When your child gets their first haircut, it is magical. It is usually around their first birthday and they may not even be walking yet. You pay someone at an expensive kid’s salon to do it and you take pictures, they sit there and look cute, and you keep a lock of hair as a keepsake to remember this special day. You breathe a sigh of relief, at least there is one easy aspect of parenting. Then its 6 months later and you go for your second haircut and the shit hits the fan.
Haircuts and toddlers do not mix. Once Charlie was walking, he had no interest sitting in a seat getting his hair trimmed. We tried the distractions of candy and screen time, he sat on our laps, we had daddy get his haircut first; nothing seemed to make Charlie feel better about cutting his hair. As he got bigger, his hair was thicker and he fought more, my husband would have to hold him down on his lap as the poor stylist tried to get a somewhat decent cut. He would scream and cry and thrash around. This is also about the time we started buzzing his hair with clippers because it was so thick. Charlie is extremely sensitive to sounds in general. He does not like the vacuum or loud music. Loud buzzing clippers in his ear was not helping the situation at all. The bigger he got, the harder it was to control him. We had to stop going to great clips because the lady said he was too out of control to cut his hair. Enter mom with her $30 Amazon clippers.
We thought giving Charlie an at home haircut might be a better (and only) option. So, I bought clippers from Amazon and we went for it. The first time he sat on Jim’s lap and did ok. He let me use the clippers and he sat somewhat still, but then he was wiser. After that we had to roll him up in a towel and Jim would hold him so I could cut his hair as fast as humanly possible. Not a great solution, but it got the job done…traumatically. From then on when ever Charlie heard “haircut,” he would start to freak out and cry and shake because he was so scared. It broke my heart and still does. We got use to every cut being an ordeal and I think he probably ended up with a little PTSD from the incidents.
My husband dislocated his knee a few weeks back and he has been wearing a brace so when it came time for a haircut, we did not want Jim to hold Charlie and risk hurting his knee. So, his hair was shaggy and driving me nuts. I reached out to my mom’s group for help and found that they too had this annoying little problem. Everyone’s kids seem to HATE haircuts.
I mentioned this to the Nana at the daycare the next day and she said she would try to cut Charlie’s hair. I had my doubts but was out of options, so I let her try. By 10:30am the next day, she had texted me pictures of his new hairdo. She said he let her do it and there were no tears or shaking or burrito wrapping. I was an awe. Nana had accomplished the unthinkable; she cut Charlie’s hair and he did not shed a tear. She even used our clippers from home. What can’t Nana do! I guess my advice to other moms dealing with kids who do not want their hair cut…get a Nana and she will have your baby looking spiffy in no time.
