Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow
August 4, 2008
Over the past week I have noticed many of the boys on my younger son’s football team coming to practice with their hair shaved off. One day they have long hair, the next they have none.
I have never really understood the whole notion that short hair is cooler than long hair, maybe because I have never really had short hair,save the unfortunate “pixie” cut that my mother gave me when I was four years old. Not sure I havefully recovered from that trauma. As a matter of fact, I have had the identical hair cut for 38 years.
Friday there were two long haired boys left.
My 9 yr old was one of them. He has been growing his hair for awhile. I have occassionally asked him what the look is that he is going for and he had no real answer. Other than he will know when he gets there. Fair enough. I am not a huge fan of long hair on little boys, but it isn’t my hair. I prefer to pick my battles and hair is not one of them. And his hair is pretty. Thick and the color of spun gold.
I did think that his hair was a rather annoying length. It was constantly in his eyes. There is no way to tie it back. Correction, no way to tie it back that doesn’t make him look like a girl with a really bad hair day. He hated brushing it. And given that he IS a normal 9 yr old boy, his hair washing technique left a lot to be desired.
So when on Saturday morning after trying his football helmet on again, and trying to get his hair out of his eyes again, he said, “I think I want to have all my hair cut off.” Well, I wasted no time hustling him to the car and into the hair salon. I think my exact words were, ” Grab your shoes!”
It is pretty hair.
I see scalp!
“Look mom, I can spike it now!”
Oddly, the short hair makes him look so much younger.
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Holy cow! He went from skaterboy punk to adorable prince in minutes! Those dimple—oh man! Does he EVER get in trouble if he flashes those babies at you???
August 4th, 2008 at 12:19 amWow! He does look younger! I love short hair on boys… Wonder Boy got the big cut yesterday and now we all want to touch it…. nothing like a buzz cut to entice us into making him crazy
Your son’s spikeyness is great! He looks happy too! May they stay young while they can!
August 4th, 2008 at 12:21 amLove it when you can see their handsome faces again, don’t ya! I know what you mean about the hair washing………i don’t think they realize that they need to make sure the shampoo is rubbed in all over their head, not just in the one spot where the shampoo lands
August 4th, 2008 at 12:25 amOh man, I love the spikes, but I am going to cry that all that lovely golden hair is gone.
August 4th, 2008 at 12:25 amHe is gorgeous either way. Looks so much like his little brother now.
August 4th, 2008 at 12:26 amHe’s adorable! Yes, his hair was pretty, but now you can see so much more of the even-prettier face!
August 4th, 2008 at 12:59 amoops, he’s a boy, I meant now you can see so much more of his handsome, awesome, so totally not cute or pretty face. Grr.
August 4th, 2008 at 1:00 amAbsolutely handsome! I much prefer boys to look like boys.
August 4th, 2008 at 1:10 amTemperature-wise, yeah, short hair is cooler, and MUCH lighter. My hair’s been every length between Demi Moore’s in “Ghost” and down to my butt in a spiral perm. It’s amazing how much different your entire head can feel, especially after such a drastic cut. No doubt your cutie there will tell you he feels different, too.
August 4th, 2008 at 1:14 amOh my god…that broke my heart a little. That new ‘do sure does bring out his delicious dimples!
August 4th, 2008 at 1:15 amThere is no denying that he is your kid!
August 4th, 2008 at 1:21 amOh my gosh, I’m going to cry!! What can you do? They want what they want. He’s a beautiful boy anyway. My oldest son has thick, beautiful auburn hair. It’s very long…he says he’s going for the “skater” look. I’m okay with it…I only wish he would brush it every now and then!
August 4th, 2008 at 2:20 amTake it as fact, shorn or no hair is most definitely cooler than long hair. My hair was well below my waist for many years but had it cut short in order to slow down the loss from having Chemo. After 16 years of continuous Chemo I finally lost the battle to keep my hair Sept last year so this is my first winter without. Now I don’t generally feel the cold at all but most certainly have this year.
Chris, he definitely looks younger, and a real winner with the girls I’m sure. Mind you don’t think too many 9 year olds are too intersted in girls are they.
Take Care
August 4th, 2008 at 2:22 amLove Carolynn xxx
Too cute for words. With and without hair!!!
August 4th, 2008 at 2:52 amI love it. He looks fantastic. And I agree, he does look younger. I guess maybe because he looked all “skater boi” before.
Precious kid.
