B-san's Blog

This week, Japan has lifted the national emergency proclamation, and life is slowly starting to move back to normal. The “lockdown” situation in Japan has been very different to that of other countries. The government mandated the closure of some stores, but many were left to themselves to decide if they would close or not.

Barbers in my town pretty much remained open during the “lockdown”. But when thinking about gong there to get my hair cut, there was this uneasiness I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I probably could have gone and have been safe, but my wife and I decided to use this as an opportunity to try cutting my hair at home. And so we started out by searching for the right pair of hair clippers.

We aren’t really picky when it comes to purchases like this. But there were a couple of things we kept an eye on when choosing the clippers.

1. When will it get delivered?
   • Naturally, we were looking for the clippers online. But due to high demand (who would have known!) many clippers were not going to arrive until mid June or even July. We started searching for clippers in mid May and were hoping for something that would arrive by the end of the month.
2. We wanted multiple adjusters, including some longer combs.
   • Many clippers now come with multiple combs, but often the range is something like 3mm – 15mm. We were hoping to do my whole head with the clippers (no scissors,) so we were looking or clippers that could do up to 30mm or so.
3. Cheap, but durable.
   • My wife is good at skimming through the reviews people leave on products and finding the honest opinions that we find relevant. We didn’t want to spend a fortune on this, but we wanted something that would last a while. (A haircut at my local barber costs ¥1,650. We wanted something within about 3-4 times that price, so that we could recover the expense within the year.)

So after a couple days searching, this is what we landed on…

It came with two comb adjusters and a built in height adjuster, so it can cut anywhere between 4mm – 30mm. It’s completely waterproof, and can be used for a few hours with one charge. It would get shipped in a week, and both price and reviews seemed reasonable.

Once it arrived, we decided to give it a go that evening. My wife cut a hole in a rubbish bag and put it over me – instant barber apron! But since my wife had never seen how barbers cut men’s hair, she had no idea what to do from there ? So, I was coaching her each step of the way. (Not that I’ve ever cut someone’s hair before either. But hey! I’ve seen the barbers do it all the time. I’m practically a pro, right?? ?)

We made use of all the adjusters. It took about an hour all up. And I also tidied up a couple of things on my own here and there. But overall, we were pretty impressed with how it turned out. Considering it was a first time for both of us, we gave ourselves a 10 out of 10. Here is a before/after shot so you can compare, too.

There were a few things we learned from this first haircut. Such as the fact hair gets into EVERYTHING in the room you’re cutting it. My wife was pulling hair out of her clothes the next day too. But it was actually a fun activity to do together. And I look forward to the next time we get to do it again.

Thanks for Reading!

PS: Notice the new Image Compare Block I used there? Only on WordPress.com! I hope it works properly on mobile, too…