Tag: Do it yourself

DIY: Cutting My Own Hair Super Short with Updates

writ­ten 12/29/25, updat­ed 6/8/26

What

DIY hair­cut. I like super short hair

Why

Sav­ing mon­ey and time, get­ting the cut I want not what the hair per­son thinks

Time & Effort

Time: 1–1.5 hours

Effort: Easy-Mod­er­ate

Direc­to­ry

Click to Nav­i­gate!

Materials & Cost

Bought Supplies

Wahl Prof Mag­ic Clip V9000 Cord­ed

The 360 Mir­ror

Alli­ga­tor Hair Clips

Hair Styling Scis­sors

Total

$82.99

$39.99

$5.99

$11.99

$140.96

Owned Supplies

Hair Cut­ting Cape

Comb (clip­pers come with one)

Water Spray Bot­tle

Broom and/or Vac­u­um Clean­er

Process

What fol­lows is the orig­i­nal, very first hair­cut I did myself Decem­ber 2025 where I was real­ly ner­vous. Skip to the bot­tom for Notes and details on my sub­se­quent cuts

Prepping

  • Gath­er sup­plies and clear any rugs or any­thing else in the cut­ting area. Lit­tle hairs will fly! Keep every­thing with­in easy reach
  • Secure the cape
  • Fol­low man­u­fac­tur­er’s instruc­tions on oil­ing the clip­per. The thing I read before­hand said to put one drop on either side of the blades and then back
  • Grab the spray bot­tle and comb, then mist the hair so that it’s mild­ly damp but not sop­ping wet

I could­n’t find a spray bot­tle, so I used a wet comb and that does not work very well

  • Then comb straight so that all the hair lays flat
My hair is at least 2 inch­es too long
  • Know the game­plan. Appar­ent­ly, the rule of thumb for close cuts is to do the sides then the back first. Because I want­ed to keep the top a bit longer, I need­ed to alli­ga­tor clip the hair there out of the way so I could deal with it lat­er

The prob­lem with such large clips is that they get in the way of the clip­per

Cutting!!

  • Start­ing time!! The rec­om­men­da­tion is to use the clip­per guards and to go more con­ser­v­a­tive first. You can take away hair but not put it back.

To start, I used a #4 guard to address the sides. The tech­nique is cut straight into the air and to NOT fol­low the curve of the head just yet.

Deep Breath! LET’S DO THIS!

Right Side

Before
After

Hmm… Did­n’t wet the hair enough, so it was real­ly dif­fi­cult to cut the strands

Left Side

Before
After

Wet it more this time and it was eas­i­er. The only hard part was using my left hand instead of my right

  • Now for the trim­mer! Using the trim­mer and/or the cor­ner edge of the clip­per (no guard), fold the ear and trim around the con­tour

This trim­mer was TERRIBLE. The on/off switch was lit­er­al­ly impos­si­ble to flip and for the num­ber of times you need to do that, it was super obnox­ious and hurt my fin­gers. That’s what hap­pens when I decide to go cheap

left
right

Inter­est­ing­ly, my hair is dif­fer­ent on both sides. In the end, I knew I’d need the help of scis­sors to pol­ish it off

  • Now for the back. I stuck with the #4 guard to take the bulk off. Uti­liz­ing the side mir­rors by turn­ing either left or right to see more (you have to use the mir­ror in the mir­ror effect), I was able to take off the bulk of the length. The straight back, I used a two-hand­ed motion sim­i­lar to that dumb­bell exer­cise
Before
After
  • Now there are those lit­tle strands in the back. I decid­ed to use the trim­mer again. This part was super hard because I could­n’t see any­thing and no amount of phone or mir­ror could help me. In the end, I just used the comb as a straight edge. I knew I’d want anoth­er per­son to help me out lat­er.

They sell these back of head guides that you can secure around your fore­head

  • And for the riski­est part: Fine tun­ing. With the bulk gone, it was time to do detail work. If the length was good for a trim, I would’ve been fine, but I did­n’t want that. I want short­er!

Stu­pid­ly, I went straight from the #4 to a #1 for what­ev­er dumb rea­son. If I was sea­soned, it’d be fine, but I was brand new to this!! So, of course, I made a mis­take.

Whoops. Too much, too fast

  • After laugh­ing ner­vous­ly, I decid­ed to fix it. Slow­ly this time. I went from a #3, to a #2, then a #1. Each guard num­ber I went all over with until I got used to wield­ing the clip­per.

