The great hair protest
I've never been sentimental about Riley's hair or reluctant to cut it (in fact just between you and me I sort of get itchy when I see little boys with longish hair -- when everyone else on earth is cooing over Baby's Curly Golden Locks, I can't help thinking how much cuter the kid would be if Mama would just whip out the scissors already), I think we gave Riley his first buzz cut when he was maybe a year old and we've been buzzing him ever since.There are downsides to the buzz cut in that your kid sort of looks like a plucked chicken for a few days afterwards, but really, you can't beat the maintenance. The only thing I dread about cutting Riley's hair is the event itself, which he invariably reacts to with the sort of hysterics that would lead an outside observer to assume he's being eaten alive by hungry snapping turtles.
Oh, the tears, the screaming, the howls of "NO HAIRCUT WIGHT NOW!". It reduced ME to tears the first couple times, before I grew steely and determined and cruel. He pitches such a fit about his haircuts -- and we've tried just using scissors, too, wondering if it was the buzzing sound of the clippers that made it so bad (NO) -- I've never even considered taking him to one of those kid-friendly hair joints where they sit your child in an airplane and play videos and all that. No one should be forced to listen to the noises he makes during the Great Hair Trauma unless they're related by blood, is my thinking.
We tried having him watch while I gave his daddy a haircut, making a huge deal about how fun it was and how it didn't hurt and all that, but our last buzz session was its usual disaster: flailing, sobbing, and physical restraints. Until, that is, the moment when we finished, and my son -- tears still running down his face -- leaped to his feet and announced with great joy and pride that "MY HAVE A HAIRCUT, DADDY!". And that's what he talked about for the rest of the night, how he had a HAIRCUT and how it FEELS GOOD (running his hand over his clippered head-fuzz) and MY HAPPY, MOMMY! MY HAVE A HAIRCUT!
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