Engineer Builds Barber Robot That Gives Quarantine Haircuts

YouTube channel Stuff Made Here has published a new video showing off what is arguably one of the riskiest ways to cut your own hair: using a homemade robot wielding a pair of sharp scissors. No, host and subject of the video Shane doesn't lose an eye or an ear during the haircut, but he does show off the construction of his machine and explain how it works.

It was trendy at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to lament about one's inability to get a haircut, something that has largely died down as many salons and barbers reopen throughout the United States. Though these places are back to business as usual, a number of people are still avoiding them over the risk of contracting the virus when in close proximity to others.

For most people, that means either allowing their hair to grow out or risking an at-home haircut — one that is, typically speaking, performed by a human. Shane of Stuff Made Here took a different approach and created his own barber robot, equipping it with scissors rather than trimmers or some other (safer) instrument.

In what was a beautiful demonstration of faith in his own creation, Shane offered up his head as the test subject for the robot, but not before conducting some trial runs using a mannequin head wearing a wig. As shown in the video above, some of those early tests didn't end so well and would have, with an actual human, been quite catastrophic.

Needless to say, you shouldn't try this at home...unless you happen to be an engineer with sufficient knowledge of robotics and also a willingness to potentially be stabbed by a machine. Other 'Stuff Made Here' projects can be found on the YouTube Channel linked above, as well as its related Instagram account.