Since it’s winter, I usually keep my hair a little longer than my usual shaved head. I think the last time I paid for a real haircut at the barber shop was in middle school. So a few weeks ago when I had to go to a wedding reception, I decided to visit the barber’s chair. I first found out it wasn’t $6 for a haircut anymore. It was a whopping $14. There’s a lot of things I could do for $14 like a good steak dinner or even a movie or three (movie hopping). But looking clean cut was more important at the moment. And to help hide those grey hairs. But the second thing I realized sitting there in the chair was how hard it was to find someone who could perfectly cut the hair the way you want it. My odd shaped football head was quite the challenge. And after 10-15 minutes using a shaver and comb to do a fade, then explaining how my lumpy head works, to finally having her just shave my head clean, I realized this was a completely bad idea. So a few lessons were learned from this experience. One, don’t be bold on some random barber and just go with the norm on important events where there’s cute single girls. And two, I’ve probably saved thousands of dollars with my $20 clippers I bought in middle school.When’s the last time you tried a new hairdo? Was it a great experience or the worst decision ever?

ALFREDO: you’re asking the wrong person entirely.  I haven’t changed my hair style since high school, I still carry a backpack like a student, I wear jackets that I bought in college.  And I hung on to all my old high school records (on vinyl!).  And it feels like I’ve been rewarded for hanging on to all my old habits: when I dj at the bars, the 22 year old kids (or 19, but with terrific fake ID’s) adore 80’s music – ‘“80’s Night” never seems to get played out – clothes come back into fashion every two decades or so anyway, and a backpack, well…it holds my laptop and leaves my hands free.  Who can complain about that?

QUENTIN: I just got one this week from my friend Channel who has been cutting my hair since I was in my mid 20s and she was in her 30s. Now it has been 2 decades later and I still think she did an amazing job with mine. In fact, we’ve both grown over the years and the more I go the more I appreciate the hour we spent together. I really wish Offender Justin will chime in on this one. Old times!!!!

PHILIP: I’m pretty low maintenance when it comes to my hair. After college, I decided to just shave off most of my hair and keep a buzz cut and it’s been that way ever since. Before that it was the complete opposite. Just let my hair grow and so there’s pics of me from college where the length of my hair went halfway down my back. So to go from that long hair to a buzz cut was a big change. I remember going to the barber and telling him to cut it all off and he thought something was wrong and I was cutting all my hair because of some problem. Kept asking, “Are you sure you want to do this? Are you sure you’re making the right decision?” Hell, yeah! For now, no plans to change–keeping the buzz cut–it’s simple and easy to take care of.

DHH: I am also a particularly lame person to be answering this question. The same guy has been cutting my hair for, like, at least 20 years. I’ve even been using the same product — which they stopped making a few years back, so now I have to buy it on eBay. Like Alfredo, I still wear clothes I bought in the 80’s, most of which eventually come back into fashion. (I’m still waiting for an opportunity, however, to pull back out those MC Hammer-style pants.) The last time I tried to change my look was in the mid-90’s when my son was born and I got it into my head to grow some facial hair. My Mom reacted by pleading with my Dad: “Tell him to shave it off!” To which my Dad replied, “What am I supposed to say? He’s almost forty years old!”

PHILIP: Hey DDH, as far as I’m concerned MC Hammer pants never went out of style. You can’t touch this!

DAVID:  I had a perm once… ONCE!

EMMIE:
I’ve had the same hairdo for about 10,000 years.  I did once try a bobbed redhead style.  It was a nice dark auburn for four weeks, and then gradually turned into full-on orangutan shade.  It was super wrong with my complexion and gave my sister plenty to comment on over the summer, but I’m glad I tried it.

Oh, and I can’t forget my first perm!  I lived in Kansas, so the hair people didn’t know that my hair was going to fro out the way it did.  Before the perm, I was convinced that the perm would make me look awesome, and I ended up looking crrrrrazay.  I remember my friend Christa seeing me the next day – the look of shock on her face, and her pausing politely before saying kindly, “It really makes your black hair stand out against your pink sweatshirt.”  I knew I looked insane but I was still thrilled to have a perm.

BEVERLY:
I feel that most asian women are blessed with thick luxurious black luminescent hair that Pantene commercial models wish they could have.  I- on the other hand- have thin hair that hangs in strings like that girl from The Ring.

With that in mind, I tried really hard to do those BANGS that were really in (and still are) about 4 years ago.  But to get really thick bangs, they couldn’t just cut the hair nearest my forehead, they had to cut all the way from my CROWN.  So essentially, I had a very expensive comb-over from the back of my head to the front.  And the bangs never were straight.  They hung in strings.  It always looked like I was sweating.

And in terms of Emmie’s experience, I never forgot my last perm.  My thin hair stood up from my head so that you could basically see my scalp.  Literally a halo of hair illuminating the fact that I had a great scalp.  I’ll stick to comb-overs thank you very much.

ROGER:  Every man in my immediate, related family is losing or has lost most of his hair.  As such, I could only assume that it’s just a matter of time before I lost mine.  When I was in my 20’s I was totally paranoid about my future hair loss so I looked into all sorts of measure such as Propecia, Hair Club for Men, hair transplants, Rogaine, vibrating brushes, etc.  I just couldn’t fathom the thought that some day I would lose the ability to craft my locks into some version of human anime coolness.  Once I left my more vain 20’s and entered into my 30’s (I still had 90% of my hair), I realized there were things follicularly I had never tried.  I never had long hair nor did I ever dye my hair into some sort of crazy color like blue, red, or blonde.  Might as well try it while I still had it, right?  So I went through a period of just growing my hair out long.  I passed on the whole dying my hair thing because I was told it would permanently damage my follicles (didn’t want to accelerate the loss of macho).  It was a strange moment in my life because naturally I’m a clean cut guy.  So having shoulder length hair created a bit of a visual contradiction to my inner self.  But it was a good thing.  I found myself exploring my more edgy, dark side (led by my long locks, of course).  Things changed.  My wardrobe changed, my walk kind of changed, and the type of women I attracted changed (the bad girls that I liked so much when I was a clean cut good guy).  It was kind of cool.  But after awhile, I got tired of spending so much money and time on my hair that I decided to go out and buy a pair of clippers and shaved it all off.  I think the moment I shaved my head (no guard) was the time I entered into my more spiritual phase of life.  I felt that by shaving off all my hair, I was letting go of all that vanity that had such an exhausting grip on my soul (that and the fact I was saving like $50 a month).  Today, I am much more at peace with my hair.  I just keep it conservatively short, pay little to no attention to it, and when the day comes that it’s more gone than there, I’ll just take a straight razor to my head and take it all off for good.  When that happens, my hair products will become sunscreen and hats.  And then, I’ll have to focus on my mustache and beard.  Which will be rather difficult since I have practically zero facial hair.  But then again, I could transplant some follicles to my lip and chin.  Hmm…

IRIS: When I was a kid, I used to cry every time my mom gave me a hair cut because she always gave me the ugly Asian bowl cut.  When I grew older, like Emmie, I also learned the hard way that Asians should not go to a non-Asian hair stylist for a perm, otherwise you’ll end up with an afro.  Now I keep it simple and just get a regular hair cut.

JEROME: My dad’s been cutting my hair for years now and he’s pretty damn good.  I actually just asked him to give me a new ‘do – shave the back for mullet-prevention and keep the rest untouched – and I’m pretty happy with it so far.  But hey – you tell me, ladies.