally wear makeup everyday but I’ve only worn it maybe two times. I do like not having to worry whether strangers will find my body/clothes/face socially acceptable. As someone who struggles mightily with that it’s been amazing to not think about that at all.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 3:35 PM on April 27, 2020 [25 favorites]


We were just about due for haircuts right as everything went south. I'm also trying a playoff beard sort of thing. Because there's no hockey, there's no playoff, I wonder when I can stop.

Though really, it's been at least 15 years since I even tried growing full facial hair. there is a lot more gray in it this time.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 3:36 PM on April 27, 2020


Given that you’re likely to be spending a lot of time in centrally heated environments over the next few weeks, your scalp is going to need a lot of extra care

A lot of this is just straight nonsense.

One of my younger household members has thick hair that grows right into his eyes, so I cut it, fairly terribly. Now it isn't in his eyes, which counts as a positive result.

Another household member is an adult male, whose shaggy hair I helped slightly tame around the ears and shortened his sideburns. It looks better! I am not the kind of person who ever cut anyone's hair for fun or for any reason so it was a bit stressful.
posted by 41swans at 3:42 PM on April 27, 2020 [3 favorites]


My barber is great, but I've wanted to grow my hair out again (went from a ponytail to a #2 all over back in 2000) before the grey really starts to multiply. What the hell, goes with the plague beard, although *that* is at least 10% grey...
posted by notsnot at 3:44 PM on April 27, 2020


Actually, one more good thing. I also haven’t worn a bra for over a month

Yes, this so much! I love being without a bra for days on end. However, past experience with an extended unemployment and lack of socializing taught me that wearing cotton shirts every day sans bra and not using lotion on my boobs meant dry, chapped nipples. So use lotion!
posted by acidnova at 3:49 PM on April 27, 2020 [8 favorites]


> Given that you’re likely to be spending a lot of time in centrally heated environments over the next few weeks, your scalp is going to need a lot of extra care

A lot of this is just straight nonsense.


Yes! Oh my god that line stuck out to me too. We’re all just trying to stay employed and to mourn the loss of normalcy, touch, and feeling carefree — on top of the loss of so many people. Take care of your scalp, or don’t, self care really isn’t about whether you use two different expensive products.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 3:58 PM on April 27, 2020 [4 favorites]


I have Indian hair, which is to say thick and curly to the point of snarling if it grows beyond about shoulder length. Until I hit professional earnings in my 30s, I couldn't afford salon prices, which are pegged to, like, Reese Witherspoon hair; if you are (1) curly or (2) longer-haired or (3) "ethnic" you get slammed with some sort of price multiplier that does NOT work in your favor.

So I can count on one hand the number of times I've paid someone to cut my hair. Once at SuperCuts in the aftermath of a college breakup. Once for a friend's wedding; once to donate my hair; once just before my residency graduation. It's been about a 50% success rate in terms of "that was a good haircut" -- even the time I went back to the same person with a photo of how she had cut my hair the last time.

These days, honestly, I'm just used to cutting my hair on my own. Sharp scissors, hand-held mirror, tolerance for making small changes instead of big ones. I made plenty of mistakes early on, like the time I tried to go for layered side-swept bangs in college, that is definitely an ambitious skill best left to the pros. But haircuts for the purposes of "I need to look vaguely presentable and want to keep the hair off my neck during the dog days of summer"? Totally doable at home.
posted by basalganglia at 4:07 PM on April 27, 2020 [10 favorites]


I've had a pixie cut for a while, but it's not surviving the stay-in-place order well. I wear glasses, so having short bangs is a huge deal for keeping my glasses clean- I've trimmed the bangs (badly) once, and am now considering a GI Jane cut because we have clippers that work...
posted by eriphyle at 4:17 PM on April 27, 2020


I am told that if you go full buzzcut there will be a point at which the growing out hair will poke your ears in the most annoying way.

Me, I get half a foot lopped off once a year and if I skip this June I don't think it will be such a big deal. My temptation is that I have a blue streak carefully positioned so I can either have an accent or hide it if I need to be conservative. This means I have enough bleach and color in my house that I could do my whole head blue. I want to so badly but I'm nearly 50 and may yet have to job hunt someday. The temptation is terrible.

