Grant's first haircuts (as a younger than 1 year old) went just fine. They got progressively worse. It's to the point that you would think that someone was trying to torture him whenever we try to cut his hair. Screaming, crying, snot running, drooling, squirming, pushing the scissors away...you get the idea (but not really if you haven't actually been there!). It is horrible! The most success that we've had since all of the problems started was when we took him to Daddy's barber. That was in June. He hasn't had a real haircut since. We decided to let it grow out a little...which ended up being A LOT! Then it got to the point where I was needing to trim it so that he could see, and that didn't go over well. We figured that the best thing to do would be to just shave it short again and let it grow for another 7 months or so.
So, a few weeks ago we took him back to Daddy's barber. We were thinking that it would go as smoothly as it had the first time. He watched Daddy get his hair cut, but when it was his turn...no way! We were pinning his arms down and holding his face. I can't tell you how much I hate this! Still, the barber could not cut his hair. I finally decided that it has to be his choice. He is obviously scared to death of getting his hair cut, and since we have probably already scarred him for life I don't want to force it anymore. It has to be his decision.
We thought we would help him out on making his decision. We told him that he cannot watch any movies/shows until he chooses to get his hair cut. Watching shows is one of his favorite things to do. We don't let him watch them all the time, but he definitely wants to! I really thought that with this motivation he would change his mind about a haircut right away. It has now been almost a month without TV...or a haircut. Oh...besides the one side that the barber did get cut amidst all the madness (see the right side?).
Grant is just letting his inner hippy shine. He may belong in Ashland:)
ReplyDeleteCourtney,
ReplyDeleteHave you let him check out the scissors or clippers? Feel them, look at them up close, feel the vibration of the clippers on his hand? They can be scary for a little guy. I also used to give them a sucker to suck on while trimming which made a mess but did seem to help. You could also try while he's sleeping if he's a heavy sleeper....I didn't ever try that but I have heard of a few people that have. Also, for some reason capes seem to scare them sometimes so a lot of times I would just forego the cape.
The boys hated getting their haircut for many years. I would just do it at home with clippers, which didn't make it perfect but got the job done. They would get a forbidden toy (something they usually couldn't play with. They still would cry, but I would just do it. Finally we went to this lady in central point who David loves and she has this vacuum thing. They liked that so much it got them to want to cut their hair. They still don't really get the whole thing, they aren't really motivated to sit in a chair still for a while, but they do it. Anyway, I guess my point is even if it continues one day he will grow up and out of this. Good luck!
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