Dollar Frugal

I have always been pretty high-maintenance.  It used to take me a little over an hour and a half to get ready.  But there are inherent costs with the practices of “getting ready.”

1.  Learn to cut your own hair or find a friend with clippers.  Males:  My husband is an immigrant and has always cut everyone’s hair for free.  Whenever a friend or family member comes over, I can bet that the clippers will come out and the males will head to the garage.  A fade is not that hard to learn.  If you mess up, it’ll grow back, I promise!  Females:  I haven’t had my hair cut in a salon for 18 months now.  I constantly get compliments on it.  You’ll need to trim it about a half inch every month.  Look at both sides of your hair and see if they match up (you might get different rates of growth on both sides).  You can always go to a salon and get it touched up afterward if you’re not happy.  Just try it once.  I went into this no-haircut thing with the plan to go once per year to the beauty school, but haven’t had to.

2.  Don’t skip the moisturizer.  You can never get your youth back.  Don’t worry about make-up, ladies, but everyone needs to apply moisturizer in the morning and at night.

3.  Stop coloring your hair.  We grew up in a semi-religious family, and I remember my mom telling me, “God made us with a haircolor that complements our skin tone.”  However hokey that sounds, your natural haircolor will look best on your skin tone.  Promise.  And if you have gray hair, I’m thinking about asking my mom (she’s had gray hair since age 18) to guest post here (she’s also a prior cosmetologist).

4.  Shaving.  Males:  consider shaving in the shower.  The hair will already be “plumped up” from the moisture and will shave better.  I’ve heard you might not need shaving cream.  Everyone:  Razors can be maintained for a lot longer than you think, even disposable ones.  Saving Freak has an excellent article about how to make them last up to 10 months.

5.  Blow Dryers.  Blow dryers harm your hair by drying it too quickly and damaging it.  So do other hair heating appliances.  Try learning to braid your hair or letting it go natural.  Put your pony tail in a different spot (lower, on the nape of your neck, or higher on your head) for a different look.

I’m happy to report that these little things have left me with a lot more time in my day to spend on things that are a lot more important to me than my hair.

Do you have any tips for shortening your “get ready” time?  I might need some help from the guys, as I don’t know all the ins and outs.