Advice on using a flowbee

December 21, 2013 6:39 PM

Ok, this post was the best pepsi-blue ever and I just ordered a flowbee. Any hints?

I have always hated going to get my hair cut. I hate the sitting here waiting for a barber to open up. I hate my apparent inability to communicate what I need to get a consistent haircut no matter if I bring pictures, try to say exactly what I want. I hate that I haven't been able to really experiment with my haircut due to the randomness of what the barbers actually end up doing.

So what do I need to learn to give myself a great haircut? What other tools should I get. What videos should I watch? What web pages should I read? Other hints and advice welcome.

posted by bswinburn to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (6 answers total)

Response by poster: Oh, I'm a 42 year old male, if that matters to your advice.
posted by bswinburn at 6:40 PM on December 21, 2013

Best answer: The Way of the Flowbee is harsh and strange, and for each to traverse alone. Like certain brands of pants, purchasable by waist and inseam, a Flowbee is one path to a repeatable hairstyle. Your hair will change faster than the Flowbee will, and if you are of a mind to, you will be adapting your Flowbee hairstyle to your slowly changing scalp landscape.

I have adopted a Platonic Norm hairstyle, which I had been requesting of barbers and hairstylists each time I visited them. Instead, I would receive some interpretation of what they wanted, as they assumed that someone that asked that each hair be cut to the same length, and that my neck not be trimmed didn't really want that.

When operating Flowbee, your mind should be clear and your resolve strong. The combs and spacers that come with a Flowbee are rather delicate, and need careful treatment. I can tell you how to adapt your Flowbee to an electrically operated central vac. You need to wear foam earplugs to protect your hearing while you are using Flowbee. As you grow older, and your skin gets a little slacker, you need to avoid sucking loose skin up into Flowbee.

I hope others will talk about their personal relationship with Flowbee.
posted by the Real Dan at 9:28 PM on December 21, 2013 [11 favorites]

My old neighbor had a flowbee and used to cut my hair with it on occasion. This was at least a decade ago so memory is hazy, but I really don't think the guy had any special skills or anything. In fact I remember him talking about how easy it was to use. I didn't come out of his basement looking like Don Johnson or anything, but I went back repeatedly, so I can't imagine the hair cuts were bad.
posted by Literaryhero at 10:07 PM on December 21, 2013

Best answer: I don't use a vacuum cutter but I do clip my own hair with regular hair clippers plus guard every week or two and have done for several years for just the reasons you outlined (cheaper, easier, no chit chat, and I don't have to shelp to the stylist on a regular basis).

I use somewhere around a #3-4 guard with a taper guard on the edges. I end up going over my whole head 3-4 times from different angles until I don't hear the clippers cutting anything.

Some Tips:

• If you are going to taper any section it's pretty hard for me anyways to do this evenly so I get my wife to do just that part.
• Though I guess the vacuum system should contain the clippings I do all my cutting in my dry shower. It's easy to sweep up the long bits and the fine clippings can just be washed down the drain.
• It is so cheap and easy do it every week. This because you invariably miss a bit or two but you usually don't miss the same bit two weeks in a row and the disparity doesn't stick out. Miss a section after three weeks or something and that section really stands out.

I was pretty hesitant the first time but after a couple successful goes I can't see myself ever going back to getting someone else to cut my hair.
posted by Mitheral at 11:23 PM on December 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If the Flowbee is anything like the Robocut, use lots of clipper oil. If it starts pulling at your hair, you're not using enough (or not often enough, or both).
posted by ravioli at 11:09 AM on December 22, 2013

Response by poster: For anyone wanting a followup to this, I love the flowbee. It does everything I want it to and has, honestly, improved my life.

I'm pretty much always happy with my hair these days, and even though I'm growing it out on top (nothing wild, going from one fairly conservative haircut, to another fairly conservative haircut), and I'm completely avoiding that "Shaggy between cuts" phase where you're getting enough hair to tell the barber what you want and hope they actually listen. It would take someone paying very close attention to notice that I'm making incremental changes.

I haven't, once, had what I would consider a bad haircut using it yet. I've made little mistakes, but since I'm cutting off such tiny amounts at a time they disappear in a few days and I'd be rather surprised if anyone else noticed it.

I've been oiling it regularly, as ravioli advised.

All in all I'm very happy with it and, counting by the number of haircuts alone, it's already paid for itself.

All in all, I wish I had bought one twenty years ago.
posted by bswinburn at 8:01 PM on February 8, 2014