So Sunday night, I had one of those nights where I was certain that I was the worst mom ever. Jack has been wanting to cut all of his hair off for as long as I can remember. He has never liked his callic, however you spell it, and said that kids teased him at school because of it. I think that it is precious, but do not want him to feel unhappy about his hair, so we finally broke down and agreed that Jackson could get a buzz cut over Spring Break.
The last time that we got the boys hair cut, I asked my hair dresser how to do it and wanted to make sure that I could not mess it up! I didn't want to screw this up, and she assured me that if I used a #2 guard, it would be easy. My timing was terrible, I admit that, but Sunday night, on the eve of Spring Break ending and school starting back up, I decided if Jackson wanted to buzz his hair, we could do that. He picked out the guard, inspected it, and assured me that he was ok with the length. I tried to start with a #4 guard, for fear that it would indeed be too short, but my son insisted that he go with the #2 as Kim insisted...maybe I should have insisted otherwise! It was a strange feeling to shave off my son's beautiful good hair and seeing it fall to the floor. As I got about half of his head completed, he looked down and nervously asked me to stop. He looked in the mirror and totally freaked out. Not just a little upset, but totally lost it. He was screaming and crying, all at the same time as he was yelling at me that I had ruined his hair. I started laughing, as I couldn't believe what I was seeing (I know...bad judgement on my part) and then the nerves set in along with the realization that to a 7 year old, this was a REALLY big deal. I know that it is just hair and will grow back, but my sweet 7 year old was now devastated, and I had to fix it! Just as I was trying to figure out how we were going to do that and started to text our hair dresser, Jackson exclaimed he needed to throw up! Poor guy, he was so upset, he was literally driven to throw up.
Kim and I exchanged texts and pictures, and we decided there was no going back. Jackson wanted to wear a baseball hat for 2-3 weeks until his hair started to grow back in, but I don't think that would have been allowed at school. He ran and hid and cried and every time we talked about going to school, he would throw up again. I just felt so terrible, and wanted to fix it. I shared some stories with him about when his B cut his hair at just 2 weeks old, and I cried. I also told him about the Spring Break where I didn't get to go to the beach, so I decided to use Estee Lauder self tanner, which I put on 7 times that night. When I woke up the next morning, I was the color of a tomato! It was so embarrassing, and I had to wear tights and a turtle neck to school and scrub my body with Lava soap to get it off.
Finally, after 10:00 pm, I talked him into letting me finish cutting his hair, but only if he didn't have to watch it fall. He was shaking, teeth chattering as I finished shaving his head. Today at school wasn't as bad as he feared. He was nervous about what the other children would say and do, and only had two kids be unkind. What is it about kids that they can be so cruel to other children? He's beginning to like it now, and loves how it feels when he rubs his head. I can't help but get a glimpse of how he might look as a teenager. He is growing up and looks so much older without hair! The picture of him bracing reminds me of his dad at the Citadel. Where does the time go??
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