5 Important Lessons I Learned After Giving Myself a Haircut During the COVID Lockdown
It’s more than just splitting hairs
I am grateful for the things I have in life. I am relatively healthy, I have a steady job that pays the bills, and I have friends and family that support me (especially when I’m having a hard time paying those bills)!
One more blessing I have received from the genes I have inherited is my hair (thanks grandpa). While other men my age stress over hair loss, I hardly fret about it. My barber says my hair is strong and healthy.
However, those lucky genes are both a blessing and a curse. For you see, my hair grows really, really fast. Just one month after visiting the barber, it’s hard to distinguish between my hair and a cat that came out of a long, messy fight with another feline.
Naturally, right after the COVID lockdown was announced, I couldn’t help but worry about the condition of my hair after (potentially) months without a haircut. A worry that was only second to my concern around supermarkets and pharmacies.
One afternoon, in a state of both desperation and determination, I picked up my trusty trimmer, and I fought. For two hours straight.
The experience taught me a few valuable lessons.
1. We are not as bad as we think we are
Surprisingly, the outcome of this long-lasting fight was decent, to say the least!
How do I define the quality of the result?
Well, I didn’t have any issues turning my camera on during business calls, and went outside for a walk numerous times without a cap, hat or any other head cover. I even told my colleagues I cut my own hair and, believe it or not, they were impressed. One of them was staring my side fade full of awe (perhaps with a small dose of jealousy, even)!
Truth be told, when I first decided to turn on that trimmer, I was not expecting much. I, of course, accepted the fact that I could very well end up worse than before. But, honestly, both outcomes (long messy hair versus poorly cut hair) seemed like a nightmare anyway.
As a result, I chose what seemed to be the lesser evil.
So, given that I was anticipating an abomination of a final product, the result was of a surprisingly good quality! It seems like I had originally underestimated my capabilities.
In all honesty, I didn’t go to battle unprepared. I watched a few tutorials on DIY haircuts for men, learned the basics of the side fade, and also had my girlfriend help me out here and there!
What this experience showed me is that oftentimes we are more capable than we think we are. Not only that, but we also tend to hesitate to take action for fear that we don’t have what it takes to follow through.
In reality, sometimes all it takes is a decision to act, after which things tend to become easier than they originally appeared to be.
We all possess some sort of superpower that we are not aware of until we actually put it into practice, despite our fears.
So maybe my hidden superpower is giving myself half-decent haircuts, who knows?
The question now becomes, would I try this again?
2. Desperate times call for desperate measures
Thankfully, where I live, barbers and hairdressers are now up and running. Which means I don’t have to go through the same process of trimming, clipping and aligning. I can put my faith and trust in the hands of the professionals once again.
However, if a similar situation comes to pass, I will very likely take fate in my own hands yet again.
It seems like we have a tendency to outright reject scenarios that originally seem preposterous and unlikely to happen, only to realize how easily our behavior can change under dire circumstances. It really doesn’t take much for things to come upside down. After that, it’s very easy to reconsider our stance and opinion around things we were taking for granted or that we were dismissing as absurd.
If you asked me, an hour prior to the first piece of hair falling on my bathroom floor, whether I would make the choice I made, I would say “No way, I can’t do it, it’s just too risky”. Within that one hour, however, something changed quite rapidly and abruptly: I became increasingly frustrated. I pictured myself in the near future, and the more I did, the more I was inclined to take action.
I was between a rock and a hard place.
The situation called for measures I am not used to taking, but I knew I didn’t have many alternatives, given the circumstances.
So, then, the message is clear: Never say never. When the need arises, we may act unpredictably and unexpectedly, and not always in line with what we consider our personal threshold.
3. They will grow back, sooner or later
You can argue that cutting your own hair is not that big of a deal. It’s not a life-or-death kind of situation, and the stakes are not particularly high. Especially when you are self-contained at home and nobody’s watching or pointing fingers at the monstrosity on top of your head.
And of course, you would be right.
In fact, the realization that my hair would return to normal, no matter the quality of the result, was one of the reasons I decided to go for it in the first place.
We have an interesting tendency to overestimate the severity of certain situations and outcomes. Things that appear grim are blown out of proportion. Worse still, those exaggerations heavily affect our decisions and ability to act in a determined fashion.
After I asked myself “What is the worst thing that can happen”, I accepted the fact that I could live with a mediocre haircut. In fact, it wouldn’t even be the first time, as I have had a few barbers perform a less-than-stellar job on what they thought was a practice dummy.
It just so happens that sometimes things are not as irreversible or irreparable as they appear to be. In the long run, certain decisions and choices bear little risk of failure and dissatisfaction. Especially when the stakes are low, there’s nothing wrong with some experimentation (even if it involves your precious hair)!
4. Sometimes, being spontaneous pays off
In my life, I take pride in my ability to make calculated decisions and follow the rules.
Well, most of the time.
Like many other people out there, I enjoy weighing the pros and cons, assessing the quality and end-goal of my actions, and being generally geared towards logic.
Cutting my own hair was out of character. It was a split-second decision that broke all the rules I had set for myself, and went against the things I thought were unchangeable and immovable. By the end of this experience, I moved far outside the boundaries of my comfort zone.
And, as it turns out, this spontaneous decision paid off!
It seems like we don’t always have to act in a calculated, robotic fashion. Life is more than just strategy, logic and low-risk comfort, and there’s plenty to see once we go beyond our individual boundaries. Some spontaneity here and there can definitely help us gain a new perspective on things. It is liberating to go above and beyond what we thought were our personal limits, at least from time to time.
5. Have some damn fun, it’s just hair anyway
I never expected to say this, but I had a blast trying to make my hair look presentable! Once I started reducing my hair’s length and volume, I forgot about my initial concerns and took the whole experience for what it truly was: a late afternoon, educational and entertaining activity.
Heck, I am even feeling confident to do this again, if conditions call for it, so this counts as practice towards the acquisition of a new skill as well.
While I was trimming away, I gradually started taking things less seriously. I knew my hair would grow back quite fast, and that I could receive some professional treatment in the foreseeable future. So I just relaxed and let my inner creator take control.
To this day I take this experience lightly. The world didn’t come to a stop once I put the trimmer down!
Such life events serve as a good break from more serious ordeals. Thankfully, not everything has to be taken too seriously. We have enough personal struggles and challenges to worry about, so there’s some relief to know that we can take a step back, relax and discharge before the next big thing.
Plus, I now have a fun story to share with my future children! Too bad I don’t have some photos to support it — that would increase the entertainment value tenfold.
Try this at home!
There are so many great lessons to be had from experiences as simple as cutting your own hair in front of your bathroom mirror. Apart from them being genuinely fun and improvised, they can shed light on aspects you were previously not aware of.
I highly recommend you try such an activity at least once. Of course, it doesn’t have to be a DIY haircut. Anything that is fun, novel, out-of-the-ordinary and instructive will do!
Just make sure to enjoy the process and take some pictures to share with the world (if you dare)!
