Customer Reviews

Scissors and Comb Haircutting: A Cut-by-Cut Guide for Home Haircutters

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book describes step-by-step how to cut men's hair. This book was written by a barber and he does a great job explaining the haircutting process. I would not buy this book if you want to cut women's hair. I cut my husband's hair now and he is forever grateful! The print is in black and white and the pictures of the models are outdated. Otherwise, an excellent how-to book. Note to publisher/auther: Update this book, please!

I used another popular book and made a mess out of my kids hair. I was too embarrassed to even take him in and have it fixed. I found this one and I finally understood what I was suppose to be doing! This is the one you want. This is the one you NEED.

Twice I paid too much for bad haircuts for my two-year-old son and decided I could probably do no worse. I don't have time to go to barber school so I looked for a good book to give me the basics. This is that book. The photos and hair styles are outdated, but the principles are sound. Pictures and illustrations give good step-by-step instruction. I skimmed through the book a couple times, then dove right in and won praises from my wife. The book won't make you a world-class stylist, but it will teach you how to give a respectable haircut so you can keep the [money] it would have cost you in your pocket.

This book has a great do-it-yourself spirit. I enjoyed reading it, however, the information is most relavent if you are going to cut men's and children's hair. The book was written in the mid-80's and the women's styles are out-dated (men's styles are about the same) and the amount of material devoted to them is less than for men. Also, for some reason, the author chose female models who had very curly hair so the directions were difficult to see on them. As I bought the book to learn to cut hair on women, the book didn't meet my needs and so I rated it a 3.

The author is very passionate about his subject and I appreciate his spirit. I wish in his next revision he would add more information about cutting women's hair and improve the pictures.

If you can find your way through this book, great! There is a ton of info, but with its poor design and layout, it can be challenging to get through.

This was published by a do-it-yourself publishing company and it shows.

Excessive Text
Eliminate unnecessary and confusing text. This book is helpful, but there is way too much for the reader and it confuses the issues simply because of its poor layout and design.

Update the hair models
These pictures are clearly from the 70s. Camera techniques and photos are poor. Eliminate excessive photos that just don't project detail. Although, some pencil drawings prove more helpful than photos.

Dose of quotes, proverbs, passages
Get rid of the Quotes, Proverbs, Passages from practically every page! There are famous quotes by everybody from George Carlin to Robert Louis Stevenson to Matthew and Confucious. These are distracting, run-on with the normal text and have absolutely no place in a haircutting book.

Most people who peruse haircutting books do so for home haircuts. There is a lot of info on hair shaft, hair grain, texture, hair loss, etc. Included are many pointers, tips, edge-cutting, beard trimming, short, layered, etc., etc.,

So if you have time to get through this book, happy haircutting.... Rizzo

I bought this book so that instead of driving half an hour intotown to have my hair cut, my 12-year-old daughter could do it. It'sperfect. She read the book for a day or two, then cut my hair lastnight, and did a great job! The book has tons of pictures and veryclear directions...

I'm so glad that I bought this book! It is loaded with a lot of information and is detailed - unlike many of the haircutting books that are around! Thank you Bob Ohnstad!!

This obviously self-published book has been my only training in hair cutting, and I think I do a better job cutting my boyfriend's hair than whatever cheap barber he was going to before did. It provides useful information on how hair grows (not just trivia; understanding hair a little better can help you cut it better) as well as different types of hair, growth patterns, etc., which helps a lot. It explains how to hold the scissors, how to hold the hair, how to make sure you're cutting hair a consistent length, how to gradually blend shorter areas with longer areas, how to do edge trimming, how to do the parts around the ears and the base of the neck, etc. There are helpful photos and illustrations.

You are not going to learn how to cut high fashion hair with this book. You can learn how to do a very basic short haircut, though. (It covers a long style too, but I agree with other reviewers that it's pretty ugly, and looks difficult to do.) My boyfriend likes his hair shorter on the sides and back and a little longer on top, and the book explains how to do this--though the first few haircuts I gave him I just did the same length all over. Needed to build up some confidence first. Now that I've had plenty of practice, I am able to cut it pretty much the way he wants it. It still takes me over an hour, but I am improving both in speed and quality each time I give him a haircut.

The material covered in this book is definitely five star material, but I'm taking off a star because it really could have used an editor and someone who knows how to do layout. I understand and appreciate that this book is the author's attempt to leave the world a better place than he found it, but the quotes and what not really do seem out of place. If he must include them, the layout should differentiate them from the main text. As it is, you can be reading along about, say, hair growth patterns, and suddenly in the middle of a sentence there's a quote from Ben Franklin.

The author also injects far more opinion than I think is strictly necessary, and it can almost be annoying at times. But if you just think of him as your eccentric Uncle Bob, and do the literary equivalent of "smile and nod" when he says something unnecessary or opines for a bit too long, you'll find there really is a wealth of information here.

I read the whole book through (well, I skipped the long hair chapter) and then reviewed a few key chapters again before giving my first haircut, keeping the book open on a table beside me. The second and third times, I reviewed again and kept the book handy, but now I don't even take it off the shelf. I have been meaning to review it again though, to maybe pick up some improvements in the finer points.

It would be nice if there were a "last minute review" chapter that consolidated the high points into one place, perhaps with page references to the full explanation. As it is, the basic instructions you need for getting all the way through a haircut are a bit scattered throughout the book. But it's manageable.

Bought this book to learn how to cut my spouse's hair. Was an excellent, very clear, very thorough guide. After reading it, I was able to give my spouse a decent haircut the very first time. The instructions are very clear, broken down into easy steps, with lots of illustrations and photos. The author includes not just instructions on cutting hair at home, but a thorough grounding on hair and scalp health and general haircare.

The book did it's job admirably; I was able to cut hair competently after reading it. Bearing that in mind, I have three caveats that kept the book from perfection:

1) Like many other reviewers said, the photos could stand to be updated--they're b&w photos with hairstyles from (it looks like) late 70s. (however, that doesn't stop you from being able to use the book to give a decent haircut)
2) The book's organization could be a little better. I had to wade through a lot to get to the haircutting instructions. The material I had to wade through *was* interesting, informative, and enjoyable. Nevertheless, I would have preferred the "how to" instructions in a section right up front, and the "myths about hair" to be in a section further back in the book, for example.
3) The book was wonderful for learning to cut hair with *scissors*, but I could have used a chapter or two on properly cutting hair with clippers.

This book was very informative for the non professional. You will learn a lot about hair patterns and how to best cut it, however the actual styles in the cut-by-cut guide were very dated and unattractive. It helped me to understand hair better but I don't think I will be a better stylist because of it.