I was looking through some photos today and came across this one of my grand daughter Cecily and her first official haircut.

Now as haircuts go, especially the first one, this was a superb haircut. But still, as cute as she is, she doesn’t look all that happy about it.

I began to remember all the first haircuts of my own children. Some involved bribery such as my husband standing in front of the child with a handful of m&m’s. Some involved tears. All of them took a great deal of patience. I don’t know whether it’s the having to hold still or the fact that someone is coming at your head with scissors, but not one child I know of loves a haircut.

I always cut the hair in my family. I started cutting my mothers hair when I was quite young, progressed to my husband just before we were married. I so badly botched that haircut I was pretty sure he would call the wedding off! As the kids came along I continued cutting their hair. Now I am untrained, but I figured out how to do a standard cut or trim and had pretty good success and a few disasters. What I learned through trial and error was how to make it look right, but mostly we learned that hair grows back!

I nicked the top of my son’s ear during a haircut years ago, I don’t know who was more traumatized him or me. But that one time I drew blood has become the stuff of legend in our house. The story has gone from a small nick to half his ear falling off, we laugh about it every time I cut someone’s hair and they say, “don’t cut off my ear!”

Haircuts always took me longer than a pro would take. When you’re lining up a housefull of people to do all at once that can be a problem. But over the years I figured something out. When your child is trapped beneath the cape and your the one holding them captive with your scissors it’s a great time to talk! We talked about each other, about school, about girlfriends, about new clothes, about a grandparents funeral. We talked about needs, wants, Christmas plans, about what happens when you leave home. That 30 minute haircut was equal to the time your kids are trapped in the car through endless carpools, but much more intimate, it’s just you and them, mouth to ear.

A haircut is such a simple thing, it’s mundane, it’s every 6 weeks or so. Who would have thought that it could be a time to bond with a child, to help solve a problem, to gain insight into needs. Go ahead, give learning to cut your childs hair a shot. You could learn so much more than you think.