I actu­al­ly was­n’t intend­ing to ever go back to the #1, but I did in the end because it was the only way to get the bot­tom of the back to hug the skin and look more nat­ur­al.

Help­ful: Just because you use a guard does­n’t mean you’re lim­it­ed to it. On the side of the clip­per is a lever that fur­ther con­trols the length. So, using a #3 plus the lever effec­tive­ly gives you #3.1 — 3.9. This allows more con­trol to fine tune and is how I end­ed up fix­ing the hair and feel­ing com­fort­able with the rest of the fine-tun­ing process. It ends up being a tri­al-and-error/prac­tice thing.

  • After fix­ing every­thing, I felt much bet­ter and things were look­ing good as a whole. Now for the mid-tier! I swapped to the #6 to do the curve of my head, then the #4, and even­tu­al­ly #3 (only a lit­tle)
  • For the oth­er side of my head, I removed the clips, combed, then added the clips the oth­er way this time. Time to cut!
Before
After
  • More fine tun­ing all the way around. This is where I final­ly fig­ured out how to prop­er­ly use the tri-fold mir­ror.

The female head has a much more pro­nounced dip/roundness in the back than a typ­i­cal male head, so I had to take that into account

Hmm. I missed some on the right side
  • Hap­py with the sides and back, nor­mal­ly, this is where Hair Scis­sors come into play. Alas, I did NOT have any. I also knew bet­ter than to use reg­u­lar scis­sors or the clip­pers. I would have thinned and lay­ered the top using a 2‑finger hold and cut method, then fine-tuned the con­tours of the ears.

And DONE!

Go clean up and take a show­er!

Before and After Pictures

Notes:

1st Cut — 12/27/25

Very free­ing and so much eas­i­er than I thought it would be! A few hic­cups in the learn­ing process, but over­all, I can see myself doing this for years to come. The tri-fold mir­ror was instru­men­tal in all of this! I would high­ly rec­om­mend it! I’m already imag­in­ing oth­er styles I can try in the future! It’s nice to not only save mon­ey, but do this at my own leisure, in my own house!

  • I need­ed some­one else’s help for the scis­sor-work and con­tour­ing of the back and ears, so I have yet to try that myself. Should­n’t be too hard. I’ll update when­ev­er I do that in the future.
  • While the longer top style-wise was­n’t too bad look­ing, I can’t staaaaand hair in my face, so it just got annoy­ing
  • If using the large hair clips, make sure to push them way up high or they’ll get in the way of the clip­per
  • Def­i­nite­ly use a spray bot­tle
  • I did­n’t real­ize the back of my head is so bumpy. If the pic­tures look like I chopped to much in some places, it’s actu­al­ly because of my head struc­ture

2nd Cut — 2/21/2026

Dura­tion: 10:30am — 11:14am (45 min­utes)

Cut in the kitchen this time which was much bet­ter and brighter than the bath­room. Messed up AGAIN in the same spot because I for­got to return the clip­per lever to the low­est lev­el which means that, yet again, I need­ed to use the #1 guard to smooth it out. It went much faster than the first time because I not only felt more com­fort­able as a whole, but I prop­er­ly uti­lized the 360 Mir­ror. Vac­u­um clean­er is much eas­i­er than broom and dust­pan. Short­er to start this time around and short­er to end with. Also did not have scis­sors and had help for the final touch­es yet again.

LEFT: Pre-cut; CENTER: Messed up in the low­er cor­ner, so had to cut on guard #1 to smooth it out; RIGHT: Post-cut (you can see how the top is very long)

3rd Cut — 4/12/2026

Dura­tion: 11:21am — 12:26pm (1 hour 5 min­utes)

Hair was short­er to start with, but longer to end with than pre­vi­ous iter­a­tions (most­ly because I did­n’t mess up as bad­ly). This time employed scis­sors to help, so it took a bit longer to com­plete, but the detail work is bet­ter. Still messed up when try­ing to use the comb + clip­per method to detail towards the top. Looks bad, but not as bad as the bot­tom of the hair­line. It’s real­ly nice to be able to cut when­ev­er I feel like on my own. This time, I’m going to add some more notes to the process now that it’s more stream­lined.

