Chop! Chop!

Just nine days before his first birthday, on Saturday April 17th, Colin received his first haircut.  He had begun looking rather shaggy, and the curls on the back of his head were starting to snarl when he slept.  In addition to my general periodic nagging, bath-time mo-hawks were becoming mom's nightly silent (but not subtle!) protest.

I had been pushing for a trim since I thought the boy looked shaggy.  Dad, on the other hand, seemed to have a Samson complex about his son and did not want to even discuss a haircut.  He finally gave in, but not without a visible degree of trepidation.  His plan was to wait until Colin was walking, clearly talking or 2 years old.  Probably whichever came last!

On Saturday afternoon around 3:30 we all piled into the car and drove to H's barber, pulled into the parking lot and (OH NO!) saw the "CLOSED" sign out front.  (Yes, I did wonder if this was perhaps intentional!)  But inside I saw a woman give a friendly scowl to H and waive for us to c'mon in.  She had closed, but took us in anyway.  H has this effect on people... I've seen it before.  I don't know how he does it, just part of his magic.

So, in we went, receiving a warm but brusque greeting from Larissa, a lovely and spirited Russian woman with flaming red hair.

Big Daddy H got his hair cut first.  Larissa snipped and buzzed and shaved with reckless abandon, until shaggy-daddy turned into a handsome and well-groomed father.  Colin watched with interest for a while, but soon grew bored with the whole haircut process so we started walking around.  Colin was especially fascinated by the feel of the floor cushions behind the barber chairs, and eventually knelt down to explore one with his hands, then reaching for me to help him walk some more.

Then it was Colin's turn.  Larissa brought out an insert for the chair, and we sat Colin upon it after which he was wrapped in a blue "superhero cape."  Larissa dampened his hair and Mom did her best distraction as... SNIP! SNIP! SNIP!  Larissa worked amazingly quickly, efficiently trimming Colin's hair into submission.  He was so good too - I expected extreme wiggles, or perhaps tears, but that wasn't the case.  He did get quite curious when she brought out the clippers (BUUUZZZZZZ!), and turned his head occasionally to try and look at Larissa, but in general he was really well behaved.  Toward the end we did pull out Wolfie, who provided a chewing distraction.  And H (between taking photos) turned on the singing cow (who belted out a rousing course of "Besa Me Mooo-cho"), which got us through without so much as a squawk.

And in the end, I had two very handsome boys, with fresh new haircuts.