Battle of the Haircut

My first born's hair was getting rather shaggy and he inherited from his father a tendency to sweat profusely at the slightest rise in temperature and/or physical activity. Thus, today I took William for a haircut.

He asked if he was going to the place where you sit in a car while your hair is being cut, but that place is twice as much money as the cheap place on the corner, so the cheap place on the corner is where we went.  He got in the car without protest.  He happily entered the establishment and began playing with their bucket of broken Power Ranger Zords.


When his turn came up he doddled at the toy bin. Jadzia came right up and said "I want to do it" so her turn was first.  I'm growing her bangs out and she likes pony tails so we kept the back long too.  In other words her hair ended up looking exactly the same. If she didn't have a brother, Jadzia would never enter a salon of any kind.

William's turn, take two.  He refused to sit in the chair because "He didn't know how he wanted it."  I got out the boys haircut book and went through it with him.  He answered "No" and "I don't know" to every selection.  He repeated over and over that he just didn't know what he wanted and started to cry.

The stylists tried to help by offering a lollipop and telling him it wouldn't hurt.  He knows it won't hurt.  He's had hundreds of haircuts.  He did fine every other time, including his first cut when he was a baby.  Why the protest?

We let four people go in front of us.  William stopped crying and seemed calm, but he exhibited passive-aggressive-on-the-verge-of-tantrum behaviour; rocking in his chair, stomping his feet, evil-glaring at me.  I told him I wasn't going to leave until his hair was cut.

Finally I dragged him kicking and screaming to the chair. Since he was fighting, the stylist had limited options.  I held his arms while she buzzed him with #2 clippers.  This was one of the worst experiences of my life, right up there with treetop walking and childbirth. He behaved as if he was being tortured.  Even though we all know that haircuts don't hurt, he screamed "Ow!" over and over.

The result was perfect for an army private or prison inmate, and actually kind of cute on my brown-eyed little man.

The fight didn't end there.  He tantrumed while we went to buy toilet paper (because I need to wipe bums more than I need to avoid making a scene in a store).  He told me he didn't like me no less than four times. By the time we got home, the fit had become about him wanting to have a bath.

Alas, to get to the bathtub, William had to pass a mirror, which set him off again.  "I don't like my haircut!" "I don't want to go to school with this haircut!" "I want my hair back right now!"  Jadzia enjoyed his bath while he tantrumed, only getting in when the water was cold (and probably peed in).

Later, I messaged my husband to tell him I would never ever ever ever take William to get his haircut ever again.  It should definitely be a father-son thing.

Jadzia's New 'Do

Before:

During:

After:



Jadzia's first haircut

Call that the "before" shot.  We biked over to Cuts for Kids and I bought the kids each a drumstick while we waited for the place to open.  William is the ringbearer in the wedding this weekend (more on that later) and he was in bad need of a trim.  I hadn't planned on getting Jadzia's hair cut at all.

After watching William sit in the tractor, watching a movie and playing with toys as the hairdresser snipped away, I didn't have the heart not to give Jadzia a turn.

The hairdresser sat her in the same tractor as William, even though I'm sure she would have preferred sitting on the horse or parrot.  No worries, my easy-going daughter was just happy to be included as a big kid.

She was ridiculously good the entire time.  Not only was she quiet and still, but she turned and bowed her head when the hairdresser asked her to.  Of course her official first hair cut occured behind my back, when sneaky relatives trimmed her bangs.  You can tell she's a seasoned pro.

  The hairdresser took a very nice "after" shot and gave us a certificate with a clipping of hair.  I plan to scan that in as soon as I figure out how to hook up my scanner.  Anyway, she looks exactly the same.  Money well spent.

William's cheapest haircut yet.

Before

After

Adam cut William's hair! We've had a haircutting clipper since our wedding but neither of us have been willing to try it out on our own hair. Of course our son is fair game. William is always willing to experiment. In fact, just yesterday he emptied an entire bottle of food colouring into his mouth. He looked like a smurf vampire but, so far, no blue pee.

Anyway I think my husband missed his calling as a barber because this haircut looks pretty spiffy. That's right, I used the word spiffy.

New bed, new haircut, new fridge

The car bed is finally complete! Well, actually it's been finished for a while, I just haven't posted a pic. My husband designed and built this thing from scratch, not a speedy or cost-effective method of acquiring a child's bed, but you can't argue with results. This bed is awesome! I was hoping to have mine and Adam's bed converted into a car bed, but apparently I'm too old to have a cool bed. Plus the baby's coming soon, so no more using her room as a workshop.


William cried right through the haircut, even though he got to sit in a fighter jet while he got it done. Also he's had two other cuts before and didn't seem to mind them. Afterwards, though, he was quite content to wander around the salon, trying out all the various toys and games (it's basically a toy store that happens to cut hair). Yes, he's holding the game controller upside down, but he still got Luigi's car to move, and that was delightful enough for him.



Merry Christmas to us! The fridge guy who came on Tuesday said that there was no point in repairing our fridge, because we could get a new one for the same price. This one was a bit more, but still a good deal. What does it matter anyway? It's not as if we have the money, we just pull it out of a hole and wait for magic fairies to come along to fill the hole in. (Pay no attention to the mess beside the refrigerator.)

William's First Haircut

This morning William underwent a procedure known as a "haircut" in which his unkempt baby hair is surgically removed, to be replaced by a grown-up little man do.

To give this event the proper fanfare, we went to a place called Melonhead, a children's salon which looks more like a toy store than a barbershop. Indeed, they do sell toys, and William had us purchase a planet-Earth bouncy ball to commemorate the occasion. The Melonheaders also gave us a certificate with a lock of hair to put in his baby book.

Seeing him with his little man hair fills me with all kinds of cuddly sad mommy feelings. Where did my baby go?

New Hair

Today's project to keep my mind off my impending labour was to get a fabulous new hair cut with some subtle highlights. It's been a while since I've got my hair done and I want my baby to brag to all the other babies about how beautiful his mommy is.

So here's the before picture:



And here's the after picture:

Hey, I said it was subtle. Anyway my husband thinks I'm pretty. Now I just have to change my shirt to get all the itchy hair bits off of my neck.

And here's a pic that just happened to be in my camera of Adam holding Becca and Drew's son Aedan. Doesn't Adam look like a natural Daddy-type? I can't wait to see him holding our baby.