By the way, if you're in the position of having hair just long enough to fall in your face and think you can't braid it, a french or dutch braid may be the answer to getting everything contained.
posted by Karmakaze at 4:25 PM on April 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


I've been cutting my own hair since the mid-90's with no regrets, and my partners for nearly 7 years now... still have no real idea what I'm doing but as we both go in for short, somewhat chaotic, vaguely postpunk cuts a little imperfection is fine.
posted by remembrancer at 4:26 PM on April 27, 2020 [4 favorites]


As someone who's gone buzzcut for 25 years, I heartily say, "Welcome, everybody! C'mon in, the water's cool breeze over your head is fine!"

(Although, y'know, sunscreen and/or hats are pretty much mandatory, too . . . )
posted by soundguy99 at 4:46 PM on April 27, 2020


I've been growing out a pixie cut for about a year now and so my hair is just an uneven mop. It can look pretty good when I bother with it but I usually don't, so uneven mop it is. I want to get a bob when all of this is over so it's fine that it's growing out.

I keep being tempted by bleaching it but I know that's a bad idea (I did it when I was 18 -- fun enough, I don't need to do it again). I have been putting fun colors on top of my hair, though (kind of overdue for that) but my natural color (except for the gray) is pretty dark so it doesn't come out that vibrant but it's fun and it's pretty enough.

When I had bangs, I used to trim them pretty regularly but that was mostly because when I'd go into various places, like Hair Cuttery or even slightly more upscale places for walk-in trims (my hairstyle was that the rest didn't need much maintenance & the stylists I went to regularly were far away), they'd never do that great of a job, I'd be out like $15 and I'd still have to go home and retrim them myself. So I just figured I'd trim them myself because it couldn't be much worse. It was not. Often it was better.
posted by darksong at 4:48 PM on April 27, 2020


Timely. Two of my friends announced they shaved their heads today.
posted by tiny frying pan at 4:52 PM on April 27, 2020


My friend sent me a picture of her quarantine bangs yesterday. Waaay too short and one side is a lot shorter than the other.

Notes on how to cut bangs from someone who's had 'em all her life:

(a) Pull down the hair before you cut it, but only cut around the eyebrow line. You want them to be longer than you think they are going to be when you break out the scissors, because they WILL come out shorter than you thought otherwise.
(b) Per a hairdresser of mine, don't just cut straight across in a straight line. Take one side of the bangs and twist them into a rope, then cut them at an angle (not straight across), again at the eyebrow line. Do the same to the other side. That way it looks more natural.

As for my own hair, it's pink and the roots were already showing before this. I'm terrible at doing my own hair, so it's just going to have to get long and end up with pink tips by the end of all of this.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:56 PM on April 27, 2020 [2 favorites]


I miss my Twilight Sparkle stripe, but alas male pattern baldness has considerably thinned my hair right where the stripe is supposed to go.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:57 PM on April 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


My hairstyle officially gave up the ghost sometime yesterday morning. I was seriously contemplating just buzzing it all off, but I don't think that would suit. So I settled for buying headbands.
posted by thomas j wise at 5:05 PM on April 27, 2020


Always cut your bangs vertically!
posted by emjaybee at 5:18 PM on April 27, 2020 [4 favorites]


I was growing my hair out, as part of a gender transition, anyway... but it would still be nice for someone to help me make it look reasonable while it grows out. :-/
posted by SansPoint at 5:37 PM on April 27, 2020 [2 favorites]


Everyone telling people not to cut their own bangs in quarantine needs to STFU. In most parts of the world hairdressers aren't opening anytime soon. What am I supposed to do, let them grow into my eyes? Please.
posted by vanitas at 5:41 PM on April 27, 2020 [8 favorites]


I was due for a cut after a disastrous attempt at trying a new stylist around New Years. Was trying to figure out where to go next in my area that wouldn’t disappoint me again. Then pandemic!

