Too Frugal?

In general I don't like to pay others to perform services I can do myself.  For example, I would never pay $40 for someone to cut my grass.  It takes me 20 minutes and I enjoy the exercise.

One of the services I've never been able to do myself is cutting my own hair.  This is something I just can't stand paying to have someone else do.  Most of my life I've used one of the chain stores (in Birmingham the big chain is Head Start, a Regis brand).  They raise their prices just about every year and now it costs something like $17.95 for a haircut.  I just don't see the value.  Most of the time, the stylist's hands wreak of cigarettes, so I have to smell that the entire time, plus I have to wash the smell from my hair afterwards.  The quality of the cut is hit or miss, and the fact that it takes between 5-10 minutes to cut my hair is probably a reason.

I experimented with a hair school but the nearest one is 13 miles from the house.  Head Start offered some great coupons for about 3 months this summer ($8 cuts), but now the price has gone back up.

So, just before heading out to my conference in Las Vegas, I had my partner cut my hair.  Unfortunately, due to inexperience, things got messy, and I ended up with a military cut.  I suppose it doesn't look bad, but this is the first time I've been mostly without hair.

But, hey, it was free.  That's $20 (after tip) that I can use to pay down some debt.