It’s ALL About the Hair.

Before too much time passes and it is old news, I have to tell the story of my youngest son's hair-loss….or haircut to put it a little less dramatically.

To understand this story, you have to know what beautiful hair my son had. (I will see if I can figure out how to post pictures on here, bear with me...I am still learning). It was the prettiest shade of honey blonde, highlighted from playing outside this summer, soft curls that were my own little humidity detector (the more humid, the more curl). It was about to the middle of his back and when you pulled it into a ponytail he looked like the cutest little surfer, musician……..or little girl. Yes, even I, his mother, fan of the long hair and all, could not deny any longer he looked more like a sweet little girl than the rough and tumble boy he is. It went quickly from little old ladies at the grocery store mistaking his gender, to all ages….children to grandmas telling me what a pretty little girl I had. I knew it was time, but I also knew that the curls were history the first time he got it cut.

The last straw started getting weak when I was picking my 3 year old up at preschool. I was standing in line, waiting to get my kid when another mom looked at my 2 year old and said to me, "She has the prettiest hair." I smile politely and reply as I always do, "Thank you, but that's my little boy." The poor woman looks at me very confused and says, "Oh is she a tomboy, that's so cute!" I again smile and firmly reiterate that the child at my feet is in fact an actual BOY with all the right parts and everything. She of course is very apologetic and we have a great laugh. Everyday stuff for the mother of a boy with the best locks on the block : ). Then the classroom door opens and it's our turn to step up and get my other son. It just so happens that on this particular day, I dressed my boys like they were twins down to their shoes in very boy-looking clothes. Cheesy I know, but some mornings, in a mad dash out the door, grabbing identical outfits requires a little less brain power. When the teacher sees the boys together she says to my oldest who has just been in her class, "Awe, your little sister is dressed just like you today." …………I mean, seriously?

However, this is not the day I come home thinking, "Ok, today is the day, enough is enough." Oh no, this was actually all still a very typical occurrence. The day his hair was doomed was 2 days later when I took them to a park and the SAME lady that thought my child was the cute tomboy with beautiful hair just 2 days prior made the SAME mistake when we ran into her at the playground. I thought, if my kiddo looks so much like a girl people can forget within days, maybe it's time to stop torturing the kid.

A few weeks before that, I took a trip home to see my family. I thought it would be funny to make my son a light blue shirt with dark blue letters that read 'I'm a Boy' on it. While walking through the airport, we pass an employee and I hear them say to whoever they were standing next to "That ain't no boy." I thought it was hilarious, but it didn't help the not-to-cut side of the 'To-cut or not-to-cut' debate.

The night it happened was very much not planned. We had just gotten done with dinner and my sister-in-law was cutting her fiancés hair (which my son's hair wasn't the only one on this night to suffer a tragic hair loss, but that's another story and I'm not sure if I have the right to tell it). For some reason, (and maybe a glass of white wine…I'm not used to it, I'm more of a red drinker) I get it in my head I am going to finally do it.

Sucker in hand and watching Blue's Clues (FYI, a sucker is NOT a good idea when you're getting a haircut)…..my son is clueless he is about to lose his hair. My goal was to just cut to his shoulders and see what it looked like. Snip 1 was right on. Snip 2 however, not so much. Just as I was about to cut, something catches his attention and he jerks his head around. The 2 inches I was going for turned into like 4 or 5….so it was all over. The long hair was history. My husband, I swear, had a little mix of rage and sorrow in his eyes for a moment. Everyone else (especially my mother-in-law…the long hair I think was slowly killing her) pretended it was a great look on him. In actuality it was really, really REALLY bad. With his hair wet, be looked like a bad version on Bon Jovi, with it dry he looked like a cast member of Oliver Twist. It was kind of painful to look at. So needless to say, I took him the 1^st chance I had to a salon and he got a cute little shaggy boy hair cut.


It has slowly grown on me. I never broke down in tears. He is back to being my little rock star.

BEFORE                                                                         AFTER