Ask Lemmy

Might be worth asking in !autism@lemmy.world

Also autistic and did this for a few years. For a basic dude-cut, you can use buzz everything however short you want, then every few weeks after buzz the sides and back but let the top grow until it looks like it's time to buzz your whole head again or you decide to let it keep growing back out for a bit. Pretty easy and low maintenance. Takes practice and follow the other person's advice to shower and go back over your head to make sure you get everything, it's harder than it seems like it should be. And you'll need someone to help get your neckline at some point.

This cut might start out a lot shorter than you had in mind when you asked the question, or maybe not. When it comes to wielding scissors, that's not something I can really attack my hair with, so I don't have ideas that would be helpful in that regard.

I do it, handheld trimmer in front of a mirror, not gonna win any awards but it works.

Well, if you have a lot of hair to play around with, you can just try it without much risk. I cut my own hair (male, short hair) but I find it really difficult to manipulate scissors or clippers while looking in the mirror. I also can't really do the back of my head so I have to get someone to help me.

Just be ready to clean up, because hair will fly all over the place if you aren't careful.

I have some small experience and it did not go well

Jesus, Flowbee is way more expensive than I remembered!

https://www.flowbee.com/

For many years it started with a Mohawk in college when I started getting that Jean Renu, then it started connecting leaving me with a solitary tuft so I just started shaving it.

Do it!

We all tried it in the pandrmic, it's no big deal!

And you might really like it.

I don't know if it would bother you, because it can be noisy, but:

Flowbee

People thinks it's ridiculous, but I've been using one since well before the pandemic. It does as well as a barber ever did.

i've been doing it myself for years, with my gf just finishing the neck. Not hard. But I do just one simple cut (crew cut). I have in a note on my phone the 3 different size guards I use for different parts and i'm good.

I've done it and it's not that hard. Plenty of tutorials. It will take you a bit of practice to get the back right though, since you need to either be fine with it looking sloppy or work from a double mirror setup.

Go for it. As you said, worst case you'll see a professional and it grows back anyways.

I used to cut my hair and messed up sometimes. I find with long hair, small mistakes aren't as visible.

I’ve got long hair and cut it myself. I layer it and do the fringe. It took hours of watching Youtube videos to find the way I wanted my hair to look/the preferred method that it’s done/whether it was achievable via self-cut. It won’t be perfect - and actually will never be perfect cutting it yourself, you’ll just be able to better hide the fact that it’s self-cut😜. It will take a couple of tries at first to get there. I always ask my friends/family if it passes the eye test lol.

I can do it all myself but need my boyfriend to start it for me. He does the first blunt cut in the back to establish the perimeter. I like for it to be as straight as possible, so I don’t do this part myself.

I used to shave my head with a razor when I was in the army. I'd give my ponytail a go with the scissors when I let it grow afterwards.

Both are easy and work.

My wife has requirements on my hairdo nowadays, so she gets to cut it. It's getting too thin for ponytails and she doesn't like baldy.

As a dude I go from long hair to slightly-less-long hair by cutting it on each side above the shoulders. Pulled forward below the neck if long enough, sort of like the opposite of the unicorn trick (tried that in the past, but easy to mess up the layering).

Also probably makes more sense if you usually keep your hair in a ponytail, as any imbalance won't be obvious.

I cut my own hair once, then I had a friend trim it to smooth over any mistakes

I've been cutting my own hair for 30 years. I'm pretty good at it now but it's still not easy (I'm also autistic). i use ear plugs to block the sound of the electric clippers and I just try to get it over with quickly. I don't do anything fancy, keep it short and neat, and if I mess up I'm okay with shaving it all off. blank slate haha

I shave mine, cut the bulk off with an electric trimmer and safety razor whatever's left

I cut my hair since covid, but I'm just cutting it all off. That's pretty easy

Really depends on the cut you're going for.

I keep my hair short, so if it's getting longer than I like, but I don't want to make an appointment, I can take the clippers to it, and stall for a few more weeks.

Anything beyond clippers I would NOT recommend doing on your own.