A Haircut (finally!)

Well.

We determined it was time to end our little hair growing experiment. Brenden's beard is still growing strong but we have finally chopped off a good portion of the hair on top of his head. We had lots of friendly reminders that Brenden's hair was getting a bit longer than we usually let it. A big reason it took us so long to cut his hair was my reluctance to hold a pair of scissors to his head. I have a tendency to be a bit of a perfectionist and I was SO SCARED I was going to ruin Brenden's hair and perhaps take out someone's eye in the process, that I simply let it grow. I pretended the longer hair went well with his beard. (Not saying it didn't, honey!) Also, during those rare moments I had worked up enough courage to think about cutting his hair and I'd asked Brenden if he wanted a haircut, he usually didn't. He had homework he needed to work on. Or we just wanted to read books. Or watch a movie. Or save an eyeball. And so his hair grew. And it grew and it grew and it grew. To make a long story short, it didn't stop growing. The hair on the back of his head was now long enough to tuck into the top of his nice collared shirts and we both knew it was inevitable. There was no way we were going to be able to hold out until Thanksgiving break when his mom or grandmother could cut his hair nicely. I was going to cut his hair or die trying.

We went in search of the haircutting kit Grandma and Grandpa Binns had given us as a gift. We grabbed a chair from our computer table and set it down in the kitchen. I wrapped our fancy haircutting apron around Brenden and then I cut his hair.

The End.

Oh. Just kidding. It was definitely not that simple. Back to where I put the apron on Brenden. I proceeded to walk around him, holding the nice sharp scissors in my hand, worrying out loud, muttering, "I don't know what to do. I have no idea what I'm doing. Oh my goodness, I'm going to ruin your hair. Your hair is going to be awful. I am so sorry." This process took about fifteen or so minutes. Brenden initially tried to comfort me telling me I could do it but his words of encouragement grew to agitation the longer I circled him while he sweated under the hot apron. "Just make it shorter. We can shave it off if we need to." With this option now available to me, I took heart and began snipping away. Snip snip snip. Snip. Some more snipping. There were quite a few breaks while I was cutting his hair where I repeated my pre-haircutting speech. Brenden informed me I was not helping him feel good about his haircut and I informed him he needed to be a bit more encouraging towards me because frankly, "I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING." Also, I'm the one wielding the scissors.

We got through it somehow. It took me an hour and a half. Really. It did. When Brenden took off the apron, the thing was covered in his sweat. I couldn't stand to touch it. So gross. And I began to feel a little sympathy for my poor husband sitting with that apron on him for an hour and a half sweating like he had just run a marathon in Houston in the middle of August. But then I remembered that it was me who had to take full responsibility if his hair looked like total crap and I felt completely justified in having him sit in that chair for so long. I mean, I wanted his hair to look good. It wasn't my fault the apron was a heater. Geez.

Anyway, the Before and After pictures, of course:

What I didn't tell you was that somewhere in that haircut Brenden also became Batman.

His hair is still a little longer than it usually is when he gets a haircut but he says he likes it. I trust that Brenden's telling the truth but I think part of the reason he likes it is because if we keep it the way it is, he doesn't have to wear the apron of death again immediately. I'm fine with that. I like to know what I'm doing most of the time and when I hold those scissors all of my self-assuring thoughts fly out of my brain and take cover under Brenden's apron-- completely out of sight and apparently very warm.

I don't think it turned out too bad. In fact, I think I did okay. The shorter hair definitely balances with the beard better at least.