Haircut

If you want to make a life-time enemy then you get Jack's face wet. If you want to make a slightly less than life-time enemy, mess with his hair.

Jack loves his hair and will defend it. Last week he came back from nursery with something very sticky and blue stuck in it. I never did figure out what it was but it wasn't easy to get out. Jack was almost in tears when I had to cut out a small chunk, thankfully the rest of it came out with a little shampoo.

While he loves his hair he doesn't love so much caring for it. At bath time we've had to resort to a technique similar to that used by psychiatrists in treating phobias. Jack hates having wet hair, he said because It makes it all girly. Like yours. Your hair is all girly... He's never liked my Shaggy Hair. Not so long ago if we spent any time in the rain without his hood up we'd get half an hour of: My hair, my beautiful hair, it's ruined. I'm not kidding, he actually said that, still does sometimes. And I'm the one with the girly hair....

Jack has had his hair cut half-a-dozen times now and I think he's finally getting used to the idea but he's still against it, so we have to entice him. I don't normally like bribing him but when there's sharp instruments involved I'm a little bit more open to the quick resolution. The promise of a lollipop will typically do the trick, today we gave him a packet of chocolate buttons to eat during the process.

Getting a three-year-old boy's hair cut is expensive when you consider the labor that's involved. Even when Jack puts up a fight it's never more than 15 minutes from start to finish. With him turning and twisting about in the chair the poor barbers can't give him any sort of real cut, they just do their best not to take a piece of ear.

So today Helen decided that she'd give it ago herself. Armed with a pair of scissors and a crash course in dog grooming she set to it. The end result isn't too bad but I'm always sad to say goodbye to the mad-scientist look.