New 'do!

Going from two incomes to one brings many cost-cutting strategies. One that bombed big time was home haircuts. Fiona and I used to go to the same stylist, but recently Fiona stopped going there (so sorry, Amy!). I tried cutting Fiona's bangs last week, and have been snipping strays ever since. And the dubious method I used for a straight bang line, The Scotch Tape Method, is a story of its own.

I am certain that this is a tried-and-true method that has been used on me in the past, perhaps when Grandma wasn't available with the dog shears? One simply puts a long strip of Scotch tape across the bangs as a guide and starts cutting. Simple, no? However, I didn't consider two issues:

1. Fiona is so sensitive about ripping sticky stuff off herself that she lets Band-Aids fall off, a process that can take a week even with regular bathing.

2. I think 3M makes tape better than they used to.

Suffice to say, the tape ordeal was long and arduous. I learned that sometimes Moms have to pretend everything is OK when really things are really, truly NOT OK. Hours after we began, we finally ended up together in the tub with a "washcloth headband" across her head dribbling fresh water down pretending she was a fountain of some sort. I kept saying, "Wow, isn't this fun?" in case it was helping.

So when I found a 4.99 Great Clips coupon today in the junk ads, we went. One man's junk is another's lifeline. Our stylist, Kei, lopped 4" off Fiona's head and fixed the bangs which, I'm proud to say, she said weren't so bad.

Fiona now sports an inverse bob. Even though she's been trying to "grow her hair long like Annie Rose" for over a year now, she was tiring of the tangles in the morning, and is now looking forward to the lack of fuss involved in the current style. And we're both very glad we won't be going back to The Scotch Tape Method.