Leeann
August 4th, 2008 at 3:54 amniccofive.blogspot.com
Do you spike his hair for him or does he do it himself? My 11 year old never seemed to get the hang of it, and if I didn’t do it, he always went out with funky gelly hair!
August 4th, 2008 at 5:07 amNooooooooooooooo! Not the hair!!!! How does he feel about it now?
August 4th, 2008 at 5:19 amWow - he looks really different now - but a lot more like Miles. I have one of my six with really gorgeous hair - pin straight but thick and blond. He is only five so it is still in a little boy bowl cut and I am in no rush to cut it. You just gave me my future. Was it hard? For you, I mean.
August 4th, 2008 at 5:30 amCan’t go wrong with that face! What a smile.
August 4th, 2008 at 5:52 amThe dimples in your family! I swear, the whole county you live in must be swooning from the overwhelming cuteness of it all.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:19 amI am a new subscriber here and must say I love your work! Your little man looks gorgeous and I can totally relate as when my son who is 5, had his first real haircut, he just looked so totally different. He had long blonde hair too, and got his first “big boys haircut”.
And yes, I kept his hair!
August 4th, 2008 at 6:23 amI see Miles now! an older version of Miles!
August 4th, 2008 at 6:48 amHe’s gonna be another heartbreaker when he gets older.
When I was a kid, only the uncool boys ever had short hair. Of course, my brother had beautiful, golden hair with curls at the ends, and got many compliments on what a pretty girl he was. Maybe that’s why he’s always kept it under 1″ long as an adult!
August 4th, 2008 at 6:58 amI’m sorry to see the long hair gone, but he does look awfully cute!!
August 4th, 2008 at 7:08 amHe does look younger with his new hair cut. We just went through a red mohawk phase with our 7yo. Hair isn’t one of my battles either. As long as it’s clean and brushed, they can decide. If I have to do either of those tasks for them, it’s my way until they can take care of it themselves. I did have fun giving the in laws a mild coronary with the bright red mohawk though. I think my exact response to “Mom, I want a mohawk,” was “What color?”
August 4th, 2008 at 7:10 amHe is adorable! Those dimples! SO sweet! I think it will be interesting when my guys have an opinion on such things as hair. Right now they could care less. I hope I can pick my battles as well as you do.
August 4th, 2008 at 7:39 amHe would look good with any haircut.
August 4th, 2008 at 8:17 amHe is adorable!!!
August 4th, 2008 at 9:10 amOh CHris, the dimple… are the girls already calling?!! I love his new haircut.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:10 amHe is so cute!
August 4th, 2008 at 9:25 amI loved his long hair!! He does look younger with this new cut. Still cute either way!
August 4th, 2008 at 9:44 amI’m with Carolynn, short/bald is definitely cooler. I’ve had a total of 44 chemo treatments in the past 8 years and am currently bald. It’s getting into the 100’s here in KC these days and it feels great not to have that sweaty, sticky hair mess to deal with. Makes me hot just looking at women with all that hair on their necks/faces.
He looks adorable either way, but I do prefer short hair on boys. It’s funny how the longer styles look exactly like the boys of my youth back in the 70’s/80’s.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:49 amAw, I love the short, spiked hair! He looks so cute!
August 4th, 2008 at 9:51 amGreat pictures!!! He will prob love how is helmet fits…you might even need a smaller one
August 4th, 2008 at 10:18 amAww, he is such a handsome young man! He looks great both ways, but short hair on a boy is so much easier! I have a 10 year old with the same spike cut and when his hair gets too long he’s always begging me to take him for a cut (by too long I mean just starting to grow out) Then on the other extreme is my 12 year old who looks like a boy rendition of the Shaggy Dog. I think he’s going for the Zach and Cody look, but I really like the short hair better. Like you, I let them do their own thing (to a point!) with their hair, even though we don’t like it, it’s not the worst thing in the world, either.
August 4th, 2008 at 10:20 amBoth my boys have long hair. I thought I would prefer them with short hair until my 8 year old said he might want to get it cut after the first week of school just to mess with people/the teacher. I had such a strong reaction that I did NOT want him to cut it, and that really surprised me! Either way, it’s his hair, and he can do whatever he wants with it but in the back of my mind I am sort of hoping he changes his mind.
Your son looks adorable both ways, but you’re right. He does look younger with short hair. Interesting.
August 4th, 2008 at 10:29 amLove the haircut. He could pull of any hair style!
