The Haircut

Eli entered this world with a head full of blond hair and by a year old it was starting to get pretty shaggy. To be honest, it was downright driving me crazy, as I was constantly having to brush it out of his eyes. Well, somehow this shagginess lasted until he was 14-months-old. Last Thursday, Mark and I decided we were just going to take Eli for his first haircut when Mark got home for work that evening. Problem #1: evening is probably not the best time to take a young child out for a haircut...especially his first. We went to Sports Clips, thinking the huge TV's playing sports everywhere would be a good distraction from what was going on "up top." Wrong. No amount of food, sitting on his mommy's lap, or cuddling with his Sheepie would keep him still. The poor girl was so apologetic that she could barely cut even a little off of his bangs. We assured her it was not her fault and left a good tip to let her know we weren't upset. Then, since we were near Target, we decided to go purchase a pair of hair-cutting scissors to try trimming things up ourselves. Problem #2: Cutting hair is not the easiest thing to do, especially when you are starting from scratch...with no previous cut to go by. We got back home about 7ish and decided to strip Eli down to his diaper, have Mark hold him in his lap, and put on the Clifford movie that Eli is currently obsessed with. Well, our plan started off pretty smoothly. Once settled into his movie, Eli kept pretty still while I began to trim the thick bunch of hair over his right ear. Unfortunately, my cut just did not look right and Mark began accusing me of giving our son a mullet on the right side of his head. I didn't think it was quite a mullet, but it wasn't good looking either. After this, we decided to just suck it up and have me schedule an appointment for Eli to get his hair cut at the kid's salon up the road. Yes, it would be a bit more than what we would normally pay for a child's haircut, but by this point we were desperate.

Eli had his haircut appointment Saturday afternoon (I had to take him solo--which was pretty nerve-wracking for me), right after lunch, and the experience was SO much better than before! The lady that cut his hair was quick and he was so distracted by the airplane chair he was sitting in, the animal crackers I was feeding him, and the toys she gave him to play with, that he barely noticed what was going on. The haircut literally took about 5 minutes and his hair looked just how I wanted it to. Nothing too drastically cut, just a good cleaning-up all over. He looks so handsome (and slightly older) with his new do and we're loving it!

Before...



The "Mullet"



In the zone with a mouth full of animal crackers.


After...



He's pretty pleased with his new haircut too!