How do you save money and time on long hair? Is it cheaper than short hair?

[LadyArwen]

Hey there friends, I wanted some advice on a current hair dilemma. You are more than welcome to share your own experiences!

I joined here about two years ago, and have been growing much long than that. For the past few years I have been reducing professional haircuts to once a year...finally hit my goal length of classic, but it is a thin classic length! Oh well. I am sooooo nervous to cut my hair myself, even trim.

Here are ways I have tried to save money and time on my hair
1. Cut it less
2. no dyes, sprays, etc
3. I bought a few flexi clips and cloth scrunchies and they work just fine, don't need anymore
4. Shampoo the top, condition the bottom
5. wash every 2-3 days

I am wondering to save money...
1. if I should go longer between cuts (2 years)
2. invest in a pair of shears to learn how to do it myself (AGH but I don't know how so if you have any resources how I would appreciate it. I want a straight blunt cut no layers.)
3. Just keep going once a year...I like my hairdresser a lot :)

Also, are there any tricks that you all do to save time on your hair and money? If so could you please share them here? Or do you have any stories?

Thank you and blessings :)

[Joules]

My hair is really really cheap for me. Here's what I do:

1) No dyes, no heat, no styling at a hairdressers.
2) Self-trimming. In fact, this coming August will mark 10 years since my last hairdresser appointment!
3) I use strictly drugstore products and make a point of getting it as cheap as possible.
4) I use simple extra virgin olive oil from a supermarket for my pre-poos and I get it on sales too. Just get everything on sales.

According to my very rough estimates my hair costs me 15 dollars a month. Of course I sometimes want to splurge and try something fancy, but it's not necessary for my hair.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

My hair is really really cheap for me. Here's what I do:

1) No dyes, no heat, no styling at a hairdressers.
2) Self-trimming. In fact, this coming August will mark 10 years since my last hairdresser appointment!
3) I use strictly drugstore products and make a point of getting it as cheap as possible.
4) I use simple extra virgin olive oil from a supermarket for my pre-poos and I get it on sales too. Just get everything on sales.

According to my very rough estimates my hair costs me 15 dollars a month. Of course I sometimes want to splurge and try something fancy, but it's not necessary for my hair.

I think you pretty much have it covered, Joules :) Along with not buying lots of expensive hair toys :p I could learn from that.....

[Joules]

I think you pretty much have it covered, Joules :) Along with not buying lots of expensive hair toys :p I could learn from that.....

I count hair toys into the "splurging and trying something fancy" category :lol: I'm a professional moneysaver and I survive on a very minimal collection of hair accessories :lol:

[Sarahlabyrinth]

I count hair toys into the "splurging and trying something fancy" category :lol: I'm a professional moneysaver and I survive on a very minimal collection of hair accessories :lol:

I wish I could say the same :laugh:

[Joules]

I wish I could say the same :laugh:

Seriously, the most expensive hairtoy I own is a 5$ fancy claw clip :lol:

Btw, I forgot to clarify one thing: getting products as cheap as possible also means buying big bottles, since they're usually a better deal in terms of price per ml.

[Laurab]

I've for sure spent more money on my hair since I've started growing it out long.
With short hair you tend to use less product and there's fewer accessories that you can even use in your hair. I didn't need pony-tail holders when my hair wasn't long enough to put in a pony-tail. I would also care less about quality because whatever, it'll be cut off soon anyway, so I wasn't doing any treatments or worrying about what shampoo I used. but now that I'm growing it out I'm deep conditioning and using oil reguarly.
If you don't get haircuts that'll definately save you money, but personally I like haircuts, so I'm still getting them as I'm growing my hair out.

You've definately thought of more tips than I have!
I don't mind spending more money on my hair right now, and really it isn't that much over time. But it's an interesting thing to think about.

[shelomit]

I would guess that I actually spend more on haircare than the short-haired members of my own family, but we're very plain people and nobody goes to salons for haircuts or styles their hair with fancy products. It takes me forever to go through shampoo, but even before starting CO washing in the middle of the week I could easily go through a bottle of conditioner in a month. So even though I use cheap-ish conditioner (less universally cheap than I used to!) it's a lot of stuff to buy over the course of the year compared to, e.g., my mother with her chin-length hair. Everything else is a moderate cost. Every few years I have to buy another package of hair pins or ties as they wear out or get lost, but that's about it.