My mom would never let my brother grow his hair out for one reason…his hair, texture and all is the same as hers. He tried once is college to go past a buzz cut and it looked like a natty, curly web of ‘I think I may be going gray’ hair. Only he doesn’t have the cute curls that may look good, he has the big curls that only look good when you leave curlers in for an hour. Not the look a twenty five year old guy typically goes for.
Who am I to talk? I have a mix of those curls and straight hair, plus the gray and have to straighten my hair after each wash and will be dying it by year’s end.
August 4th, 2008 at 10:55 amFor no apparent reason, my eyebrows raised to the sky and my hand shot up to my chest when I saw the After photo. What a cutie.
August 4th, 2008 at 10:57 amOh, what a cute cut. The spikes are adorable.
Last Wednesday my oldest daughter was complaining and crying over the knots in her hair after bath time and said, “I want to cut it!” We were at the hair dresser the next day and she has a very cute shorter cut. The only problem is her hair cut made her look older. Unfair!
August 4th, 2008 at 11:04 amHe is still adorable (how could anyone resist those dimples?), but I loved his longer hair.
August 4th, 2008 at 11:05 amI have a problem. Currently my 2 yr old has just enough hair to get on my nerves, but you can still see his scalp. Meaning it is still that thin baby almost white hair. I want to shave it again, I have been threaten with divorce and maybe bodily harm, by others than my husband, to leave the boy’s hair alone. God help me, if he wants to ever grow it long. All that to say, I like your son better without so much hair. However, he is good looking no matter what.
As for short hair being cooler, you bet your sweet bippy it is. I am currently growing out my bob in the midst of a Deep South summer. I am dying over here. I can put it up, but it hasn’t reached an appropriate length to where it looks good.
Hoping for no more broken body parts in this upcoming football season.
August 4th, 2008 at 11:50 amI see an older version of Miles!
August 4th, 2008 at 12:05 pmOn of my boys went through the same long hair and shave it all off. Its funny how they do look younger. I think it is because it is going back to the hair cut he had when he was young. I love it. We are growing it out all over again…. yeah the in between stages:)
August 4th, 2008 at 12:20 pmps… I just love reading your blog. It reminds me to look at the little challenges of raising children in such a fun way. You crack me up:)
I got this on an e-mail today and thought of you:
Subject: Wish I could think so quickly…
A man boarded a plane with 6 kids. After they got settled in their seats
a woman sitting across the aisle from him leaned over to him and asked,
‘Are all of those kids yours?’
He replied, ‘No. I work for a condom company. These are customer
August 4th, 2008 at 12:22 pmcomplaints.’
He looks exactly like Miles now.
August 4th, 2008 at 12:28 pmnooooooooooooooo!
August 4th, 2008 at 12:33 pmAhhh! AHHHHH!!! How am I going to keep him straight?! He, Miles, and your Pretty Princess were the only ones I could sight-recognize!
Still super-cute, though. Have to give him that!
August 4th, 2008 at 12:49 pmOMG he was beautiful before and now he is drop dead H-A-N-D-S-O-M-E. His new “do” shows off his wonderful face and those eyes–those dimples–that great smile—-WOW. Did you just want to nibble that neck???? I do so enjoy your writing–when is the book to be published?
August 4th, 2008 at 1:19 pmI loved that long hair!! But - he is still as gorgeous as ever. And, I love how happy he looked with his new ‘do!
August 4th, 2008 at 1:32 pmI’ve had long hair and no hair, and no hair was a LOT more comfortable when I was outdoors for several hours. I preferred it because I could avoid taking care of my hair and I could dump massive quantities of cold water over my head without looking like I lost a water fight.
He really does look completely different with short hair.
August 4th, 2008 at 1:56 pmNooooooo! (OK, so maybe I was a little attached to the hair)
August 4th, 2008 at 1:57 pmGreat hair cut! I loved it long too… just a handsome young man
http://www.simplestop.net - Stop your postal junk mail, Protect the environment, Protect your identity.
August 4th, 2008 at 3:16 pmYou are seriously going to have trouble keeping the girls away as they get older, you know that right?
August 4th, 2008 at 3:16 pmI like it! The first picture of him with it short up there, I thought, “Man, he looks more like Miles in that picture!”
August 4th, 2008 at 3:19 pmI see Miles!
He’s such a handsome boy, he’d look great no matter how he had his hair cut.
