Hair help for three year old

[Pumpkin_Pie]

My son has VERY wispy, super thin, flyaway blond hair. It is about shoulder length all around with no bangs and pretty straight, with maybe a hint of curl at the very end. I love, love, love little boys with long hair, and think his looks sort of "surfer boy" right now. I also said I wouldn't cut it until he asked me to cut it.

Two days ago, he started begging me to cut his hair. He actually asked me to cut it off completely so he has "no hair" (which I would take to mean shaving it off). I am extremely not ok with it shaved, and really don't want him having a generic little boy hair cut that 99% of the kids around here have. I love his long blond hair, but if he wants it cut, I feel sort of like I need to respect that and cut it off.

Any suggestions on cuts that are a little different from the norm, that would work for very wispy hair? I am thinking of just cutting bangs into it for now, although growing them out has been so hard, and they are finally completely grown out after I cut them into his hair last summer.

AAARRRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!

[mizzoh]

my advice - cut it if he wants it.

until recently my 4 yo ds had shoulder length straight hair, like you describe. at the beginning of the summer he started wanting it cut - shaved short like his dad. i have always loved his hair long, but in truth it was a bit of a pain - always getting in his food, or in the paint if he was painting, and he hated having it washed and brushed. so, finally i gave in and we shaved it. i regretted it for about a week - felt sick to my stomach about it actually. like you said, now he looks like every other boy on the playground. but you know what - now i love it, and ds has always loved it. so much cooler and easier and more comfortable for him, and easier for me, too. and ya know, he is the same magical, wonderful little boy he was before

[lolar2]

Maybe a buzz cut? Those aren't too common around here, so if your area's fashions are the same, he would still look unusual. And, it would be kind of like shaving for him, which he might find cool since it's what he originally asked for. I just got my hair chopped very short last month, so I am very pro-short-hair right now. It's nice and cool.

[Pumpkin_Pie]

I definitely am not going to shave it, or buzz it. His hair grows so painfully slowly, it would literally take years for it to grow out if it keeps growing at this rate. (ok, maybe not years, but a veeeeeerrrrrryyyyyyy long time). I do want to respect his wishes to get it cut, I am more looking for some sort of style that would work for hair like his that is still longish, but out of his eyes.

[Pumpkin_Pie]

Ok, so I just asked him if he wanted to go upstairs to the bathroom so I could cut his hair (I was going to cut some bangs into it), and he suddenly doesn't want a hair cut at all.

Ah, three year olds...

[pigpokey]

Cornrows?

[zeldamomma]

FWIW, his hair may start coming in much thicker and growing much faster anytime now.

I'd cut it if he wants it cut-- it's his hair. Any chance someone is giving him a hard time about having long hair?

[Pumpkin_Pie]

I am pretty sure he won't be getting thicker hair at this point. He turned three in March, and every child in his entire class has about three times as much hair as he does. He has almost no body hair at all other than on his head, and most of the other kids in his class have at least some downy fuzz on their legs and arms. I think he is really just going to be very sparse in the hair department.

I ended up cutting it this morning, ironically enough shortly after he said he didn't want it cut. I started with just bangs, but he sweeps so much of it over to one side, that they just looked really silly, so I ended up doing a sort of bowl cut on him. I am not really happy with it at all, but I think I will let it grow out for the rest of the summer and then have a professional fix it. It ended up much shorter than I had planned. He looks about two or three years older now! Where did my baby go????

[JessBB]

If he wants it cut, you should cut it. I think it's wrong to use kids to express *your* style.

[pandora665]

I go with the week rule of thumb with big decisions and projects - if you say you want your hair cut and a week later you still want it, we'll do it. It has saved me from cutting her hair that she didn't really want. It has saved me from making 5 different Halloween costumes for one year. I use a much more stringent rule for myself - I must want it cut for 2-4 weeks before I go in, b/c I *ALWAYS* hate it afterwards.

[Norasmomma]

Why don't you go get it fixed professionally, it could be really cute.

I know it's hard to see your baby grow up, but if it makes him feel better to get his wispy baby hair out of his face, well then it probably is better.

Plus it's a life lesson, our kids just plain and simple may not like our style, and that's life. My DD tells me to change what I am wearing all.the.time. She likes it when I dress fancier than I usually do, but I really don't have a reason to dress up.

[nolonger]

Yea, three year olds are like that.

s:

If you liked short hair and one of your children wanted to grow theirs long before they were old enough to handle the care (detangling, washing, styling, containing during sports, etc.) by themselves, I doubt if anyone would flame you for wanting to make them wait to grow it out until they were older so you wouldn't be stuck with extra work.

It's kind of odd how people feel differently about the work of shlepping a kid back and forth to the stylist and expense of shelling out the bucks to have it cut every six weeks or so, but they do.

A pp mentioned that it would be a good idea to ask if this was because of too many people mistaking him for a girl, and I'd like to second that with my own tale of regret: ds1 was eight years old and had gorgeous waist-length hair that he had wanted short for long enough that I decided to let him go for it with his birthday money and then maintain it as best I could. He and his sister looked enough alike that people complimented me on my "pretty little girls" and most of his friends at that time wore their hair short.

On our first trip in public with his "boys standard" haircut, a nice little old lady smiled indulgently and said, "What a beautiful little girl you have there!" and then in a stage whisper, "Too bad about her hair, but it will grow back."



ds1 had very delicate features so a much better way to accomplish the desired effect of making him look more "boyish" would have been to spend that money on more "boyish" clothes!

ds2 wants dreads, and tbh I think they would look FABULOUS and be culturally acceptable where we live, but that feels like too permanent a decision for a 2 1/2 year old to make or for me to make for him, so we just do cornrows sometimes. They probably wouldn't last more than a week or two on your ds's hair type, but they would get his hair out of his eyes and give both of you a break from daily detangling. They might also look nicer than loose hair while it's growing out.

[spmamma]

What about a fauxhawk? They're cut short all over, except for the very top. A little styling product to sweep the slightly longer parts together into a Mohawk shape and you're good to go!

[Kathymomof5]

My 3 year old has super fine, below the shoulder length CURLY blonde hair and it is a nightmare! It's really cute and all, but a pain to wash and comb. I actually want to cut it, but my dh would cry! My son started asking to have his hair cut a few days ago now, so I think we're going to compromise with taking an inch or 2 off and adding some style. Maybe your son would be happy with that?

[lonegirl]

Here is a pic of my 3.5yo. http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...4/IMG_2055.jpg He is the one to tell me it is time to get his haircut. "Mommy
I have crazy hair. I think we have to go to Melonheads"