I Cut My Own Hair By Watching YouTube Tutorials And Here’s What Happened
saumya gaur 
Image: Shutterstock
Ever wondered what would happen if the Internet disappeared for a day? A truly apocalyptic scenario, isn’t it? I can’t even imagine a life without the great “information superhighway” and I am sure you guys feel the same. What can’t the Internet do? It can diagnose your ailment, or answer even the most inane questions, and provide you with endless entertainment. Well, apparently the one thing it can’t do is teach you to be a skilled hairstylist. And I learned this at a great personal cost. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it?
To give you readers a little background. It was the summer of 2014, I had just completed my post-graduation and I was waiting for my results. I had about 20 days of vacation left before I had to join my internship in a prestigious publishing house. I decided to spend these days indoors in the air-conditioned comfort of my home, in the company of my laptop and trusty Wi-Fi. I would spend entire days watching movies and videos on YouTube. It was during this time I discovered the amazing world of YouTube DIY tutorials. There were tutorials available for everything, for fixing your broken tap to checking in at the airport for the first time. However, the ones that caught my eye were the cut-your-own-hair tutorials. I was mesmerized by watching them. Every time I would watch one of them, I would wonder why I paid my hairstylist so much when this was so simple. Perhaps, this observation was also aided by the fact that I had often seen my sister color her own hair at home and somehow she always managed to do a great job. She also had done so with the help of these DIY video tutorials. I thought to myself, if she can do it then so can I.
Since I had to join the internship in a couple of days, I decided that it was the perfect time to give myself bangs. According to the tutorials that I had watched, this was the easiest haircut that I could give myself and it would also give me a completely new look. I was super excited to get a new look and in order to do it properly, I decided that I needed the right tools, so I went to the market and bought all the tools that I had seen my hairstylist use — the thin long scissors, the long clips. I even bought the duster they use to sweep the hair. Armed with these tools, I finally sat down to give myself the hair that was supposed to make me look like Zooey Deschanel. The process was quite simple, all I had to do was collect the hair on my crown area and then hold them against my forehead to measure the length of the bangs and just cut along a straight line. Simple enough, right? After doing the deed, I looked in the mirror at my reflection and I felt quite pleased with what I saw. Quite happy with my handiwork I patted myself on the back for a job well done and decided to showcase my work to my mother.
When I went to show her my hair, she pointed out to me that instead of cutting along a straight line I had cut my hair unevenly, and where I thought I looked cute and whimsical, she pointed out that I looked like a patient from the mental asylum who had just been given a haircut with a chainsaw. That statement wiped the grin off my face. Now, I started panicking, for I could see it plain as day, in the overhead lighting of my mother’s room, that she was right. Since I had to join the internship in a couple of days, the haircut seemed to be a catastrophe.
While I was hyperventilating, my mother suggested to me that I book an appointment with my hairstylist for the same day so that he can salvage whatever was left of my hair. She added with a mischievous smile, “Just don’t tell him that you gave yourself this haircut because you wanted to save some money, and even if you do, tell him after he has cut your hair.”
Well, long story short, the only way the hairstylist could save my hair was by giving me an-ultra short pixie cut which I went on to wear for the next two years. During these two years, there was a plethora of weddings and parties that I attended answering the same question, “What happened to your hair?” Today, I still try to save as much money as I can by following DIY YouTube tutorials. But there are some things that I just don’t touch, chiefly among them is my hair.
To all those who are reading this, let this anecdote of my follicular disaster serve as a fair warning to you all. When it comes to your hair, let the experts handle it. Have you ever tried to cut your hair by yourself? Did you have a similar experience? Share your experiences in the comments section.
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