I wouldn’t care that much about growing out the bad cut except I also didn’t get it thinned out by the bad stylist , which is vital to me. My hair is abysmally thick but fine so it’s impossible to do anything with. I have hair scissors but no thinning shears and no idea how to use them if I could find some in the few stores with tools around here. I just want this feels like 50 pounds of extra hair gone.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 6:00 PM on April 27, 2020


I've had to give presentations to important members of the public and our clients almost every dang day of the last month and a half of quarantine, so while I would have loved to lean into Fun Purple Pandemic hair, instead I find myself wearing normal work clothes from the waist up and even MORE makeup than normal (on a well-lit webcam, I look dead without lipstick and eyeliner, which I didn't wear much of before). Although one of my co-workers gave himself quarantine mutton chops, which is excellent.
posted by bowtiesarecool at 6:07 PM on April 27, 2020 [3 favorites]


If you're itching to cut your hair, consider this tiktok trend?
posted by airmail at 7:03 PM on April 27, 2020 [4 favorites]


I dyed the two front undersections of my hair purple a few weeks back. The dye is allegedly temporary so they’re fading to a nice hot pink. I might do the entire underside this weekend. I’m home until (at least) June 1. I have no more fucks to give.
posted by kimberussell at 7:04 PM on April 27, 2020 [2 favorites]


I've had to give presentations to important members of the public and our clients almost every dang day of the last month and a half of quarantine, so while I would have loved to lean into Fun Purple Pandemic hair, instead I find myself wearing normal work clothes from the waist up and even MORE makeup than normal

This is about where I've been at -- would love to just really fuck my head up apocalypse-style like a Fallout 3 raider, but still gotta look presentable for clients on Zoom. I did give myself a trim & a bit of a side shave, which was NBD since I've been cutting my own hair for years & taquito boyfriend helped me clean up the back (he's on deck to get a sweet pandemic mohawk).

Other than not being able to see the back of your head easily, there's nothing magical about cutting hair that makes it a skill you can't learn & get better at, like cooking your own food or sewing your own clothes or building your own furniture or basically anything humans can do. (Humans [not me] can hand-make filo dough. Humans are amazing.)

One difference, though, is that in non-pandemic times, the stakes for an imperfect practice haircut feel really high for many (largely non-queer/punk/counterculture/neuroatypical/otherwise not giving a shit) people, so they don't take it up as a hobby the same way they might decide to learn how to make restaurant-quality sushi at home. Which means they're cutting their bangs for the third or second or very first time in their whole lives & yeah nah they might not get the results they were going for.

Good news, Normos™: the stakes for an imperfect haircut have never been lower, and if you're into creative expression, cutting your own hair can be really fun and rewarding! Even if you never cut your own hair again, you'll learn more about its idiosyncrasies, which will make you a better advocate the next time you're in the chair & your new stylist says "I'm thinking a really short bang would be cute" because she doesn't understand the horrible things your cowlicks do post-shampoo.
posted by taquito sunrise at 7:07 PM on April 27, 2020 [10 favorites]


I finally flipped out and buzzed the sides of my head. I have the kind of hair that just grows straight out, and I had been rocking a high and tight before the epidemic. The buzz cut didn’t go so bad! Now I’ve got a very shaggy undercut, as the cool kids would say.
posted by WedgedPiano at 7:20 PM on April 27, 2020 [2 favorites]


I have clippers coming this week. I know NOTHING about clippers. (Did I get the RIGHT clippers??) I'm a little nervous. I have a pixie that I really like and managed to get it cut right before lockdown, but it's shaggy enough to bug me and I don't figure cutting it is going to get easier if I wait.

I want to just take care of the back of my neck and maybe over my ears, but buzzing it down has its appeal, and there's a decent chance I chicken out entirely. I live alone and I've never done anything like this before, so the plan is to see what I can research ahead of time on YouTube and then have a friend supervising via Zoom.

On the one hand this feels like an extremely foreseeable error, but I dunno, it would be nice to be able to take care of my neck and ears myself. I would totally do that between haircuts even when I can get them every other month. And like, I barely give a shit what the back of my head looks like normally, I can live with it being a little wonky right now.
posted by jameaterblues at 7:34 PM on April 27, 2020


I always colour my own gray, and have a stockpile of boxes of hair dye because whenever I see it on sale I buy all they have in my colour. I also just get my hair cut twice a year, and it was cut in February, so I'm good until August. I tweeze my own eyebrows too.

