Betsy Scissor Hands

These are the shrubs and bushes (what's the difference?) in front of our house.  Don't they look lovely?  Well, they do now, because after living here for over 3 years, we finally trimmed them.  They were QUITE overgrown so I don't know that "trimmed" really does justice to what we had to do them.  A "mow down?"-- a hacking, whacking, chopping, butchering job.  We borrowed a pair of shrub shears from a neighbor and did part of the job until another neighbor took pity on us and lent us a power tool that did the job much quicker.

I did a bit of the job with the shrub shears myself and I was having a very Edward Scissor Hands moment.  It was fun.  I liked chopping as fast as I could and watching the cut off branches flying all over.  I wanted to just keep cutting and cutting.  But as I was hacking away I thought to myself, "If I enjoy cutting shrubs so much, I wonder if I could enjoy cutting hair?  It can't be that much different!" 

It was a natural connection in my mind.  For years I've paid money for Clark to get his hair cut.  Call it vanity-- but I liked a nice sharp hair cut on my one son.  But then I had 2 more sons and I'm thinking, "This could get expensive.  I don't want to keep paying for haircuts!" My dad has cut Clark's hair a few times, but it suddenly occurred to me that if other people could learn to cut hair-- THEN SO COULD I!  No matter that I HATE handicrafts.   Haircutting is a much more utilitarian art form and I'm all about utilitarian art!

So last week I cut Cannon's hair.  It went okay.  Today I approached the Big Dog.  My little Chia Pet.

Me:  Clark, will you let me cut your hair?
Clark:  No! (running away)
Me:  Come on, PLEASE?  I need to learn how to do it.
Clark:  No way!
Me:  Let's watch videos on YouTube to learn how to do it
Clark: (Very concerned look on his face)
Me:  How about I pay you 2 bucks to let me cut your hair and if I mess it up I'll take you to the barber?
Clark:  Okay.

Abe helped coach me through.  There were a lot of people on edge.  Elinor asked me if I was a barber.
"I am today, Tootsie!"

AH-HA!  It worked!  I did it!  I can cut hair!  Abe even told me he would let me cut his hair next time.  I can't mess it up worse than the gal at the barber school for $5.00.   But now that I have so much experience I won't have to pay my clients to let me cut their hair.