The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
Ursula Hennessey ·
Nov 16, 2010 at 11:58am
I suspect many people here are do-it-yourself types. The type of person who sees a problem, imagines a solution, thinks, "How hard can it be?" and then digs right in.
I also suspect, however, that it might take a really special kind of person to actually pull such things off flawlessly and to find the process gratifying to boot (Paules comes to mind).
I wonder, instead, how many of you will share a story here (mostly just to make me feel better) that negates this type of approach. In other words, when have the words, "How hard can it be?" came back to bite you?
I'll start, since one is so very fresh in my mind:
1. Thinking that cutting your children's hair yourself will save time and money.
- Comment (36)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (2)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments :
Aug '10
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
When I'm feeling particularly cheap, I cut my own hair. Three mirrors and a set of clippers.
The girlfriend has never complained, so I must do a half-decent job, right?
Jun '10
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, Ursula, but I'm as subject to the learning curve as anyone else. I rarely get anything 100% right on the first try. I'm even prone to the occasional epic fail. What I do possess in abundance is perseverance. It's a virtue that frequently compensates for my many and various flaws.
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
Aww...poor dear. Perhaps just buzz it all off?
I once tried to cover a terra cotta pot with a mosaic of ceramic shards (that I had produced myself by breaking several plates and mugs). Something went awry with the cement that I'd mixed and somehow when I walked away from the beautifully mosaicked pot to let it set for a while, every last shard fell off and the cement crumbled off unevenly so that I wasn't able to salvage any part of the project. I ended up throwing it all away.
Jul '10
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
If I had permitted my failures, or what seemed to me at the time a lack of success, to discourage me I cannot see any way in which I would ever have made progress.
Calvin Coolidge
May '10
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
We just put a 1/2" comb on the clippers and buzz cut the boy's hair. That's still how I cut my hair.
How hard can it be to:
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
Tried to clip the dog's nails. Once. Bad idea.
Jun '10
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
Tried to clip the cat's nails. Once. Still have a few scars.
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
Well, this is the thing. That's what we were trying to do! He was so freaked by the clippers/buzz that he screamed and squealed through the whole thing. Even with a lollipop. Even with his favorite TV show on. Even with the promise of *more* candy if he sat still. It was like trying to shear a wild boar. Not fun. Not successful.
Jul '10
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
For me, "How hard can it be?" primarily wreaks its havoc in the kitchen.
Aug '10
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
Ursula, while I am all for saving money, there are greater things at stake for your son than just his haircut and twelve bucks in your pocket. In our culture of over-feminization of just about everything (school, church, men's clothes - "skinny jeans" what the hell?), there remains one inviolable enclave of manhood: the old-time barber shop - not a beauty parlor, salon or unisex abomination but a sure 'nuff barber shop with barbers, scissors flashing, humming clippers clipping and a smell that's a combination of cigarette smoke, Barbicide, Jeris Hair Tonic, Brylcreem, and Clubman aftershave. A place where little boys see fathers, uncles, & grandfathers, engage with other men about men topics: horsepower, local politics, local sports, tools, etc.
Insist he go to the barber with his dad, uncle or grandpa and in twenty years, when he buys that first bottle of Clubman after-shave (after the high-school years of Polo/High Karate/Stetson) the smell will trigger great memories of time spent time in the barber chair with his father looking on.
Thus, you not only risk humiliating him with your haircuttery attempt, but you also risk his emasculation and the fall of western civilization. : )
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
One year, I thought that a smoked turkey would be good for Thanksgiving. Put the bird in the new smoker, set it up per the instructions, and the thermometer registered rapid cooling. Added more coal, more wood chips, with the same result. Bought more coal and wood chips. Shoveled enough coal to fuel the Orient Express, but bird no cook. Police showed up to inquire about the smoke, but she still no cook. Late that night, the turkey looked like Daffy Duck on the outside, and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre on the inside. Next time, I'll set the bird on fire.
Jul '10
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
Trying to embed a link in a comment in order to look like You professionals. "How Hard Can It Be?"
I haven't figured it out yet, but I haven't broken anything either... that I know of.
Great reply, Matthew.
Edited on Nov 16, 2010 at 1:08pmMay '10
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
For me it was adding moulding to a living room and hall.
I've done plenty of carpertry, so "how hard can it be? It's just a miter cut." Oh, the walls aren't quite straight? The angles not quite square?
Oops...
May '10
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
I should like to point out here that the boy was unusually agitated. Had we taken him to the barbershop, we might never have been allowed back.
Aug '10
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
Barbers understand and are equipped to handle unruly and agitated little boys...
May '10
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
When I was a kid, my mom and dad saved much needed cash by having her cut our hair (3 boys). We always ended up with the classic white-sidewalls, and I was so traumatized by the constant experience that:
1) I got a paper route as soon as possible so I could pay for my haircuts,
2) I eventually started to cut my own hair, which I do to this day, except before my wedding back in 1856, and
3) If you wonder why an old advanced 50-something fossil like me still has hair that is a bit shaggy and tickles my ears, it is because I am still overcompensating 50 years later.
Based on the experience with our late great dog, whose hair grew way too fast (as is the case also with our current spoiled 4-year old puppy), who was terrified at a very early age by the sound of an electric clipper, and consequently I spent the next 15 years fighting him with a scissors every two months, I fear that you may have an on-going issue here......
Jun '10
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
This is exactly why I started cutting my boys' hair at home. It was excruciatingly difficult the first few times, but now I am faster and better. (Even dad lets me cut his hair.)
Of course, I only know one style (two if you include the "fauxhawk") and when my teenager wants long hair, it's back to the barber (or maybe not).
If it's any consolation, Ursula, my boys (9 and 13) hate, hate, hate the scissors, and can hardly sit still for them---but the razor clippers seem okay. When they were younger, however, it was the other way around. Stick to it, and you will succeed!
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
Matthew Lawrence
Barbers understand and are equipped to handle unruly and agitated little boys... · Nov 16 at 1:43pm
Well, I hope so. Maybe a grizzled grandpa-type might be just the thing.
A few months back, when I dropped nearly $60 for the tiny trimming of the two tiny heads of my girls (total time spent: 15 minutes), I watched a young boy have similar misgivings about the buzzer. The ladies in charge sent the frazzled parents and their ratty-headed son home with a, "what do you think we are? miracle workers?" kind of attitude.
May '10
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
I work around this problem with the simple expedient of never doing anything myself.
Aug '10
Re: The Curse of "How Hard Can it Be?"
...being the operative words (and problem).
With regard to cutting a boys hair. That is.
Edited on Nov 16, 2010 at 2:08pm