Sunday, May 23, 2010

Why We Shave Our Kids' Heads

First of all, for the record, Justin Bieber is actually 16. That makes me feel a little bit better. I found that out when I was rewatching his Ellen interview, which should probably make me feel a little bit worse.

Now on to the subject at hand.

Our kids always come out with "male-pattern baldness." They get this from Nate. I wish I had a baby picture of him to scan in. Thankfully, Nate has a nice, thick head of hair now. So if they continue to take after him in the hair department, they'll be lucky. But it's starts out pretty rough. With Harrison, I kept waiting for the front to grow in and catch up with the back. I waited. . .
. . .and waited. . .

. . .and waited. As his hair got longer and longer -- everywhere but the front.

Finally, after his first birthday, Nate convinced me to let him, "trim up the back." I still don't know if this was an accident or if he purposely did a horrible job so that he could just shave the whole thing, but this was his idea of "trimming up the back."


So, we took a few more pictures of our wispy-haired boy,
and then. . .

. . .0ff came the rest.

And we had our first "shorn pup." It took some getting used to and I morned his long wisps, but eventually I realized he looked much better this way. Especially when we got such positive responses from people. Looking back, we regretted waiting as long as we did to give him this new do.

Then along came Elizabeth, who took this look to a whole new level. With darker hair and much more of it, we had a situation on our hands.



I tried to distract from the "mad scientist look" with headbands.

It really didn't help her case when my mom came to visit and it looked like this the first time she saw her on that trip.

Definitely a mix between George Castanza and Kramer.

So my mom and Nate ganged up on me shaved her head. She was only 3 months old. And she was a she. With a shaved head.


Again, it took some getting used to. And it wasn't as well-received by the public as our son's shaved head had been. But honestly, scroll back up to those crazy pictures and you have to admit, it looks better.

I still tried using headbands as a distraction.

This time around, especially since he's a boy and it's totally acceptable for boys to have buzzes, we told ourselves that we would not let it get as out of hand as it did with the first two. Nate's been a little trigger happy though. He's been bugging me to shave it for over a month now. I'll admit, sometimes it did stick up funny in the back.

But sometimes it laid flat and didn't look bad, like last night, in his "before" pictures.


The bald spot in the back is how Nate finally convinced me it was time.
So, we have ourselves another shorn pup.

Again, it is taking me time to readjust. But I'm sure it will look better in the end, now that it has a chance to grow in more evenly.
I just wish I had given in sooner. We're leaving for Hawaii soon, and now he's going to be bald in all the pictures. If we had done it two weeks ago, it would have grown in a little. Nate says he'll just look like all the other Hawaiian babies.

Elizabeth pointed at his head and said, "This is Daddy's fault." Yep. For better or worse, it is definitely Daddy's fault. The problem and the solution.

7 comments:

Melissa said...

I love it! Elizabeth looked so funny with her hair like that as a baby. I think you did the right thing by shaving it :)

Jenna said...

This post totally made me laugh! I had no idea your babies' had hair like that. I agree, buzzing is the thing to do (although I will admit, buzzing your baby girl's head - that took guts!!) :-)

Julie K said...

You have the cutest kids on the planet--and I'm not just saying that because Harrison is my Jr. Primary boyfriend. Josie, too, had hair that stuck straight up--her's was whispy and blonde with a hint of orange. Think orangutan. I shoulda let Nate buzz her head :)I love the pics of your little shorn pups!

trishanna said...

man those hairdos were crazy and I thought tate had problems! jk but those are some cute shorn heads.

Welsch Family said...

I love the whole story with all the pictures! No matter what their hairstyle, your kids are all so cute! And I love Elizabeth's headbands! I need to get some cute ones myself.

dee said...

The before and after pictures are priceless! They made me laugh. I think you were smart to buzz the heads. The headband helped for Elizabeth. Our friends should have done this when their baby girl was young. We called her the missing link b/c of the way her hair stood up. BTW--You look gorgeous Michelle!

Dave and Elyssa said...

Hey, Michelle.

It's Elyssa Andrus. Your family is adorable! It's so fun to see how well you are doing. Hey, I'm working on a book and want to use an adaptation of your corn salsa recipe. I'll credit the recipe as one adpated from you, if that's okay. I know you originally got it from someone else, but because it's an adaptation I don't think that matters all that much. Will you let me know if this is okay? You can e-mail me at elyssaandrus@otmail.com. Thanks!
Elyssa