  • Wet and comb through­out the process
  • Pin hair as desired
  • Choose a Guard - Used #3 with the clip­per lev­el on the short­est set­ting
  • Clip the sides and the back using the 360 mir­ror — Use the mid­dle to start, then the mir­ror-in-the-mir­ror images (i.e. When cut­ting the right side, look to the left; When cut­ting the left side, look to the right). Use an under­hand hold and cut upwards.
Under­hand hold for the back
Mir­ror-in-mir­ror image with scis­sors
  • Ear and Back Detail — Wet, comb, then use scis­sors and/or mini clip­pers. BE CAREFUL!! This is the eas­i­est place to mess up!
  • Short­en and Fade as desired. Used #2 guard ON THE LONGEST CLIPPER LENGTH first, then at half lever for the mid­dle, and then the short­est on the low­est por­tion of the head. Use a scoop­ing motion with the clip­per to pre­vent sharp edges
  • Detail Time — I removed 2 hair clips and then went in small incre­ments with the clip­per lev­el. Be care­ful if you’re try­ing to use the comb as a guard to help. That’s where I messed up this time… heh… heh… Sigh.
  • Scis­sor Work — First time using scis­sors. I read some­where that the best way to cut bangs is to use the comb as a guide and do ver­ti­cal snips to make it look more nat­ur­al. I’m not going for bangs here, but I fig­ured it worked sim­i­lar­ly?
  • Final Touch­es — Look all around for even­ness. I ran the guard­ed clip­per around again to make sure all the areas were cut and found that I’d missed the upper back cor­ners near the top of my head

Com­plete!

Pre-cut
Post-cut

4th Cut — 6/7/2026

Dura­tion: 12:05 — 12:52pm (47 min­utes total)

I was amazed at how long my hair got in such a short time, but look­ing back, this is actu­al­ly a longer inter­val than usu­al. Appar­ent­ly, with hair this short, I need to cut it every 1.5 months. This was clos­er to 2 months. Used the notes from the last appt to help and, over­all, I felt extreme­ly con­fi­dent now that I’ve done it sev­er­al times. I think next time I’ll just start with the #2 guard… Using #3 first helps cut down on bulk so it does­n’t over­whelm the clip­per, but I’ll try to start with it next time. This ses­sion, I did­n’t even both­er using the mini clip­per at all and just used the scis­sors. It is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed and I took it away from the orig­i­nal post. It’s safer, more detailed, and I even test­ed out lay­er­ing a lit­tle. Most­ly hap­py. Still need­ed help to touch up lat­er because the hairs around the ears are too hard to get, that back and top of my head are hard to reach, and espe­cial­ly because I’m right-hand­ed. A lit­tle ner­vous about lay­er­ing. Will do more of it next time. Much short­er time dura­tion than last time! Because the detail work is much bet­ter, I was very hap­py with the out­come and with­out major mis­takes, I don’t have to wear a hat when I go out!

Left: Before; Right: After (I can see lit­tle fly aways in the very top back, but the top has much less bulk than pri­or ses­sions)

Homemade Deli Meat — With and Without Ham Maker

writ­ten 4/15/2024, updat­ed 7/21/2025

The juices that came out of this… YUM

What

Mak­ing deli meat at home by com­bin­ing dif­fer­ent cuts of meat (can be same kind of meat or a mix­ture) with and with­out a Ham Mak­er

Why

Abil­i­ty to con­trol what’s put inside your own cold cuts, and can be cheap­er

Time and Effort

Time: A few hours

Effort: Easy

Ingre­di­ents

Meat

Sea­son­ings

Sup­plies

Mix­ing Bowls

Cut­ting Board

Knives/Meat Grinder/Processor

Ham Mak­er

Plas­tic Wrap/Sausage Wrap­ping

Foil

Pot/Rice Cooker/Oven

Ham Maker Method

Using a Ham Mak­er is real­ly the eas­i­est way to make a formed meat, espe­cial­ly if you want to mix sev­er­al cuts or meats togeth­er. It can also be used with­out mix­ing meats or grind­ing them. Ham Mak­ers make the wrap­ping step a cinch.

Ham Mak­er

Ingredients and Supplies

Meat, Sea­son­ings, Water, Ham Mak­er, Cook­ing Bag, Tall Pot, Pot Ther­mome­ter, Stove, Refrig­er­a­tor

Time

30 min­utes Prep + 2 hours Cook + overnight Chill

Process

  • Wash your Ham Mak­er if you haven’t
  • Fill a tall pot with Water, and heat it up on the stove (Tar­get: 182–195F)
  • Choose your meat:

Whole Meat — an entire piece of meat, uncut (e.g. pork loin, pork shoul­der, whole breast)