Funny how the measures I've implemented to live on an extremely low income/with chronic fatigue issues also prepared me for a pandemic.
posted by orange swan at 7:45 PM on April 27, 2020 [11 favorites]


Me, I get half a foot lopped off once a year

I was catching up on the thread when I came upon the above phrase. I was momentarily aghast, because why is someone doing that to Karmakaze's feet?? And why is Karmakaze so oddly chill about it??
posted by evidenceofabsence at 9:34 PM on April 27, 2020 [10 favorites]


I gave myself a haircut using the unicorn method (put hair in a ponytail at the top of your forehead, cut off ponytail about 4 inches from head) It took less than 5 minutes and is the best haircut I've ever got! It's just a bit below shoulder length with perfect layers. I'm going to always do it this way! Though, if I parted it in the middle and used a curling iron, I could farah fawcett the hell out of this lid. If farah fawcett had blue hair, that is.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 9:51 PM on April 27, 2020 [10 favorites]


My hair has been various non-natural colors for years, most recently a bleached blonde (as a better match for the grey underneath than the reds). I decided shortly into SiP that I wanted to color my hair some VERY non-natural color. I texted my hairdresser, who freaked out a bit, but then gave me her recommendations for a semi-permanent color. One EBay purchase later and fast forward to a lovely lavender hair color! It's already fading out to blue and I'm ready to go for a more dramatic purple next.

My job involves going in front of legislative bodies and the media and so on, so I usually try to keep things a little professional. At the beginning of SiP, I figured I wasn't about to be giving testimony or interviews anytime soon and could go for the purple. Joke's on me, though, as I'm doing a Congressional briefing tomorrow (via Zoom, of course) and have already done 1 video interview. I'm feeling free to go for a more dramatic color, though, after tomorrow, given how fast this fades out. By the time the state legislature reconvenes it will be back to the blonde. Mostly.

The back of my head was feeling super shaggy and bugging the crap out of me. Fortunately, one of the members of my quarantine pod has a set of clippers and was willing to clip the back of my head and it feels so much better. And I really don't care how it looks, since I can't see it and no one on Zoom can either!

I love my hairdresser. I've been going to her for years, and she cut rtha's hair, too, and came and cut her hair at our house when rtha was sick. I'm really eager to see her again and am not going to start doing all of this at home. She's worth what I pay her (and I pre-paid my next haircut to help with her cash flow.) But the freedom to do whatever with my hair in the moment is feeling very liberating.
posted by gingerbeer at 9:52 PM on April 27, 2020 [9 favorites]


Up until six months ago (when for reasons I started growing my hair out) I'd been buzzing my own hair for years. Depending on my mood somewhere between a 3/8ths and 3/4 inch guard. I just do it in my shower stall (no water) and run the clippers over my head until they stop making cutting noises. The shower is easy to sweep and contains all the tiny little hair bits which can just be washed down the drain.

It's about 6" long now and I'm kind of excited to get it long enough to braid or maybe pull it back in a pony tail. I'm semi-hopeful I don't get called to work before then (cause I'll have to buzz it again to make wearing a hard hat tolerable).

And I'm psyching myself up to maybe go with some wild colour.
posted by Mitheral at 11:21 PM on April 27, 2020 [2 favorites]


I've been cutting my own hair since we started social-distancing over here about six weeks ago, and so far it's going pretty well! And now I'm getting increasingly tempted to dye it pastel pink or purple...
posted by Mauve at 11:29 PM on April 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


There are soooo many good YouTube tutorials on autotonsorialism, or whatever the official word for cutting your own hair is. I advise anybody thinking of doing it to watch lots of them first, for confidence and inspiration.

Sectioning is a really good skill to learn, especially if your hair is heavy and coarse like mine. Most of my proper equipment is in storage right now (Sally Beauty Supply used to be on my walk home, so paying for a membership and haunting the sales and clearance racks paid off). But last time I sectioned with a wide-tooth comb, ponytail elastics, and bobby pins, and it worked out OK. I kept it long enough to wear up, just in case.

Take small steps, cut vertically, and maybe have a friend handy in case you just can't get that bit in the center back quite right.

I always envied curly hair, and spent a lot of time, money, and heartache on a series of failed perms in the late eighties/early nineties when flat hair wasn't very popular. But I can imagine it takes more patience and fiddling to section and cut.

