summer haircuts

I have to admit I liked the cute little haircuts my two youngest boys had. Kind of long, with bangs like the Beatles from my girlhood days. It was sweet and childish looking.

But I'm not talented in the haircut field. I tried cutting the youngest boy's hair myself. I used clippers and then scissors as I attempted to layer the top. It was 'okay' but not good. I always saw parts I had not gotten even. His hair is very blond and very fine, plus he's not quite two, so the haircut was forgiving of a non talented mommy.

But my four year old has a head full of thick, thick hair. It grows like he does: FAST! There was no way I could layer that thick hair. So a hair cut for him, something that had to be done often, meant a $12 trip to the barber shop.

Now this was a chore to me in two areas, first, the cost, second, it meant leaving my house and sitting in a hair salon waiting room with anywhere from three to five or six impatient children. It meant trying to keep my fairly well behaved littlest boy from running around, checking out everyone getting hair cuts and picking up anything and everything on the floor. Not an overly big deal, but hey, I'm an old mommy.

So I debated and debated: do I burr it off, or keep going to the barber shop? I LIKE their hair. I LIKE it a little on the long side. I know the Bible says men should have short hair, but it WAS within the range of short, according to me, their mommy.

But then two things happened. First, we visited our old church, which is very, very conservative. Someone there commented to one of my older children that Luke, the four year old, really needed a haircut. That wasn't my opinion, but I did know that it was long for the views of this church.

Then, at our regular church on Sunday, we had visitors. A daddy and seven sons sat directly across and slightly to the front of me. All eight of them were as blond as they could be, and all of them had very short, almost burr haircuts. They looked neat, clean, and most of all, very cool in the hot Texas summertime. I could hardly take my eyes off them throughout the whole service. They just all looked so nice and neat. And so alike!!

So this morning, I put first Luke, then Tommy on my stool, and burred off their hair. Well, I left it one inch long. I noticed how much easier it was to cut 22 month old Tommy's hair after he had watched Luke get his haircut. Afterwards, I put them in the bathtub, and Luke showed Tommy how to pour cups of water over his head. Amazingly, Tommy did it, even though he screams in terror when mommy tries to rinse his head!

So here they are. Both with the same haircut. These boys are adopted and not blood related, only heart related, so they don't look alike, Luke with his very brown hair and Tommy with his very blond hair. But they still look neat, clean and cool in the hot Texas summertime!