I am notorious for getting very infrequent haircuts. I worked for many years as a computer programmer, an occupation I loved as much for its valuing of eccentric behavior as for the immensely fun creativity of programming. So to any computer programmer, I'd just say, "I get it cut very short and then let it grow out long, so I spend as few hours as possible getting hair cuts." Programmers would be impressed at that sort of efficiency, and efficient is one of the best things a programmer can be. I'd periodically have trouble when my politician wife would need me to be at a big event where scruffy wasn't one of the best things you should be. In the past, if I screwed up the scheduling, I'd just have to show up scruffy (perhaps thinking, " [expletive] anyone that doesn't like this, I'm a hot shot computer programmer.") Tonight, I had again screwed up the schedule and had very scruffy hair and about 30 minutes before I had to go to an awards banquet, at which not only my beloved life partner but her parents (who don't really like long hair, something to do with the sixties I think). Fortunately, I've got years of parenting experience.
So I just cut my own hair. It's crazy, and it's not like I cut my kids hair ever. I just am used to having to do random stuff with absolutely no training and trusting that it turns out ok with nothing but my eyes and my hands. I don't even have a hand mirror that let me see the back of my head, I had to go by feel. It's fairly easy to cut my hair, I am descended from generations of totally straight hair, and when it gets too long, it looks like I'd have a good hair cut if I'd just get the extra masses cut away, so I just cut away, snip snip snip. It was very foolhardy, but it turned out great; my beloved life partner was indeed very surprised in a delighted way just before her speech, and I did not need to sit in a Hair Cuttery. And I felt that I have lost some things that I didn't need, inside and outside of the head.
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