What’s Your Haircut Horror Story?

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Just when you thought we couldn't blame the recession for anything else, here's one more negative impact: bad hair. The Wall Street Journal just published an article about how sales of clippers (such as the infamous Flowbee!) went up as the economy sputtered and made the reasonable case that families and even individuals are resorting to DIY cuts in droves. Salon business is hurting, and if you're jobless or even just strapped for cash, it makes sense that paying for a haircut would be one of the first things to get cut (ha) from your budget.

Then again, this is your hair we're talking about, people. When it comes to amateur haircuts, plenty can go wrong. As Gordon Miller, executive director for the National Cosmetology Association, put it: "It may look easy, but it's not." [WSJ]

We started thinking about times in our pasts when we were brave and/or foolish enough to chop our own hair, or a loved one's, like the time I trimmed my friend's bangs and they ended up crazy short. (Sorry Eliza.) After the jump, our haircut horror stories!

"When I was about 8, someone gave me a DIY hair wrap kit. I attempted that but wasn't pleased with the evenness and decided to remove it. With scissors. While looking in the mirror. So, obviously, I cut a chunk of hair off the front of my head and had to get really ineffective revisionary bangs to try and hide it. Mommy was not pleased." -Lily

"I cut my own hair throughout college when I didn't have any money. I used to put chunks of my hair up with clips and do my own layers. I thought it didn't look half bad! But once during my junior year, I cut my hair right before Halloween, and then at a Halloween party, a school newspaper pal told me a friend of his had been talking smack about a girl she knew who cut her own hair and said it looked awful. When I asked his friend's name, she turned out to be my suitemate referring to me. Catty b---- ." -Jessica

"I'm too nervous about having a bad haircut to try it myself. I've cried and thrown hairbrush tantrums after getting my hair cut at a salon, so I won't even trim my bangs or cut an out-of-place hair." -Catherine

"Back when I used to try and blow-dry my hair like Angela Chase from 'My So Called Life' I once wrapped my hair so tightly around the small round brush I was using and it got so stuck, I had to cut it out. It was so not Angela." -Amelia

"There was a time, circa 12 years old, where I tried to cut my own bangs with pinking sheers. I was old enough to know better." -Kate

"Before I locked my hair I wore cornrow extensions. Problem was my hair was a different texture from the fake hair, so my kinky bits stuck out of the braid in parts. I decided shaving it with a razor would get rid of the problem. Wrong! Not only did I cut my own hair, but the braid also got all funky-looking because hair was too short in places." -Annika

"In college, I cut a lot of my dude friends' hair because we were all broke. It was all fun and games until my shower got clogged. Oh yeah, and one guy wound up with a weird-ass lopsided mullet. Oopsie!" -Simcha

"For three years, I cut my hair with a pair of scissors from the dollar store. It wasn't pretty." -Susannah

"One evening when I was still in junior high, I suddenly became so desperate to cut off my long hair, I grabbed the first sharp thing I could find - in this case, a pair of cuticle scissors in my dresser drawer - and started hacking away. I did one side of my head before I realized I'd made a grave mistake." -Wendy

Um, whoa. Please share yours with us so we don't feel so bad.--Erin Flaherty for The Frisky

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