Shaving head with clippers

So my wife refuses to give me a clipper cut and I refuse to pay for one. Any advice for a DIY job? I've done it before, but made a mess of the back of my head and had to pay to get it fixed. I'd rather avoid that last step...

Thanks in advance for the help!

My only advice is switch to a DE. I was never able to get the back of my head well with clippers without help. DE works great though.

Do you want to "cut" your hair , or shave your head ??

malocchio said:

Do you want to "cut" your hair , or shave your head ??

Click to expand...

I am just going for an all-around buzz on the one or two setting. I gave it a whirl and the results weren't terrible. As expected, the hairline on the back of my head/neck was most troublesome. Definitely was not very efficient, but I tipped well and finished with a cold beer!

gwsmallwood said:

My only advice is switch to a DE. I was never able to get the back of my head well with clippers without help. DE works great though.

Click to expand...

I don't know if I'm ready to go there yet! It will take some time for my wife to get used to the buzz

I used to do this, but the hairline in the back is very tricky. Using 2 mirrors gets very confusing. I would usually try to blend the line from a bare clipper to a setting of 2 or so, intead of trying to get a clean crisp line. If I screwed it up to bad I would just bare clipper the whole thing. Ultimately I found, as Garrett [MENTION=87845]gwsmallwood[/MENTION] said it is quicker and easier to just use a razor.

Been doing my own for years. The only thing is, get a cordless, the cord drives you nuts! I don't use height adjustments so the back of my neck is really no issue, as I do it about every other week. This one at Walmart is both cheap and terrific:

when I had more hair I used a wahl set that had the progressive guides for cutting hair. I had very little issue except the line at the bottom of the back of my head. I shave now, so no issues whatsoever.

emwolf said:

when I had more hair I used a wahl set that had the progressive guides for cutting hair. I had very little issue except the line at the bottom of the back of my head. I shave now, so no issues whatsoever.

Click to expand...

As a Cosmetologist, I'll be kicked out of the trade for sharing this, but so what? lol. I got tired of paying for bad haircuts, so switched to doing it with the progressive guides years ago. And yes, after over 35 years as a pro I might have an advantage over a guy doing his own head, but remember: cutting your own hair is kinda like shaving someone else's face. Not at all the same as doing your own!
I do have my wife shave my neck, tho. Never could get good at that myself..... Of course, the day of the haircut I'm EXTREMELY nice to her!

RealPretendPsychic said:

So my wife refuses to give me a clipper cut and I refuse to pay for one. Any advice for a DIY job? I've done it before, but made a mess of the back of my head and had to pay to get it fixed. I'd rather avoid that last step...

Thanks in advance for the help!

Click to expand...

Take the guards off and go to town. Won't have much hair left, but it's easy to do yourself and to maintain. You can feel if you missed a spot easily. I do this every couple days over the sink and it takes only a couple minutes. I'd shave it but that takes too long for me.

Agreed on the cordless! I love my new clipper set. Trims super close without a guard. The clippers last weeks without a need for charging and they don't get too hot.

I have been cutting my own hair for quite some time. I found that the technique demonstrated in the video below works quite well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et-8swkGtuw

I've given myself cuts at the #1 or #2 for years. But I generally do a single length everywhere, so that's pretty easy. Just do many swipes until you know its all the same length.

For a tip, put a towel down over the sink area. Then you can just shake the towel out over the trash when you're done.

For shaping the back of the neck I've always used a combination of a hand mirror and a wall mirror, or a medicine cabinet mirror that opens towards a wall mirror. With a little adjusting you can get everything good.

When I've asked my wife to do the back of my neck I've ended up with embarrassing results