Mr. E's haircut

In case you haven't noticed, all three of my children have red hair.  It was one of the first physical traits I noticed about Ethne when they laid her on my chest after she was born.  It's also the first thing the nurses have all said to me about each of my babies.  We are often stopped by strangers commenting on how cute/cool/neat/pretty/etc. it is that both the boys are red-heads, and often we are asked if dad (who usually isn't with us) is a red head or where the red comes from.  I love the red.  I love that, even if my kids look nothing alike when they are older (who am I kidding, they all look like little clones), they will have this one trait that ties them together.

a tiny piggy after the hair tie had been removed

Ethne never had very much hair, much to my dismay.  When she was a baby I always made sure that she had a bow or headband on so that it would be obvious that she was a girl.  I asked hairdressers for tips to help it grow, I considered heeding the myth that shaving/cutting it would make it grow faster, and I tried to style it as soon as there was even a hint of length to do so.  By the time she was 18 months old or so I was finally able to put tiny pigtails in it.  She tolerated my neuroses well and let me comb, pull, and otherwise manipulate her hair to my heart's desire.



You can't put piggies, even tiny ones, in little boys' hair.


A few months back I told our hairdresser that I missed having hair to style so we gave Mr. E a faux-hawk.  Lawrence wasn't a fan, neither was Mr. E.  Then I just kind of let it grow (cue Frozen puns).  It got longer, and started to curl at the ends.  It covered the tops of his ears.  There was enough for some fairly decent piggies, maybe even a small braid or two.  People started to comment that it needed cut-- and I knew it needed it.  Long hair just didn't suit his personality, or our family, but I was loath to cut it.  Then Lawrence needed a cut, so they both went in.  This was not Mr. E's first haircut by any means, but for some reason I was hesitant.  Mr. E sat up in the barber's chair, let her put the cape on him, and held mostly still (for the first time) while he watched videos on Lawrence's iPod and his hair got cut.  He was such a big boy and made us proud.  And then he really was a big boy.  With his hair short and matching daddy's my Mr. E looked grown up.

It made me a little sad.



Sad because he didn't look so much like a baby any more...

Pre-haircut, by about a month

But more sad because he didn't look like Ethne any more.

matching haircut with daddy

I struggled to get used to the new cut.  It took me a few weeks to really put my finger on the reason it was bothering me.  It looked good on him and he was happy about it.  Then, one night, while I was checking on him and tucking him in before I went to bed, it hit me.  I cried.  He didn't have hair like his sister any more and that made me sad.  It wasn't like he had never had short hair before, he has been having his hair cut since just after his first birthday, but I had also never let it get quite so long before.

I think I can safely say that, after that night, I have accepted his new haircut.  It makes him look very handsome and more like the big boy he so very badly wants to be.  It makes him look like Mr. E.

I have learned that I probably shouldn't let it get so long again.  This monster called grief has it's way of sinking its teeth into so many aspects of life and I just never know when it is going to strike again.  But all the same, I couldn't live without it now, because to live without it would mean to forget Ethne and how she has touched my life-- and that is not something I am ever going to allow to happen.