Why $15 is too much for a mens haircut

A few months ago, Mr Bargain Queen came home with yet another sub-standard haircut.

It spurred me into action — and we haven’t paid for another crappy haircut since. We’ve saved about $150 on haircuts so far.

Here’s how we did it.

Long story short, we bought a set of hair clippers for under $30 and haven’t looked back since.

Mr BQ’s haircut, if you can call it that, involves a #3 clip all over with a tiny bit of shaping at the back and sides.

For such a simple haircut, it’s remarkable how much went wrong at assorted barber shops. They often missed a few hairs here, a few hairs there and he came out looking like a porcupine. Or they cut his sideburns really short and he looked slightly odd. Or they didn’t know how to deal with his non-hairline at the back.

Compared to some of those barbers, I’m hairdresser of the year.

It wasn’t until I saw this article on Frugal Focus that I tallied up the money we’d saved though. They said:

Estimating $12/haircut/month this also allows me to save about $432 annually in hair cut costs for me and my two young sons. Less the annual clipper set (~$40) and I’m still ahead about $390/year.

Our saving is more like $150/year, because only Mr BQ’s hair meets the clippers. For me, it’s subtle highlights and expensive haircuts all the way — I’m vain about my hair.

Still, $150 is enough for one very nice dinner out each year, and more importantly, Mr Bargain Queen’s hair is now acceptable at all times. Much better.
PS: At Frugal Focus they call the closely-clipped men’s haircut an ‘I give up’ and suggest it’s best for balding men. Not so. Mr BQ has a full, luxuriant head of boofy Jewish hair, and keeping it closely cropped is the only low-maintenance haircut that doesn’t turn into scary clown hair on him. Enough said.