Mixed Meat — a formed mash of dif­fer­ent cuts or com­bi­na­tions of meat types

  • Pre­pare your selec­tion by remov­ing veins, bones, and sinews. Decide if you want to keep, and how much, any fat
  • If using a meat mix­ture, chop, mince, grind, process, or any com­bi­na­tion as desired
  • Sea­son your choice of meat, to taste
  • Allow to set for a few min­utes
  • In the mean­time, line the Ham Mak­er with a Cook­ing Bag
  • When ready, place meat into the can­is­ter
  • Twist the top of the bag closed
  • Close the Ham Mak­er with the press and lid, then insert the ther­mome­ter
  • When water in the pot reach­es between 180 — 195F, place the full Ham Mak­er in the water, mak­ing sure the water lev­el sits above the fill line of the meat inside
  • Keep the tem­per­a­ture steady (I set my gas stove low-medi­um)
  • Cook until inter­nal tem­per­a­ture reach­es the safe cook­ing tem­per­a­ture for your meat choice, about 2 hours
  • Place the hot Ham Mak­er on a hot pad in the refrig­er­a­tor and cool overnight
  • When ful­ly cooled, run can­is­ter under warm water to release the meat

Slice and Enjoy!

Pictures!!

Chopped, Minced, and Processed
Remov­ing Air Bub­bles
Squish
It’s Hot!
Chill­ing
Open­ing
Pour out the juice
Release
Still in Bag
There it is!

Ta-DAAA!! The hole is where both the twist top of the plas­tic and the ther­mome­ter when in. You can see the tex­ture dif­fer­ences from the dif­fer­ent cuts/processing of the meat. Deli­cious!

No Ham Maker Methods

Sous Vide and Smoked are two meth­ods of mak­ing this. If you don’t have a sous vide device, there are alter­na­tives

Sous Vide Method

There are dif­fer­ent ways to sous vide with­out actu­al­ly using a sous vide device. You can use an oven, a Dutch oven or a pot, and even a rice cook­er.

Ingredients and Supplies

Meat, Sea­son­ings, Mix­ing Bowls, Water, Pot/Oven/Rice Cook­er, Ther­mome­ter, Refrig­er­a­tor

Time

35 min­utes Prep + 2 hours Cook + Chill

Prepare Meat

*Pic­tures below

  • Remove any veins, sinews, and bones. Remove or use fat as desired
  • Choose your meat:

Whole Meat — an entire piece of meat, uncut (e.g. pork loin, pork shoul­der, whole breast)

Mixed Meat — a formed mash of dif­fer­ent cuts or com­bi­na­tions of meat types

  • If using Mixed Meat, pre­pare a [diced: minced: ground] meat ratio of [¾ : ½ : ⅓ lb] or [350 : 250 : 150 g]
  • Sea­son the meat, to taste (If desired, sea­son each tex­ture a bit dif­fer­ent­ly for a com­bined com­plex fla­vor)

Wrap

  • Set out a dou­ble lay­er of plas­tic wrap and sprin­kle half with smoked papri­ka and what­ev­er else you’d like
  • Turn out meat mix­ture
  • Tight­ly roll into desired shape and size

NOTE: Make sure wrapped meat log(s) will fit into your cook­ing imple­ment so it can be cov­ered in water!

  • Secure the ends

Cooking

Here are 3 meth­ods of cook­ing the meat ham with­out ded­i­cat­ed Sous Vide equip­ment

Pot Method

  • Fill with water
  • Bring water to a boil
  • Place meat log into the water (make sure meat is and will be ful­ly sub­merged the whole time)
  • Bring to a boil again
  • Turn off heat and place lid tight­ly on top
  • Leave for 45 min­utes to 1 hour
  • Check for done­ness with ther­mome­ter
  • Repeat if nec­es­sary
  • When done, let cool and enjoy, or chill in refrig­er­a­tor

Oven Method

  • Pre­heat oven to 215 — 220F (100C)
  • Select a deep dish or oven safe pot
  • Boil enough water to fill
  • Pour in boil­ing water
  • Place meat log
  • Cov­er with parch­ment paper
  • Cov­er that in foil and/or a tight lid
  • Cook for 1–3 hours until 160F (75C)
  • Remove from oven
  • Place in an ice bath and/or refrig­er­a­tor until inter­nal tem­per­a­ture is 50F (10C)

Rice Cook­er Method

  • Boil water
  • Pour boiled water into rice cook­er
  • Using a ther­mome­ter, mix in cold water until water tem­per­a­ture is some­where between 175–195F
  • Place meat log into water
  • Close
  • Set rice cook­er to Keep Warm
  • Cook for about 2 hours
  • Be sure tem­per­a­ture is safe for choice of meat
  • Let cool then enjoy or chill in refrig­er­a­tor

