Today my teenage son, Derek, got his first professional haircut. This is a momentous occasion at our house. For years, he didn’t care how his hair looked. When it got completely out of control, Dad would give him a short buzz cut. However, today, with a patient hairstylist, he picked out the style and didn’t resist--he was finally ready. Now, he looks so handsome, much better than the thick bed head he had been sporting!
As I admired the precision cut around his ears and youthful spiky bangs, I remembered his very first haircut. He was two years old and still had his fine baby hair. I worried over the patchiness and corn silk quality of his hair. When he was a baby, this hair looked natural—now it looked completely out of place.
One day, my husband suggested cutting all of Derek’s hair off. That way, it would give the new hair more room to grow. I had heard of this logic before—my father knew fellow workers who would yearly shave their heads and thicker hair would indeed grow in.
However, I wasn’t prepared for the shock when our son emerged from the bathroom. My husband was behind him, clippers in hand. Our son was completed bald, his soft pink scalp exposed violently. I drew in my breath sharply, but didn’t want to scare him. I think I scared my husband, who quickly darted back into the bathroom. Derek looked at me with a big smile—he didn’t appear to be worse for the wear, just extremely bald.
Thankfully, in a few weeks, his hair grew in and it was THICK! His head was now topped with wavy, chestnut locks. This change was a relief to me and was really noticeable, as I was to find out when I when I took him to the pediatrician for a checkup. In the waiting room was another two year old with the awkward baby hair patches. As Derek joined him in sharing building blocks, I noticed the boy’s mother staring at my son. Finally, this woman asked me how was my son’s hair so nice and thick? I smiled and prefaced that my advice was drastic. I told her that we shaved off his baby hair a few weeks ago. She raised her eyebrows, but seemed receptive to the idea. I warned her it’s very shocking to see your child with no hair. She nodded solemnly. She said she couldn’t stand looking at his bald spots anymore and was willing to try anything.
You know, back then I was so concerned about his hair’s thickness. Now, I just want him to be able to run a comb through it and look halfway decent! Well, at least for the next six weeks, I can be sure he will.
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