I would encourage you to at least try self-trimming once. It's very possible that my standards are low given that, again, I'm just not really used to the idea of getting hair professionally cut. I only went to a hairdresser once in my life, and that was a disaster : P Regardless, it's pretty easy to get a blunt, layerless trim. IMO, you don't necessarily need dedicated hair-cutting shears; I use the same ones I use for cutting fabric, which are pretty easy to sharpen at home. And you could always enlist a friend to help. If you don't take much off, it is very hard to screw up a trim so badly that it can't be fixed if you wind up wanting to go to the hairdresser after all!

[SleepyTangles]

Depends on your approach. You don't really NEED to spend a lot, all you need is benign neglect, a comb (or TT) an oil and a shampoo+conditioner your scalp and hair agree with.
I think most of us LHCer spend on some kind of indulgent pleasure, be it hair toys or new products to try.

[Groovy Granny]

Depends on your approach. You don't really NEED to spend a lot, all you need is benign neglect, a comb (or TT) an oil and a shampoo+conditioner your scalp and hair agree with.
I think most of us LHCer spend on some kind of indulgent pleasure, be it hair toys or new products to try.

:agree: In the long run it IS cheaper, depending on your personal choices.

Considering the cost of salon visits these days, my little indulgences cost far less than the regular salon visits every 5 -6 weeks like I used to do with shorter hair.

I trim my own hair, wear it in it's natural color/texture, and enjoy a modest hair toy collection that allows me to do a variety of fun styles and accessorize/coordinate with outfits. :flower:

ETA: Forgot to mention TIME....it takes much less! 1-2x/week washes, style it in minutes, trim when you want ...yourself in minutes.
You can't beat that...unless you shave your head :lol: and that may take more time in moisturizing your scalp and maintaining the buzz cut :hmm:

[lapushka]

I joined here about two years ago, and have been growing much long than that. For the past few years I have been reducing professional haircuts to once a year...finally hit my goal length of classic, but it is a thin classic length! Oh well. I am sooooo nervous to cut my hair myself, even trim.

I would try and cut it yourself. At classic, that's a breeze, trust me.

Just try it once (Feye's if you are blunt cutting), and I'm betting you won't be disappointed. But if the pro-cuts are fine and you don't want to give them up, it's fine.

Here's the link to Feye's self-trimming instructions. Print them out if you are unsure so you can study them as you go!
http://feyeselftrim.livejournal.com/

I don't spend that much money on my hair, bar the products I use for it: shampoos, conditioners, masks, leave-ins, curling creams, gels, serums, oils; that's about it.

Then there's brushes, clips, hairpins, forks. I no longer "have to" buy a lot of those. If I buy 1 to 2 forks a year, it's a lot.

Eeerrm... The electricity I use by diffusing for 5 minutes, weekly. (After towel drying for 30-45 minutes and air drying for 2-4H.)

And the scissors were the "one-time" investment, 50 euro. I've been using these for the last 10 years. I use them, my mom uses them on her hair. (I bought a second pair in the sale last year.)

My mom also cuts & colors her hair herself. So that is major savings! They ask a lot to cut&color in a salon!

[Zesty]

Lots of great advice here. Many people do long hair on the cheap.

I am not one of those people though. :lol: I indulge all the time (too much?) but my other hobbies are relatively cheap and I get a lot of enjoyment for the money. :shrug: I buy lots of hair toys and products and I'm not opposed to regularly repurchasing the expensive ones. I go to a fancy long hair salon twice a year and I pay for that fanciness. I try new tools (e.g. brushes or pins) all the time. I could do without quite a lot of it, but it's fun for me.

So in my case, I think shorter hair would be much cheaper.

[GoddesJourney]

When my hair was short, I had to pay someone to cut it. Even when I had a boy cut, I was still charged the upcharge for women's hair. What a joke. It was always messy and I got bed head and I had to keep up with trims every few weeks. It took forever to get it out of my face and it was always goofy when I worked out.

Since I rarely trim, my hair scissors last many, many years and I think they were, at most, $15 to begin with. I just do the ponytail method these days. I used to make a more complicated V cut. It's doable. I've heard good things about the creaclip but never tried it.

I go through more conditioner now but I buy huge $6 bottles with a pump on it. It actually helps me regulate how much I use. At waist, two pumps is good. I doubt I will ever need more than three.

Hair toys are a different story but that's totally elective. When I had to have my hair in a strict bun every day, I had four Goody spin pins. All the rest of the time, I use silicone bands (two at a time) for my braid. This is my go to style. Those bands last at least a year before they break and it's usually due to contact with oil.

Speaking of oil, I just put a few drops on the tassel while I oil my skin after a shower.