August 4th, 2008 at 4:41 pmI am usually not a fan of long hair but it did look good on him, I love his new cut also.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:06 pmWhat a beautiful, sorry strike that, handsome young man you have there.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:13 pmdid you grow him like a bump on your arm, woman? was there no other DNA involved? because wow.. he looks like you in the xy version.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:44 pmAwww, he looks great! Really, you guys make the most gorgeous kids.
I don’t think he looks younger. I just cut my 10yo’s hair down to 1/2 inch, and I think they look the same age! For the record, my 10 yo is the charmer of the bunch!
August 4th, 2008 at 7:14 pmThey always look younger when they get a buzz cut. Even my husband looks younger when he comes home from the hairdresser.
August 4th, 2008 at 8:18 pmHe looks like Miles or Miles looks like him… You should try to get pictures of those two together with their short hair.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:41 pmDid you donate it all to Locks Of Love?
August 4th, 2008 at 9:48 pmJust like Miles. Wow.
August 4th, 2008 at 10:18 pmi think little boys (though i guess 9 may not be “little” anymore) always look cuter with shorter hair, but WOW he looks completely different!!!! i LOVE it!
August 5th, 2008 at 1:03 amAs a guy, I feel qualified to say that I like my hair shorter. Last year I grew it out to my shoulders, and while that was great, and androgony suits me, for a guy there’s nothing as nice as laying back and not having to pull your hair out of the way to adjust your head.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:25 amNoooo, I loved the long hair! He does look awfully cute with short hair too though.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:45 amHe’s adorable, with long or short hair…my son does the same thing (he just turned 15) but when he goes short it makes him look so much older! I encourage him to keep it short but I’m like you…pickin the battles and trying to keep peace
August 5th, 2008 at 4:16 pmYes, the long hair was lovely! I think he’ll enjoy the shorter hair under his helmet, though. And it’s so cute! I mean, so handsome. And cool.
August 5th, 2008 at 7:46 pmi wish josh would let me cut his hair…he wants is LONG. grr.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:08 amNow he looks just like your littlest boy!
August 6th, 2008 at 12:46 pmMy boy had the same long hair, but in dark brown with some very big loose curls thrown into the mix, before it got cut, against his will, at the beginning of July. But it’s long because I like it that way. He does too. Who knew a 5-year-old would have an opionion on his hair. We had to cut it because his poor head gets too hot. He made it very clear he wants it long again.
Your boy is adorable. The dimples kill me.
August 6th, 2008 at 12:59 pmGASP!
NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
August 6th, 2008 at 9:48 pmHe did have lovely wavy hair!
Wow, he looks so much like Miles now! Much easier to look after, I’m sure
August 6th, 2008 at 11:27 pmI hate it
He looks cute, etc now but the before pics almost make me cry! He had such gorgeous hair!!!!
Oh I’m a hypocrite.. I have been thru this twice now. Since my son turned 5 I let him decide how he wants his hair. One visit he said NOOO don’t cut it and the next he said to cut it off. We compromised that time LOL
August 7th, 2008 at 1:55 pmBTW… it’s time to have another isn’t it?
August 7th, 2008 at 1:56 pmSpeaking as a woman who had hair as short as your son only a year or so ago, SHORT HAIR IS COOLER. Oh my larry, the difference is absolutely insane.
I love, love, love, short hair on boys. Mr. OMSH keeps his in a military cut for me and Kenny’s hair usually stays as short as “daddy’s”.
This cut looks great!
August 8th, 2008 at 8:00 amIs that a Kansas City Royals tee shirt!?!?!?!
Chris says: Yes, it is. But that was the name of his Little League team.
August 8th, 2008 at 3:02 pmHis hair looks great cut short!
Funny, as a man who as a boy always had an imposed short haircut if not a buzz cut I have a different perspective.
I like when little boys have their hair neat and trimmed. —Not like a dress-up doll of their parents.
I don’t like when their hair either makes them look like a sissy, or a made-up celebrity, or outright punk.
I know, I know we live in the new world where mothers who traditionally got to play dress up with their daughters now get to play dress up with their sons.
Not meant to be offensive—just a different opinion or perspective…
—IrascibleChef
PS
Luckily their hair will grow back no matter what you do. And when they’re old enough, they will choose the style they like, until the job they have determines what type of haircut they are allowed to have…
As I stated first: His hair looks great cut short!
August 10th, 2008 at 1:24 amFunny how a haircut changes things up. When we cut off Big Red’s curls, he went from baby to big boy overnight!
August 12th, 2008 at 2:50 pm