Remember when you were a kid and your mum used to trim your hair between visits to the hairdressers? It never ended well, did it!

I remember mine being so short one time that there was barely an inch between my hair line and the end of my fringe. I looked like a monk for a few weeks till it grew out!

My funny friend Jim must have been feeling particularly mischievous when he set me the challenge to cut someone’s hair – after having drunk a bottle of Prosecco! I mean, really… It also had to be a proper cut with scissors, not a clipper/buzz cut.

I did point out that this was probably more of a challenge for the person having their hair cut than it would be for me. Still, my friend Julie volunteered almost immediately. Crazy lady!

The kitchen scissors

As we were approaching the day of the chop, my lovely hairdresser Steph from The Hair Experience very kindly offered to give me some tips and lend me some proper scissors to avoid letting me loose on Julie’s hair with the kitchen scissors! I gratefully accepted. And we then decided it would make life much easier to complete the challenge in her salon as she had all the equipment we’d need.

So, I turned up an hour early for a lesson in sectioning hair, how to hold scissors, and how to hold the sections of hair straight ready for cutting. We used Steph’s 8-year-old daughter as a model head, which proved to be very effective. It was also very funny as she’s quite the comic, and that set the tone for the evening…

I’d invited some mutual friends of mine and Julie’s to come and witness the big event, and to cheers us on. By the time everyone arrived, I was three quarters of the way through my bottle of Prosecco and the giggles were in full flow.

Drunken head massage

Julie was offered the full Hair Experience works – I started by giving her a proper salon hair wash and condition with a drunken head massage of sorts. Then it was over to the chair in front of a big mirror, where the real fun happened.

There was much hilarity as the evening went on. The biggest technical issue for me was cutting in a straight line, and not just because I’d drunk a bottle of prosecco! As stupid as it sounds, I couldn’t seem to work out how to consistently hold the hair between my fingers in a pure horizontal line. Thankfully, Steph was closely supervising my every move, and offering advice along the way. With a bit of expert intervention and guidance, I was able to sort out every wonky line, and unintentional layer!

It turned out that my second biggest technical challenge was holding the comb in my left hand. I kept flinging it across the room in a rather spectacular fashion whilst trying to flip between the wide tooth end and the narrow. I blame the Prosecco, of course.

After the cut came the blowdry, of course. This was by far the simplest part of the process! I’m rather surprised to say that Steph awarded me 10/10 on completion, despite my Prosecco-fuelled cheeky backchat. Julie’s review of the whole experience was very profound: “Marvellous! Thank you very much. Don’t worry about the back; it’ll be bed hair soon.”

I can safely say, there’s a lot more to cutting hair than meets the eye, so next time you visit the salon, show your hairdresser a bit of extra love 🙂

Meanwhile, Shelle’s Chop Shop will be opening on a high street near you soon…