Sunday, June 7, 2009

Melancholy: Love of Locks

So, today it finally happened. We said goodbye to Elliott's baby curls. And I must say, I was not expecting the immense sadness that came with it! I mean, he's already had his first haircut, but they left the curls intact (mostly due to necessity - Elliott said the haircut was done!) But Elliott was cruising dangerously close to mullet zone and I recently had a couple of older women who asked, "Its a boy, right?".... so I knew the time had come. The curls had to go.

I thought I was prepared. I packed a snack and brought several favorite items that I hoped would entertain Elliott for a couple of minutes - a "chip clip" from the fridge and two of his swirly glitter-in-water cups (weird selections I know, but our child is not your average hand-me-a-toy-and-I'm-happy kind of kid.) I was even prepared for the awful keening that erupted when the hairdresser brought out the clippers and water bottle (I'm not sure what part of "my kid doesn't like to be squirted with water" that she didn't understand.) But I was NOT prepared for the raw mom emotion that rose up in me after the hair cut was over and the stylist was positively sweating in relief that her most difficult client of the day (or possibly week?) was finished. I was SAD. Hmmm.... maybe DESPONDENT is a better word. I felt like the kid who ran out of the house with a dollar in hand just as the ice cream truck turns out of the neighborhood. (Do ice cream trucks still exist?) Who knew a couple of (shimmering, silky, bouncing, joy-imbued) blonde locks could instigate such a postpartum response!

But he is so HANDSOME in his big boy 'do. See for yourself... along with a couple of photos pre-haircut - for nostalgia's sake.

Front view
Side view

Making pancakes with Dad Saturday morning. Elliott wants to "cook" all the time now.

Elliott plays peek-a-boo.

Elliott feeds himself yogurt. He looks pretty satisfied with himself!

2 comments:

Lynn Shell said...

POOR MOM!!! I understand completely! Just take a look at the big boy that he turned into with just a couple of clips and the sadness becomes total amazement that your child actually ages with each haircut. Travis, at 12, still gets older everytime he gets a haircut. Your sadness is perfectly normal but it gets easier, I promise! Elliott is quite the handsome little man!

Alice said...

aww! you poor thing... i can see why that would be trauamatic. but at least he's still just as handsome, even with the big boy hair cut :-)