I've gone through the mess of growing bad, cowlicky bangs too often to ever try it again. I do have a decent set of clip-on bangs, but they're in a shade L'Oreal doesn't seem to make anymore.

Anyway, we'll probably be cooped up long enough for the wigs to arrive from Amazon. Or maybe ladies' caps and hair coverings will make a comeback. Just as easy to sew as a mask.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:50 AM on April 28, 2020


I have long, semi curly, coarse hair that's mostly dyed hot pink. The grey is becoming a starring attraction during the lockdown (center front, both temples), but that's OK. I also own the same dyes my stylist uses, so I rebrightened my pink-af-fringe this weekend and did my tips purple out of boredom. I need a trim, but if you're already a little frizzy, there's a lot of room for forgiveness to your style around now.

I do have an appointment to see my stylist 5 days after the lockdown MIGHT end... We'll see if I have to move it. Currently teaching myself to blow it out straight, but that's not helping the frizz in the long run.

Acquire a deep conditioner, stop washing so often, and roll with it, is my POV.

Also I too am sad not to see more guys with longer hair and oh god, save me from the Pandemic 'tache.
posted by taterpie at 12:50 AM on April 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


This has inspired me to dye my hair with kool-aid. Never did that before but why not try it as a stupid adult instead of a stupid teenager.
posted by LizBoBiz at 1:03 AM on April 28, 2020 [5 favorites]


Got a pair of clippers and hairdresser scissors a few weeks ago and my partner had a first go a few days ago. At 2 metres you really couldn't tell. Close up its a bit scruffy in parts.

Basic technique (for guy's hair): have washed and dried hair and go slowly. I remember my school woodwork lessons, you can always take more off but you can't glue it back it on. I brush the top forward and brush down the sides and use the clippers at highest setting on back and sides but just go vertically up and do not follow the curve of the head at the top. This leaves a slightly scruffy join between top and sides but is not noticeable at distance. Tidy up the back of the neck and cut off the least front fringe to keep it out of your eyes. Then leave a day or two to see how it settles.

Next up try this again with side partings and then if need be with centre parting. Then and only then bring out the scissors.
posted by epo at 2:32 AM on April 28, 2020


I did cut bangs for myself about 30 years ago and kept them for about 10 years.
Other than that, I never get my hair cut. I used to fantasize about a perfect short haurcut that would magically transform me into looking fantastic. But the logic side of my brain reminded me that I would never ever maintain it.

So I very unfashionably keep it in a bun-like configuration.

But,tangentially, I did manage a major trim on the brambles trying to take over my front door. Hurricane Florence pushed over the little support saplings that grapevines and briars were crawling about so it was getting closer every year.

Cutting it all out was difficult: like getting snarls out of fishing line difficult. But it's literally a breath of fresh air at my front now!

Yay for solidarity with the cut and trim group!
posted by mightshould at 3:37 AM on April 28, 2020 [2 favorites]


Just before things locked down a housemate got another friend round to give them a buzz cut and I got them to give me bangs after they were done.

It's amazing, I feel great about my hair, tbh they stuffed it up a little on one side but I'm just in love with having long hair. I may be in love with the hair itself. I look so much more feminine and it's just beautiful like I've mostly been obsessing over my hair and ignoring the pandemic.

I look so much prettier with bangs I can barely believe it. Like it doesn't even make sense that I could like them so much, I'm realizing now that I never actually was happy with my hair before.
posted by Acid Communist at 3:47 AM on April 28, 2020 [7 favorites]


Screw the shamers. So much of the quarantine social norming that’s happening seems to be “make sure you don’t act, look, or think like A Poor!” Infuriating to me, it all seems part of a push to erase or mitigate the social and individual perspective changes that are coming.

Anyway my wife very gamely and adequately gave me a very close buzz cut, though my beard trimmer was not up to the task until the end, so she used her very sharp sewing scissors. Looks fine! My hair used to be very thick and curly (apparently type 3B) which I wore long in a very messy Jewfro, but then my 30s came and by 33 I now have a thinning donut of hair with a patchy, sparse scalp. It just looks awful long; any amount of length starts to look like a combover.