Pictures (Oven Method)

Ground
Cubed
Diced
Fla­vor­ing
sea­son­ing
Com­bine
Let sit
Rolling
…Yeah it does­n’t fit well. Pour­ing in the boil­ing water
Wax paper
Foil and in the oven
Ice bath
Ta Da!! Taste was ON POINT

Smoker Method

This method uses a meat grinder then a meat smok­er. You can use a ded­i­cat­ed meat grinder, a meat grind­ing attach­ment for a stand mix­er, or even just a food proces­sor

Prepare Meat

  • Decide on ratio of meat cuts (e.g. [½ : ½] ratio of [skinned chick­en thigh : skin­less chick­en breast])
  • Cut into small pieces

Grind/Process

  • Grind/Process 1st time
  • Grind/Process 2nd time
  • Add any desired sea­son­ings and half of total water

NOTE: For 1lb of meat, add 20ml (⅔ oz. or 1⅓ Tbsp) of water

Total ratio is 40mL water per 1lb (40mL = 1⅓ oz = 2¾ Tbsp)

  • Grind/Process 3rd time

Wrap

  • Place ground meat in a mix­ing bowl
  • Add the rest of the water, and then mix togeth­er real­ly well (should be very sticky)
  • Pump or stuff into an edi­ble or ined­i­ble cas­ing (100mm is the largest size I could find on Ama­zon)
  • Secure the end

Cooking

Overview: 1 hour Dry + 1 hour @ 130F + 1 hour @ 145F + 1 hour @ 160F + more @ 175F

Total: ~5 hours

  • Set smok­er to 120F (50C), NO smoke, NO humid­i­ty, OPEN dampers to dry the cas­ing for 1 hour
  • Set to 130F (55C), ADD smoke, ADD humid­i­ty (water pan), ¾ damper for 1 hour
  • 145F (65C) for 1 hour
  • 160F (72F) for 1 hour
  • 175F (75C) until inter­nal tem­per­a­ture reach­es 160F (72C)
  • Place in an ice bath to sep­a­rate the cas­ing and the meat

Slice and enjoy!

Notes

Attempt 4/14/24: Used Oven Sous Vide Method. Should have added some­thing like corn­starch in the meat mix­ture to give it some adher­ence. That and/or chang­ing the ratio to add more ground/pureed meat to fill in the gaps in the meat, while tak­ing away from the orig­i­nal cubed meat. Even if cub­ing (altered the recipe direc­tions to use small­er pieces), then should process a lit­tle. 3 degrees of food proces­sor chop­ping to make the final prod­uct smoother would be more ide­al. The way this end­ed up was more of a head­cheese. There IS an obvi­ous com­plex tex­ture, but it all fell apart eas­i­ly. The 3 dif­fer­ent fla­vor pro­files gave it GREAT taste. Made the mis­take of not think­ing about the cook­ing ves­sel until after rolling the meat. Should have cut it in half and then would have been able to have 2 small­er hams and able to cook it inside of the Dutch oven with the water filled to the top. The way I had it, the water did­n’t even cov­er the whole meat log, so cook­ing was very uneven. Unsure of how to test inter­nal tem­per­a­ture of meat log with­out mak­ing a mess. Cook­ing @ 215F took about 2.5 to 3 hours total. Used way too much plas­tic wrap and was­n’t able to use a lid­ded dish, just 2 lay­ers of foil. Meat used: Chick­en. 3 thighs, 1.5 breast, ¼lb ground chick­en (hand squeezed to pul­ver­ize). NEXT TIME: more ground chick­en, less cubed breast. Add corn­starch for smooth­ness and adher­ence. Small­er logs for more even cook­ing. More food pro­cess­ing. Maybe try using meat cas­ing.

7/21/2025: Used Ham Mak­er

  • Sous Vide cook­ing charts rec­om­mend cook­ing chick­en at 150F for 1–3 hours.
  • A Ham Mak­er is a MUCH eas­i­er method of doing this. It’s a met­al con­trap­tion with a spring in it that fits right into a stock pot on the stove and does the same thing neat­ly. How­ev­er, if you don’t have one and don’t want one, this is fine, too.
  • There’s always the option of bak­ing or broil­ing it after the fact for a pos­si­ble crust or rind? Haven’t attempt­ed that yet