The right tools for the job

I just cut a foot of length off my hair. It is now down to my waist. When braided. I watched a couple of youtube videos: Haartraum and Bebexo. I debated whether I needed to get special hair-cutting scissors, but Bebexo specified sharp scissors, and I have a pair of sewing scissors I had gotten sharpened shortly before the pandemic, so I used those.

( Snip, snip )

Related to this question of hair-cutting scissors, I've been thinking about this article: The Shopping Cure by Anne Helen Petersen. "The one thing that would temporarily calm me down was buying shit. Not in massive quantities, and not clothes. Just things that seemed like they would fix small problems, fill small lacks."

When does it make sense to make do, and when is it worth getting the right tool for the job?

( A tool purchase )

I don't know if I've been over-buying because of the pandemic, or if I've been pushed more toward a reasonable amount of buying tools after growing up with the idea that buying nothing was the ideal. It is appealing to be able to solve some small problems (and support some tool-makers) with the application of money, since the big problems are so intractable.