So I started getting fancy short fades, which have looked pretty good, but hey. My quarantine shave looks fine and was free. No shame.
posted by skookumsaurus rex at 4:44 AM on April 28, 2020 [7 favorites]


Up until six months ago (when for reasons I started growing my hair out) I'd been buzzing my own hair for years. [...] And I'm psyching myself up to maybe go with some wild colour.

Do it! I'd been wearing my hair buzzed to 1/8" for years, but I hadn't cut it since last August (also for reasons). It was becoming an unmanageable mess. I had my wife give me an undercut (weird, not my thing), and we dyed the top (maybe ... four, five inches?) with Manic Panic's Electric Lizard (which is Ecto Cooler green). I love it. I can wear it straight up in a fauxhawk or swept to the side like a lime-green fascist (uh... or maybe there's a more positive interpretation of this cut).

We had our first all-hands Zoom since everybody started working from home and I chose to let it fly. It went over surprisingly well. Although now everybody is wondering what color it will be next time. (The answer is still green, because it's been 3 or 4 weeks and it still hasn't washed out; I might go with Vampire Red when it does finally fade, though).
posted by uncleozzy at 5:06 AM on April 28, 2020 [2 favorites]


I last got my hair cut by a professional during the Carter administration, and I think only once since then by someone other than me.
Not that it's great, but it was good enough for IBM.
posted by MtDewd at 5:19 AM on April 28, 2020 [2 favorites]


Yeah, due to a combination of dysphoria and anxiety, I've been cutting my hair myself for nearly twenty years. I used to alternate home haircuts with getting it trimmed and shaped at supercuts. Then my sister encouraged me to go to her more-expensive-than-I-was-accustomed stylist, who shamed me for cutting my own bangs, and I stopped. I got a 1960s guide on home haircutting out from the library and didn't look back. I've had short hair, long hair, and everything in between--in fact, medium haircuts are the hardest to DIY. No one notices and though I've given myself occasional bad haircuts, my success and happiness rate is better than the salon. My hair grows super fast, so it's forgiving of mistakes but also I need to cut it more. Ironically, I had just convinced myself to try a barbershop for the first time about a month before quarantine--it was so much better for me than my salon experiences, 15 minutes, 15 bucks plus tip, and smelled nicer.

But the haircut I gave myself at home is pretty much indistinguishable from the cut I got at the barbershop.

I don't get the shaming.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 5:27 AM on April 28, 2020 [5 favorites]


Anybody tried home perm yet?? I haven't had once since the fashion-challenged days of my youth in early nineties mentioned above, but I'm tempted. Though I had the foresight to order jumbo foam rollers from Amazon, and test-drive the process by just rolling my hair (thin and lank) after wash and letting it dry, which resulted in me looking like Sybill Trelawney from Harry Potter, with extra weird angles and crimps. So that's that :(
posted by Ender's Friend at 6:07 AM on April 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


I think I have had like two haircuts in the past thirty years. I just grow it out. When it gets long enough it starts breaking, usually somewhere around the shoulders. Basically as soon as my parents stopped dragging their son to the barber shop regularly, I stopped getting it cut, and once I transitioned I never felt a need to get it styled.

I regularly bleach and dye my hair bright colors (mostly red) though I haven’t done it in about a year and a half now. I keep on thinking I should do it and just not bothering, it doesn’t feel like as important a way to have some color in my life now that I’m living somewhere with lots of sunshine...
posted by egypturnash at 6:52 AM on April 28, 2020


I’d never had my hair shorter than shoulder length, though I have cut it myself a bunch and DIY’d lots of fun colors. Last year I started thinking about buzzing it off (my Ask about it ), but didn’t do it at the time. I decided to go for it about three weeks into quarantine, I am very pleased with the result. I’ll probably keep it for the summer and then attempt to grow out over the winter.
posted by insectosaurus at 6:56 AM on April 28, 2020 [2 favorites]


I’m currently working on my apocalypse mullet. Except I have a white dude fro.

