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Here is the original ad I placed, as it appeared on
Craig's List:
Feral Cuts - Wild Hair Intervention! - Part 1
Writer/wanna-be stylist looking to perfect technique/create potential client list. I've been cutting my own hair for about 8 years, and have been slowly building a circle of trusting friends who've let me take my shears to their 'do. My specialty is the "refresh," which is basically for those brave souls with long-ish hair curious about making the transition to a shorter style. I'm not talking buzzcuts, no, but something that may - if I dare say so - make you feel fresher, possibly younger, possibly more daring, possibly freer. Who knows, but so far the feedback's been good.
Here's what I do: Either I come to your home or you come to mine (I live about a 2-minute drive from the Castro). You wet your hair, I take less than a half-hour to cut it, and voila! New 'do. Cost? Absolutely free! That's right, a free haircut just for you, and all you have to do is ask! Then, if you like what I've done, we can discuss future sessions, which will always be a mere fraction of regular salon fees. How 'bout that? Email me for more info and maybe something about what you're looking for in a haircut. Like where you're at now and where, ideally, you'd like to be.
NOW HERE'S WHAT REALLY HAPPENED!
Feral Cuts - Wild Hair Intervention! - Part 2 - the reality show
Well, I'm discovering that one can't really cut hair, you know, legally, without one of those cosmetology licences. I did enroll in the Cosmetology and Esthetics Program offered by The Stratford Career Institute. This distance learning course began quite well, and I passed my initial exams with flying colors, although you are allowed to use the book and I did so liberally. I was excited, feeling well on my way to a career as a barber to the stars, but then I got frustrated with the much more difficult (and seemingly outdated) lessons on pin curls and finger waves. I JUST WANNA CUT HAIR, I yelled into the ether, as I held my hands aloft, imaging a real head underneath them, a head attached to a discerning but hirsute customer who just wanted to look stylish again. I didn't think that finger waves and pin curls were going to be my forte. Neither were perms, which was the next lesson. And maybe because I wasn't watching the instructional video, or maybe because a distance learning course is an awfully strange way to get familiar with the very hands-on nature of cutting hair, but either way, I abandoned the course 6 weeks in.
Still, I've managed to retain a few private clients (read: friends) who don't mind that I don't have a cosmetology certificate under my belt, and once in awhile I actually perform a few minor miracles, if I do say so myself. Of course, I consider my friends to be very attractive people, and honestly, I don't think I could screw things up too royally if the basics are all there to begin with.