I just splurged on a pair of cheap silk pillowcases. This isn't actually necessary. I just find that my hair has a million short pieces in front and at the nape. My husband calls these "fuzzies", as in, "Your fuzzies got me," when I try to cuddle. :) A silk pillowcase is the only way I remember these fuzzies have a chance to grow up big and strong and take their place amongst the rest of my hair.

I never dry my hair. I just brush and braid it right out of the shower. Sometimes it dries on it's own and sometimes it doesn't. It's harder to put up dry.

And my once or twice a year trims take like ten minutes. Most of that time is trying to brush it out even.

I have a horn comb and rarely use it. My denman brush is the greatest for my hair type and I can take it apart and clean it. I have had it for about a decade.

In my opinion, there are only two practical lengths of short hair. 1. Two inches or less. It stays out of your face and is not long enough to get itchy or puff out like a dandelion. 2. Just long enough for a secure ponytail nub. That's somewhere between shoulder and APL. Anywhere after that has to be long enough for a secure braid that stays behind my shoulders when I brush my teeth and long enough to hold a bun. On me, that's somewhere between BSL and WL.

So, for me, the long hair wins. Honestly, I didn't do any more work probably when I kept it at APL, but I wasn't taking care of it then and I have a hard time cutting it myself at that length.

[MusicalSpoons]

Ooh, classic length is the perfect time to try self-trimming! I will say you definitely need a dedicated pair of scissors just for hair though, whether they're marketed as hair scissors or fabric shears or whatever, if they go through your hair really easily (think hot knife through butter) they'll do. But the main thing is ONLY use them on hair, not even fabric ;)

Um, I spent a lot more when I was still experimenting. Now I know what my hair likes, I can just focus on getting them for as best value as possible. I still have conditioners to try, but I can now rule out some I see that I might have wanted to try thanks to knowing that one main conditioning ingredient doesn't do much for my hair.

I feel like I go through more conditioner now than I used to, but I'm not actually sure :hmm: I used to wash every other day, so I was using a scant palmful 3-4 times a week. Now I do a full wash once a week, and I use 2-3 palmfuls in total (for conditioning before the wash, and after). So, maybe it's about the same. The cost probably balances out too, as my hair likes both a cheapie £1 conditioner and ones that cost £3-4 - previously I was buying conditioner for between £3 and £4 (exact amount depended on what the offer was) ... so actually maybe I'm spending less on conditioner?! :bigeyes:

Shampoo I do spend more on now (maybe double?) out of necessity, due to my scalp being incredibly picky. It was before as well, I just didn't realise it wasn't normal, and didn't have the knowledge to try to find anything else anyway. However I wash my scalp perhaps twice a week now, or 3 times if I happen to have an appointment(s) - if I were still able to leave the house and work it would still be every other day like before.

Oh, I also use oil, anything goes for oil I use during my wash (ROO, link in lapushka's signature) but for pre-poo I'm using babassu oil that I bought back when I first started experimenting - it was on special offer, of course!

Y'know, the only things I buy full price are my cheap £1 conditioner, and about half my hairtoys. The other half are either bought in sales, or second-hand! So I suppose I do spend more as a longhair because of that - oh, and trying out different combs. I do shop around for the cheapest prices always, and I'm done looking around for combs now I've found what I wanted for daily detangling :D

For cutting, well my annual 'trim' (*cough*ChopOffSixInchesOfDestroyedEnds*cough*) used to cost £10. Now my sister does it as I didn't get proficient enough with any method before I could no longer reach where I wanted to cut, so it's free either way. My hair scissors cost me about two trims' worth, and I bought a smaller pair for snipping off single split ends that were £1.50 :shrug:

Um, money-saving tips? I think it's mostly been covered in the thread. If you personally enjoy your annual salon trip and can afford it then there's no reason you should forgo it :) unless you really want to. If you feel you need to reduce or forgo the appointments then options 1 and 2 both sound good.

My current 'hair towel' is a repurposed pair of jersey cotton pyjama trousers, and I store my hairtoys in a cup, a jar, on an scarf, and now also a scarf hanger from the charity shop.

Oh, saving time? I airdry overnight, and I don't always detangle - though that doesn't take too long anyway. I've learned the right amount of wetness and conditioner for the first C in CWC and can do other stuff if need be in the hours it's sitting on my head without it dripping. My buns take about a minute if I'm being careful, but it can be 20-30 secs if I need it up quickly.

Beyond that, I can't really think of anything. I guess it can be summed up as getting the most value out of everything :shrug: even splurging slightly on hairtoys, I'm at the point where it has to have a purpose in order to be added to my modestly ample collection :)