Haircut

Jack's hair had gotten pretty long of late, but we had been meaning to get his 2-year-old picture taken, and didn't want to get it cut right before. Since he turned two three months ago, it had been a while since we'd taken him. I don't know if it had been three months, but if you're one of the ones who receives the pictures we had taken, you'll agree we probably should have gotten it cut a little sooner. Considering what a disaster going to get those pictures taken was -- he was tired and cranky and fussy and I don't think the woman much knew what she was doing -- the ideal would have been to simply leave a few minutes into the pictures and look around for a mall photo booth.

Anyway, yesterday I took him to get his haircut, and since he wasn't always happy during them, I talked it up a lot beforehand. And Jack remembered that this particular barber charmed him with lollipops during, or after, the cut. Me: "So tomorrow we'll get your haircut." Jack: "And he'll give me lollipops?" Me: "Yes, I believe he'll give you a lollipop." Jack: "He'll give me TWO lollipops?" Because that was the case at previous cuts. And I said, Yes, I'm sure you'll get two lollipops. And Jack said OK, and nodded a little.

I need to add here that Jack kind of rolls his "Ls" -- maybe I've mentioned this before. So when he says "lollipops," it comes out, "yoyyipops." Which of course is the cutest thing ever. "He gives me a yoyyipop?" Just classic. (I admit that when we're reading books together, I ask him to identify animals or various things that I know he knows what they are, just so I can hear him say them. "What's that?" I ask. "Yion," says Jack. And that? "Yeopard." And that? "A yemon." That's right, Jack. Really, I don't get tired of it.

To this point, no two haircuts have been the same for Jack. His first, in Denver when he was maybe a little over a year old (I'm sure we've got this written down somewhere), he sat very still in a little booster seat in the barber's chair -- petrified, I think -- while Mommy and Daddy shot video and took pictures and the barber clipped away. Since then he's sat on my lap each time, with hair falling all us while he either clutched tightly to me (once), was half asleep (once), cried and/or fidgeted (once or twice), and generally wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

His barber here in New York, Ruvo, this old guy who (judging from the pictures on the wall) has had a barber shop in the same place for probably 40-plus years, had clearly learned that the way to a young customer's heart is through lollipops, so at his last cut he said, if you sit still for Ruvo, I'm going to give you a lollipop. He held out the bowl of dum-dum lollipops to show him, and of course Jack wanted one right then, so Ruvo cut his hair while Jack ate a lollipop which gradually attracted pieces of Jack's cut hair, something even Jack didn't enjoy too much. So once he'd ruined that one with hair -- although he still wouldn't give it up -- Ruvo gave him a second one. So Jack sat on my lap with a lollipop clutched in each of his little hands, both becoming more and more ruined with stuck hair, and ate them while Ruvo cut his hair and it fell all over my shirt, my lap, Jack's shirt, etc. Great fun.

Yesterday's haircut was better. Ruvo promised him the lolllipops, and Jack seemed to understand that they would come ultimately, so he could wait. So he sat on my lap, with the cloth pulled tight around his shoulders, letting his hair be cut while he patiently waited for his lollipops. And every time Ruvo paused -- to change to the clippers, or get scissors, or whatever -- Jack said, "Lollipops now?" And Ruvo said, just another minute, and then I'll let you pick whatever color you want. Jack even had fun, and said so later, when the clippers tickled his neck. "That tickles," he laughed, and then said, "Again!"

We won't go so long without cutting his hair again, because not only was it fun, but even though we love Jack with long hair, Jack with short hair, and a haircut he doesn't protest all the way the through and let's the barber actually do his job, is worth it. Ruvo put gel in his hair and combed a smart little part, and all the rest of the day I couldn't stop looking at him, couldn't believe how heartbreakingly beautiful my son is.