10 More Ways to Save (#3 and #4: Saving on hair care)

This week I will be sharing 10 more ways that our family saves money on household expenses.  Yesterday we talked about additional ways to save money while shopping.

Today we are going to talk about two ways that our family saves money on hair care.

#3.  We cut the kids hair ourselves!

Sounds scary, doesn’t it?  We thought so too at first.  But every four weeks I was shelling out around $20 per child for a haircut, plus tip- and when you add it up- it was costing me over $1700 a year!  So I asked a friend of ours (who cuts hair) if she would teach my husband and me how to do it, and if she would give me a list of hair cutting tools so that I could purchase them (after researching the best possible price of course!).  During our lesson, my friend cut the kids hair one by one, while Steve watched closely and I took copious notes- so we would have something to give us guidance when we tried this ourselves.

Four weeks later, Steve and I got out all of the equipment- the razors, the scissors, and of course the aprons for us and the kids- and set to the task of cutting their hair.  And it wasn’t great-  we cut it too short in some areas (so the hair stuck straight up in back for the next two weeks) and we didn’t know how to “blend” the layers properly- so the kids looked like they had bowl cuts over longer hair in the back….  we just weren’t very good at it- at first. And it would have been so easy to give up and just decide that this wasn’t something we could do…  But Steve wanted to keep trying- and month after month, his technique improved- and now he gives the boys a darn-good haircut, I think!  I am in charge of the girls hair- and they both have fairly simple cuts- with bangs and all one-length on the sides and back.  Some months the bottom looks straighter than others- but the nice thing about hair- it grows back!

#4- For Mom’s hair- haircut only, no blow dry

I wasn’t quite as willing to let Steve cut my hair- I guess I am too vain to wait for a mistake to grow back out! So I asked my hairdresser what I could do to cut down on the price of my monthly appointments.  And she shared that if I was willing to blow dry it myself after the cut- I could save about 1/3 of the price of my visit!  Such a simple thing to do- and it saves me about $300 a year!

That’s $2000 a year that I was able to save- just in hair care.  Nice, huh?