Thursday, January 24, 2008

A first

Ah, firsts. Prized moments in every parents lives, right? The first smile melts hearts, the first step brings great pride, the first word is always accompanied with delight. Yes, it's all sunshine and rainbows. We love firsts.
Morgan had a first earlier this week. His first haircut.
Since Morgan was probably only 5 months old or so, Aaron has been complaining to me that Morgan's hair in the back and on the sides was too long. "It makes him look like a girl!" So he started his Lets Give Morgan a Haircut campaign. Well, at 5 months old Morgan was just getting hair. The long hair in back and on the sides was the only hair he had, I wasn't about to consent to cutting it all off. But Aaron continued to comment on it. Several months later, when Morgan had a little hair on top as well, I agreed to let Aaron give Morgan a haircut. That stopped his complaining. Now I couldn't be blamed for Morgan's girly head. But it was still several months later again that Aaron finally decided to get out the hair clippers. (Actually, a beard trimmer!)


First we prepped Morgan by putting Mommy's t-shirt on him with a dish towel underneath up around his neck. We got him in a booster seat in the kitchen and let him play with the beard trimmer while it was running so he wouldn't be afraid of it. Morgan wasn't even close to being afraid of it. He was exceedingly upset when we took it away though.










Notice here his long and girlish hair in the back. :)

Anyway, so then we got to work. Aaron with beard trimmer and comb, and me with the video camera. But it quickly became apparent that cutting the hair of this 15 month old was going to be a two person job. So I propped the camera on the counter and let it film while I held Morgan's head still so Aaron could cut. Boy did that not work. Soon the video camera was off. We didn't think that this was going to be something worth watching later on. Morgan screamed and cried the whole time, would NOT keep his head still. I didn't want to hurt him, so my restraining wasn't great. Aaron couldn't get anything cut. Morgan was frustrated, I was frustrated and Aaron was frustrated. Many misrable minutes and a broken hand mirror later we had given up. His hair was shorter, in most spots, but terribly uneven and choppy.
This is Morgan AFTER.















After Morgan calmed down a bit, I followed him around with the beard trimmer in the kitchen where he was playing and cleaned up the mess we made on his head. It was tons easier! I had to follow him around and wait for his head to be at a good angle, but he didn't fight me at all! No tears or tantrums. Easier all around.
It never looked very good, but the finished product was better than what we had prepared to settle on.

No more first hair cuts, please.

2 comments:

SouthfieldFam said...

Haircuts are HARD! I did my boys on SAturday and I swear it never gets any easier! He looks like such a big boy now! At least your final product turned out great!

Deborah Austin said...

Those first haircuts are nightmares that is one very nice thing about having lots of girls, we don't cut their hair very often. Kyle does a lot better now that he is older.

Deborah