Joe needed a haircut.  His last (and first) haircut was in the UK back in November.  Even then, they didn’t take anything off of the top, they just trimmed the neck, ears, and sides.

Pre-haircut, completely oblivious to what’s about to ensue

Yep, it was time for a trim.

I’ve cut hair before.  I used to cut Chris’ hair all the time, but his hair resembles a brillo-pad/sheep’s wool combination.  It’s fairly easy to cut it with nothing but clippers.  I hadn’t cut Chris’ hair in awhile, though, and Joe’s hair is baby-fine and wispy.  I decided that a scissors-only approach was best (plus, I didn’t want to buy clippers here in NZ that I’d then have to use with an adapter when we move back to the States in 6 months).

I read various tutorials and found some to be more helpful than others.  I also read some of the comments – whew, people can be quite opinionated about who should and who shouldn’t cut hair!  I wouldn’t trust my hair to anyone but a cosmetologist, but I don’t mind cutting my son’s hair by myself, provided that I can do an adequate job.  Besides, he’s too young to be embarrassed if I mess it up.  In the end, I found this tutorial and liked how she explained things.  I especially appreciated her diagram that shows how cutting hair is in large part about angles.  My brain needs diagrams.

image via

I bought some scissors from the shaver shop, found a comb, looked for a trigger-style spray bottle (but didn’t have any luck) and pulled up the tutorial to reference back to during the process.

So, just a reminder, this is what Joe’s hair looked like pre-cut (please excuse the bit of food that worked it’s way in there – he was eating lunch!)…

Now, for the “after” shots….

Probably more excited about the applesauce, but we’ll say it’s because of his haircut

Okay, this one (above) looks a little weird.  That’s mainly because he had applesauce smeared in his hair by this point and it had started to dry by the time I got around to taking photos, so the hair is lying oddly thanks to the applesauce/styling gel 🙂

Same deal in this photo (above).  It looks like it’s swirling to the side a bit.  It’s not.  I got a little nervous when I first saw it and thought, “Oh no!  My angles were off!”  Upon closer inspection, however, I realized that it was in fact angled pretty well, it was just pushed and dried to the side thanks to more applesauce.

All in all, I was happy with how it turned out.  A few suggestions, should you decide to try this for yourself…

(1) Get some good quality scissors.  Don’t use sewing shears or kitchen shears or office-supply scissors.  Get the real deal.  I bought some with slightly shorter blades, as I knew that I’d be cutting little kids’ hair for awhile (hopefully).  If you don’t have a spray bottle, then soak the comb in a cup of water, which is what I did, and wet the hair as needed.

(2) Read tutorials.  I suggest looking at several, because everyone learns differently.  Most of the tutorials that I saw didn’t quite click with my brain – I like to see diagrams and drawings rather than only reading through descriptions with a few photos thrown in for good measure.  I’ve been told that there are some helpful YouTube videos out there as well.

(3) Do it a time when you’re relaxed, your child is in a good mood, and they’re focused on something else, such as eating or playing in the bath.  I ended up having to move Joe out of his highchair about 1/4 of the way through the process, which wasn’t ideal.  The chair back was too high for me to get my 45 degree angle on the sides (again with the angles!) so he went into his little people chair with applesauce on the table.  Applesauce = instant mood lifter.

(4) Have the tutorial within easy access.  I found that I had to reference it a few times and I was glad that I didn’t have to leave Joe to see what to do next.

(5) Last but not least, if it’s their very first haircut, I’d suggest going to a professional.  Joe had his first cut in a salon and I was able to observe what they did but also could then use their cut as a guide when doing it on my own.  I just made it a little bit shorter.

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What about you?  Do you cut your child’s/significant other’s hair?  Let me know if you have any suggestions!