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Given that we tend to prefer low-to-no maintenance grooming choices, I'm surprised more hackers don't shave (or closely buzz) their heads: 1) You can do it you
by thunk 16y ago
Given that we tend to prefer low-to-no maintenance grooming choices, I'm surprised more hackers don't shave (or closely buzz) their heads:
1) You can do it yourself. Never pay for another hair cut.
2) You don't need shampoo or conditioner. Just use whatever you're already using on the rest of you.
3) Nothing needs to be done to make it presentable.
4) It's never itchy or hot or in the way or anything.
5) Works great if you're balding -- confident, like you've accepted the inevitable.
6) You look more like a Buddhist monk.
- Dove 16y agoBut you have to maintain it every couple months or it starts to look scruffy. If you're accustomed to a long hair look, you can forget about it for several months at a time. I'd wager that regular maintainence is the mental cost those guys are trying to avoid.
- varikin 16y agoMonths? I did that a couple years ago and I had to shave my head every other day.
- camiller 16y agoI'd venture he is talking about a short buzz like a military cut. I generally put the number 2 comb on the clippers and have at it, leaves about 1/4-3/8 inch. In the winter I let it get a little longer, go to a #4.
- poutine 16y agoBuy a shaver and do your hair at a #2 once every week or two. It takes 5 minutes to do. Less time than you spend washing and drying your hair by far.
- camiller 16y agoPretty much what I do, except switch to #4 in the winter. And use the tapered ones around the ears.
- thunk 16y agoI've never understood that argument. Whatever time you may save on monthly upkeep is lost many times over on daily (or at least, hopefully, weekly) washing and brushing and pony tailing, etc. I rebuzz my head about once every two or three weeks and that is literally it.
- Dove 16y agoAh, but time spent is not what we are trying to optimize. Washing and brushing one's hair does add time to daily tasks, but it is not a lot of time. Not compared to general time spent going to the bathroom, showering, eating. That time as a whole could be greatly reduced. By moving and concentrating vigorously, one can get through the shower in 120 seconds, through breakfast in 45. Hang out with ex-military types and you will see this behavior. (You will also see buzz cuts.) This sort of thing is pointedly not what hackers generally do. We conserve mental effort. Not because we are lazy, but because we have only so much mental effort to use in a day, and we want to use all of it on very specific tasks. Concentration is currency. Remembering things has a cost. Routine, menial tasks are almost free. In fact, like play, they can have a slight negative cost. They allow the mind to wander. For many of us, shower time is often productive time. But even when it's not, we attempt to get through it, not with a minimum expendeture of time, but with a minimum of mental fuss. Not going fast, not going slow. Just getting through it and thinking about other things. Hence, daily hair maintainence is not really costly. It's a routine. But remembering to schedule a haircut or assessing whether it's time to get out the razor is one more thing to think about. One more thing to remember. One cannot attack complex problems without proactively and repeatedly clearing the mind of unnecessary details. Abstract and forget. This is a critical skill. Avoiding periodic hair maintenence is an extension of that. Perhaps a silly one, but an extension nonetheless. For some, maintaining a hairstyle is a specifically chosen hobby, and that's fine. But for everyone else, forgetting about your long hair is a habit borne of simple good intellectual hygeine.
- thunk 16y agoJust to be clear, the styles we're comparing are buzz vs. long (pony-tailable) hair, right? Because the lengths in between are the real attention-sappers -- scheduled retail hair-cuts and at least some sort of daily styling, which requires (sometimes a lot of) attention. You make good points. And we've successfully moved from the mundane to the philosophical. But as far as maintaining a clear mind, I can weather a head-buzzing every few weeks without suffering any serious thought-train derailment. I even find it rather meditative. There's something purifying and exhilarating about shaving one's head -- it's like throwing away a lot of useless shit you've been accumulating, or putting one's mental baggage astern. My head feels lighter -- and it is!
- mhd 16y agoWell, unless your head isn't shaped that well (or has moles, scar, prison tattooos...). Then shaping it is much more of a bother and you look more like a conehead or Quasimodo than a Buddhist monk. Or even Moby. But yes, as the other maintenance-free option is more and more turning into a skullet for me, I guess I'll have to go that way, too. There's a shaped Remington Hair clipper (looks like a curved electric comb) that worked well enough last time...
- rlivsey 16y agoThat's what I do, I bought myself a trimmer and give myself a #3 buzz-cut about once a month. I haven't been to a salon in ~4 years now so have more than paid for the trimmers. I still use shampoo & conditioner though, seems to be better for the scalp but I expect that it's partially down to habit. It helps that the style suits me otherwise I wouldn't do it.
- johngunderman 16y agoOf course, there are the downsides: 1) sunburn 2) hats can get itchy but as your list is longer than mine, I'll concede.