My son is growing his hair really long. Unfortunately he never got the speech that I gave the girls in elementary school because we didn't anticipate this length for him. *ever*
The speech consisted of this...
Your hair is mine until you are taking care of it yourself or 5th grade. Whichever comes first.
I figured in 5th grade, the girls will be girly enough to want to take care of their own hair. Competition amongst friends in cliques is pretty fierce at that age. The girls will WANT to take care of their hair and learn trends...
So until that time, I was in charge of how long it could be. If they got a perm. If they got it layered.
As a child my scalp was very tender and my mom couldn't take it any more. She made us all get "little girl" hair cuts. Which basically made us look like Tinkerbelle. No - not Tink... Kathy Rigby as Peter Pan. Very short and sweet and very easy to comb thru in the mornings.
So as a boy, Ryan missed out on all this. We did agonize over his hair because of his alopecia condition and figured out comb-overs when necessary, but for the most part, his hair was short.
When he turned 16, he started growing it out. Some of the conditions to borrowing the car or having super secret permission was that he get a hair cut. He did on just those occasions.
Lately he's been giving it a lick and a promise to comb it out for a quite a while. So it's turned into dread lumps. That's dread locks, but in lump formation. I finally cornered him last night and said "Your hair is mine for the next hour." Perfect. We washed it, got it gooped up with about half a bottle of conditioner and got to work. Well - I worked. He watched tv, perched on a stool in the middle of the kitchen. We rinsed the conditioner out afterwards. His hair is almost to his waist. If it were my hair, being a girl, I'd be very proud and comb it out all the time.
It took a solid hour from start to finish and when he saw himself in the mirror, he did a happy dance. Have you ever seen a 19 year old do a happy dance? It's a bit disconcerting...
You know... If he were a long haired cat, I wouldn't have bothered. I'd have just clipped it out.
Sorry no before or after pics. I think just me telling about it is humiliating enough...
13 comments:
Darn! I really wanted pics. You know I'm s sucker for long hair on boys. :)
Kat and I discuss her hair before deciding to cut it or let it grow. Unfortunately, her current style (shoulder length and in layers) gets much more tangled than her longer blunt cut did. :(
Almost to the waist??!! Wowza, that's some long hair for either a guy or a gal!! (Mine never wants to get that long. It's like it reaches the middle of my back and then goes dormant. Weird, huh?)
I would have loved to see pics!
Here is how you avoid doing that in the future. Tell him that he lives in your house and you know when he sleeps. If his hair gets like that again, he will wake up with it gone one morning.
Make him believe it. Even if you couldn't do it. If he believes you and wants to keep it long, he will take care of it.
I promise, if you are believable, threats even work on cynical 19 years olds.
(Oh, and you might mention that you could sell that hair for a nice little chuck of money.)
haha...
trying to imagine him now...plus the happy dance!
xo
I wanted pictures too! :]
Srsly LOVE the whole "Your hair is MINE until you can take care of it yourself!!" LOL
ha ha Oh my goodness. That sounds like a fun way to spend the night. I bet it looks really nice though.
Missy (Yankee Girl)
Just seeing him happy was all worth it! Someday he will look back on his hair just like we do the 80's hairstyles. UGH what were we thinking. Nothing could be as bad as the poof!
I finally got the one to cut his hair short, when another son has decided to let his hair grow long. It is now way pass his shoulders. And with the full beard, we've given him a new nick name :Fat Jesus. Yep, he looks just like the pictures of Jesus except bigger!
Wow! Our son lets his hair grow as well. It's curly though. Curly enough to make those of us who pay big bucks for a perm really jealous. It's mid-back when you comb it straight and also requires lots of conditioner.
That is so funny. I was that way about clothes. Until they got to wear they could dress themselves in matching outfits I was supposed to be in charge. I though my daughter would want to improve her appearance in upper elementary. Nope.
now you know we were all immediately paging down to see the pics that weren't there. Did you take photos and are just hiding them from us ???? hmmmmmmmmmmm
I remember your comment on my hair post about the kids hair being yours until 5th grade. Wow, that's long. You do need pictures.
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