The Haircut

Yesterday will forever be remembered at our house as the day that Kai got The Haircut.

My wife has been cutting my hair and Kai’s hair at home for several years now. It saves money, as well as the agony of taking Kai to the barbershop.

We try to make the experience somewhat fun for Kai. Mom’s Barbershop has music, and Kai has the job of sweeping up my hair as Mom works on me. Then it is his turn.

We use electric hair clippers, as it is much faster and easier than scissors. You just attach the glide that adjusts for the length you want the hair to be cut. Then, you turn it on and comb it through the hair. After one or two passes through each part of the head, the haircut is done.

Yesterday, Kai and I were watching the NASCAR race on television. It looked like it might end around the time we usually have our haircuts, so Kai decided he wanted his cut earlier so that he would be sure to see the end of the race.

My wife was napping, but Kai got her up to open up the barbershop.

While he usually wants me to get cut first, yesterday he insisted that he go first as he wanted to get back to the race as soon as possible.

As he sat down in the chair, I went to get a broom and dustpan.

I heard my wife scream.

“AAAAAAAKKKKK!!!!!!!”

I ran back to the bathroom where we do the haircuts.

Kai was concerned.

“What? What is it, Mom?”

My wife was excited.

“I’m so sorry! I forgot to put the clip on.”

I saw that she had cut a swatch up the side of Kai’s head. Without the glide adjustment, his hair was shaved down to the skin.

Kai started to get upset.

“WHEN IS MY HAIR GROWING BACK?”

My wife kept apologizing, and said she was still sleepy from her nap, but I think that only made Kai more upset.

“I WANT MY HAIR!”

He started crying.

“MOM, YOU ARE NEVER CUTTING MY HAIR AGAIN!”

My wife hugged Kai, repeatedly apologizing.

This sounds a bit insensitive, but we were both struggling to contain laughter. After all, Kai looked silly with that bald swatch. And it was kind of funny that he was so upset about it.

Here is a boy who constantly puts his clothes on backward, who shows his underwear when he doesn’t pull his pants all the way up, who wipes his dirty hands on his shirts, and through all of it, never seems to care how he looks.

But he was upset now.

I told him that I could fix his hair. In reality, I was trying to think fast what we could do.

I debated between shaving his entire head and giving him a shaved-head look, or just cutting both sides short and giving him a Mohawk or Faux Hawk or whatever they call that style.

I chose the latter.

He did not want to get back in the chair. He did not want anyone taking clippers to his hair any more.

I instructed my wife to quit apologizing and instead to reassure Kai. We both told him that I would give him a cool style.

Kai has a college-age cousin that he looks up to. Kiyoshi always has a unique hairstyle. We told Kai that we would give him a look similar to his fashionable cousin.

We finally got him to sit back down and I got started with the clippers.

I shaved the side of the head that had the bald spot. For some reason, I could not quite cut down that close to the skin so you can still see the original cut. But I was able to make it look like it was planned rather than a big mistake. I then cut the other side short, though I did not have the heart to cut it down to the skin. I trimmed the top but left it long.

Here is the result:





Afterward, we still had time to watch the very exciting finish to the NASCAR race. I did my own animated play-by-play of the finish, both because it was so exciting, and to get Kai’s mind off his head.

He was mostly happy the rest of the afternoon and evening. Though he still asked how long it would be before his hair looked normal again.

We will be telling all of our relatives and his teachers to tell Kai how great he looks with his cool hairstyle.

And I will try not to laugh whenever I look at him.

This is the kind of thing that we will laugh about for years to come, I hope.

Just not too much right now.