Thank god I’m a bartender (thankfully not at a jackoff fade & tie clip-type place anymore) and concerns about my appearance don’t extend past “are you here and wearing clothes? Sick”.
posted by hototogisu at 9:21 AM on April 28, 2020


This pandemic has the weirdest games. First there was 'Is This A Symptom?' (so compelling!) and 'watch ALL the news.' 'Armchair Epidemiologist' was fun...'Tub Laundry'...not so much. So...'Hairstyle Roulette' then? (Honestly, Fizz, where do you even find out about all these games you post?) Good thing I bought blue hair dye! With all the grey that someone put on my head by mistake (clerical error?), I'm hoping it turns out like denim. Well, at least my pillowcases will.
I cut my own hair a lot, it's easy. What's new for me (since I forgot to buy razor blades along with hair dye) is facial hair. The sides are sad. I sort of have sideburns, but I think the few grey hairs there are still waiting for puberty. :/ The front's kinda working for me tho...moustache curl, check. Van Dyke a definite possibility...oh, also with 2 white stripes, like Dr. Strange! 🤔 Overall, (with my shaggy wavy hair) it's giving me a very 'Old World' Italian look. Like one of Leonardo Dicaprio's friends from 'Titanic'...but not that awful friend who thought he was auditioning for the role of Super Mario. I need like a rumpled tweed suit, a collarless shirt, and a leather bag. I could rob a bank and be a totally different person the next day. Someone with a blue Mohawk, Rollerblades, and possibly hot pants.
posted by sexyrobot at 11:20 AM on April 28, 2020 [2 favorites]


I'm feeling a bit judged by PhoBWanKenobi's cat.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:57 AM on April 28, 2020 [3 favorites]


First there was 'Is This A Symptom?' (so compelling!) and 'watch ALL the news.' 'Armchair Epidemiologist' was fun...'Tub Laundry'...not so much. So...'Hairstyle Roulette' then?

At least I'm enjoying Zoom Safari and collecting a list of weird shit I saw every week. (Note: not so much business meetings as entertainment online.) Last week's most memorable was someone pulling a thong out of their fridge after telling a story about being a stripper. This last week I heard some gay porn and saw a lot of naked hippies letting it all hang out, along with very strange items they had at home.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:25 PM on April 28, 2020


I've been keeping my hair trimmed high-and-tight, and since it's getting shaggy due to not being able to see my barber, I'm going to let it grow out, even after the quarantine lifts.

(The beard I currently wear started the same way, as a three-day-growth from Thanksgiving weekend.)
posted by Gelatin at 1:47 PM on April 28, 2020


I desperately need a haircut. However, my hair is very curly and complicated and I don't dare attempt to do it myself. At least it's long enough to pull back into a ponytail or put up into a messy bun, so I can look somewhat presentable if needed.
posted by SisterHavana at 3:51 PM on April 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


But the haircut I gave myself at home is pretty much indistinguishable from the cut I got at the barbershop.

I'm feeling a bit judged by PhoBWanKenobi's cat.

I'm just impressed that PhoBWanKenobi's barber's cuts come with shoulder kittens!! I would get my hair cut a lot more often if such a style were an option anywhere near me!
posted by eviemath at 4:47 PM on April 28, 2020 [5 favorites]


(Also, the fact that the cat and their human are sporting basically the same facial expression is adorable.)
posted by eviemath at 4:50 PM on April 28, 2020 [3 favorites]


the clippers i bought a month before covid hit are the prescient gift that keeps on giving! after my dream job interview on Tuesday its all coming off!
posted by emirenic at 4:53 PM on April 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


I am just letting my long fine thin stringy hair go grey, it fits my mood. One of my sons whose previous appearance was so clean-cut he looked like a Mormon missionary now has a full beard and shaggy hair, My husband said he looks like a Rabbi. I think he looks great.
posted by mermayd at 5:16 AM on April 29, 2020 [1 favorite]


So, my wife put off getting a haircut for too long. And then it was too late. So now she’s saying she’s going to put her hair in a band and have me cut it off below the band. Y’all pray for me.
posted by azpenguin at 7:48 AM on April 29, 2020 [1 favorite]


If she's willing to try a multi-ponytail sectioned DIY approach, you may not have to be involved.
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:18 PM on April 29, 2020


Good on you, azpenguin, and best of luck! Unless she's done this before and is good to talk you through it, I still recommend watching a couple of tutorials for confidence and details (like, I usually go back in and make little vertical cuts to the lopped-off ends before taking the top band out, to make it look less, well, chopped-off. May not be an issue for her hair thickness and texture, though. And she may not cars! Good husbanding however it turns out!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:55 AM on April 30, 2020


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