How to Cut Your Own Hair
After years of practice, it’s a skill I’ll never let go of.
Magic Shave powder smells like sulfur, a fetid perfume. They call it Magic because it keeps the razor bumps away. Black men have used it for more than a century to keep the coarse hair jutting from their faces from curling back into their skin. You whip it to a froth in a cup, slather it on your face, and wipe it clean with a butter knife.
My granddad used the Magic that comes in the red-and-white can—extra strength. He lived in a single-story ranch-style shotgun house in Montgomery, Alabama. Even now, I can see my 8-year-old self standing alone in, I tell myself, before plugging the clippers in. , they’re on I glide my hand toward my hairline. The blade courses over it toward the back of my scalp. A single patch of hair falls to the floor.
