I had a vision of my kids before they were born. My son had long, curly locks of dirty blonde hair and my daughter had a short cut that framed her adorable face.
Yeah. That’s not how things worked out.
My son has very short hair because he overheats and gets super sweaty, and my daughter has never had anything cut besides her bangs and has hair (on those rare occasions that she lets you properly comb it out) almost down to her bottom.
So, let’s talk haircuts.
I was devastated when my son had his first haircut. I loved his shaggy head of hair, and to me, that haircut meant he was growing up. I simply wasn’t ready for that. The other day, one of my daughter’s gymnastics classmates showed up for class with a brand-new haircut, and I just about started crying. I told the mom that I was heartbroken and it turns out that she was too.
This all got me thinking about why haircuts tug on our heartstrings so.
I always make the joke that, as a man who started losing his hair at age 17, I recommend that people keep their hair as long as possible for as long as possible. (It’s not really much of a joke… I’m still sad about it).
It doesn’t seem to matter how many birthdays your kids have, or when they start school, or when they stop breastfeeding. It seems like haircuts are the barometer for growing up. But there’s something very important that I try my best to remember whenever I’m thinking about or talking my son’s first haircut:
My son didn’t care in the least.
In fact, he had a really fun time and always enjoys his very regular trip to the hairdresser where, pending good behavior, he gets to shoot his grandmother with a spray bottle.
Kids aren’t nearly as attached to their hair as we are. They spend VERY little time in front of a mirror, and if it weren’t for the 80,000 photos a day I take of them with my phone, they’d likely have no idea what they looked like.
Haircuts aren’t about your kids. They’re about you.
When you delay chopping off your daughter’s locks because “she just loves her hair so much,” remember that she also likes boogers. Kids aren’t nearly as interested in their hair as you are. Give it 10 years and that will change. But for now? Your kids could care less.
It’s not on their radar. They’re thinking about Bey Blades and Frozen and a game that resembles soccer but definitely isn’t soccer. I could shave my daughter’s head tomorrow, and honestly, she’d probably laugh it off. (That being said, my daughter is a little strange and, at 18 months, laughed while they took her blood for some testing).
So why are we all crying about our kids’ haircuts?
They’re growing up. And while they’re ALWAYS growing, when we have to cut their hair, it is absolute evidence. It is the beginning of the end.
Soon they’ll be starting high school and college and jobs and marriage and then they’ll have kids and you’ll be a grandparent and then you’ll die… Sounds serious, right?
Relax. It’s just a haircut.
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