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Taking Care of All That Hair

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I have previously  talked to you about shampooing, and about finding a barber.  So, lets keep that hairball rolling, and focus in on another hot topic amongst our readers from their feedback – dealing with various hair issues.  Some of these may need to be addressed by a barber, but there are plenty of others we can take care of ourselves.

Cowlicks

Let’s get the barber-specific one out of the way first – dealing with cowlicks.  These are those unruly bits of hair that seem to have a mind of their own, and always want to be reaching for the ceiling.  Sure, you can slather on a bunch of water and product, but then you either end up with a helmet or end up with you hair looking like a greasy mess.  This is where a good barber can come in, as this is one of those things that they deal with a lot, and know how to handle.  Once they know you (and your hair) they will know how to cut the hair to help alleviate some of those unruly tendencies.  Sometimes it may be cutting it really short, or it may need to be an area that is left longer.  Whatever the case, your barber is your best bet here.

Ear and Nose Hair

What about the other hair you’ve got growing on your head that is not up top?  For example, tackling your eyebrows, ears, nose, and back of the neck?  Yes, these are things that your barber can (and very likely will) touch up when you get your haircut, but they are something you can certainly take care of yourself.  In these cases, you will want either a good pair of sharp scissors (preferably something barber-specific) or a multi-purpose facial hair trimmer.  The scissors are great for tackling individual problem hairs that need to be taken out, while the cordless trimmer (with changeable heads) can allow you to get things knocked out.

Take, for instance, the eyebrows.  Some might be a fan  of the caterpillar look, but for the rest of us, that’s not the case.  With the cordless trimmer, you can simply use the beard-trimming head, set the appropriate depth, and have the brows tamed in quick order.  Just make sure you do not set it too short, or you may ended up looking like you singed ’em off on a campfire.  Oh, and for those who genetics might have given them a unibrow?  You are going to have to break down and use tweezers to pluck those out.  Sure, you could have them, but you will have better results with tweezers.

As to hair on the outer edge of the ears, you can use one of the other included heads on the trimmer (or take the adjustable guard off of the beard on) and just run that over the outer edges of the ear, and you’re cleaned up.  As those hairs tend to be finer, this sort of “mass mowing” approach is the quickest.  With hair inside the ear (or nose, for that matter), most trimmers come with a head that is specific for this task.  Rather than being a straight-line oscillating blade, it is instead a circular blade.  This prevents you from cutting up the inside of your ear or nose, while still allowing the hairs to be cut.  With nose hairs, you could try using the scissors, but you would need a very steady handy (or a lot of tissue).

What about the back of your neck?

Now, that leaves us with another issue – the hair on the back of your neck.  Your barber probably cleans this up with a straight razor or shavette when you’re in, and that keeps things clean for a week or so (or at least that’s my experience).  If you want to keep a clean hairline in the back, that means you will need to take matters into your own hands.  For this, you are going to need a setup with some additional mirrors, or someone else to do the work for you.  In my case, I use the mirrors on my medicine cabinet, which I can angle out in opposite directions to allow me to see the back of my neck.  The first thing you can do here is to simply use the same razor you are shaving your face with.  Put some shaving cream on there, and shave away.  The other option will be to use that cordless trimmer; for this, you will want to experiment with the heads to see which works best for you.  For this, use your other hand to sort of form a barrier so you do not cut the hair you want to stay, and then clean up the neck.  Once you get this down, you’ll be able to clean it up in no time, and keep that neckline looking clean.

As you can see, there is a lot we can do, grooming-wise, in our own homes other than shaving.  This is made possible by having the correct tools for the job, and I have found a cordless beard trimmer with swappable heads to be an eminently flexible piece of equipment.  Aside from everything I have mentioned here, you can also use the foil attachment to clean up problematic areas (say, around a mole or other bump) without worrying about cutting yourself.  If you wanted to, these trimmers can even be pressed into service to help clean up and manage other body hair.

Whatever your particular problem area is, or what hair you want to remove, these fairly inexpensive tools are a great addition to your shaving kit.  Sure, we may like our “old school” blades, but there is definitely a case for adding a cordless trimmer to your shave den.

Patrick Kansa

Patrick Kansa

2 thoughts on “Taking Care of All That Hair”

  1. what about problem situations. What can be done for thinning hair, limp,lack of body etc. There are so many products out there with all kinds of claims. What actually does work ?

    1. Well, I’ve not tried a wide variety of things, so I cannot speak as to that. This is another good area to engage with a barber on – they see a lot of these various problems, and I imagine have seen what products work (or do not).

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