Spiky Hair

My youngest child loves to do things his way. He seriously contemplates each morning whether he should wear his brown, suede shoes, or his navy tennis shoes to pre-K. Determining if his socks should be navy or white, and whether or not to use his black toothbrush or his purple toothbrush gives him a special joy that he is the captain of his own ship.

He has certain outfits that he has created and will wear only in conjunction with each other. When he was three, he would always pick out a dark navy t-shirt and dark navy pants/shorts to wear together. I couldn't decide if he looked like an auto mechanic or a goth teenager who only had navy clothes instead of black. I hated that outfit. One day, the navy t-shirt mysteriously disappeared. Seriously, he really was growing out of it. :-)

The next great challenge was a pair of plaid shorts that he received last year. He absolutely loves them and wants to wear them all the time. I had to explain to him that he couldn't wear a blue and yellow striped shirt with white, red and gray plaid. I couldn't decide if he was slightly color-blind, like his father, or simply attracted to gaudiness. We had a long discussion about matching colors.


About a week ago, he came home from church and announced that he wanted spiky hair like Andrew, one of the children in his class. I wondered if most 5 year old boys had an opinion about how their hair should look. My oldest had never expressed any interest or thought about his "look". But, it was obvious that this one had definitely considered it. He even asked if he could dye his sandy, blonde hair to be brown like the rest of us. I told him that we could do spiky, but coloring would have to wait until he was 15 or 16. Always the master negotiator, he recognized the compromise as workable.

Last night I cut as much hair off the top of his head as I dared to. It was much shorter than what I normally do. We got hairspray and gel and went to work to create his makeover. It was OK, but I'm going to have to cut it even shorter to get it just right. We spent ten minutes this morning getting his hair ready for pre-K. It used to only take 30 seconds.

As we walked into his class he was very excited to show off his new "do" to everyone. He asked me if I thought his friends would recognize him. I said that I thought they would probably figure it out.

He's just too darn cute for words sometimes!

Pictures of the new haircut to follow soon.