"The Front Looks Good"

Armed with a store credit and an ongoing commitment to frugality, Jennifer recently purchased a hair cutting set so that she could take over cutting John's hair. The military is picky about hair length so in just a few weeks, this investment would theoretically pay for itself. It also came with instructions and an impressive set of color coded and clearly numbered cutting guards, so the process was sure to be fool proof, right? Well, yes, but even the well-intentioned fool needs practice.

Dear, sweet John was also up for the idea and Jennifer's first attempt at cutting his hair was strategically executed just before our long weekend visit to Shirakawa-go. If things went south, John's hair had all weekend to grow out a bit and the only person who had to stare at it until then was Jennifer, who was responsible for however it looked in the first place. Running the clippers over an entire head, even fading between two lengths, proved nerve wracking but achievable, however trimming the back of the neck was a tad more difficult. Albeit a bit short and uneven, we headed off on our road trip feeling relatively good about the first haircut ala Jennifer.

Lookin' good!

Attempt #1: Not great, not disastrous. (Per Jennifer, those red marks were always there.)

The next go around went even better. Once again fading over the whole head went well and this time we changed our strategy on the neck area to one more relevant to an amateur stylist.

Attempt #2: Much better...look at that fade!

With this confidence-building experience behind us, we felt good going into try number 3. This time Jennifer cut John's hair on a Sunday but he still had enough time left in the day to have it fixed at the Camp Zama barbershop if necessary. Jennifer had been improving wildly with each trim so she thought she had this one in the bag. Sigh. Let's just say that John was soon on his way to Camp Zama and returned with a shorter "damage control" version of his usual cut. Fortunately it's hot here now so his new "do" is perfect for summer :-).

Attempt #3: Thank you, Camp Zama!

We haven't given up hope on the home haircuts, but no doubt we'll continue timing things to allow for a professional rescue mission if nothing else.