From Cue Ball to Mad Scientist to Hayley Mills

Munch had his first haircut last weekend! We went to a really fun place called Kidville, and he got to sit in the firetruck chair and ring the bell and pretend to drive the whole time. He had a very good time, and didn't seem to care that anything was going on except when the stylist was cutting his bangs and he didn't like that going on in front of his face. So we gave him a Blueberry Dum-Dum and he pronounced that "Nummy" and went about his business.

We've waited a long time for the hair cut--2 years and nearly 2 months. It's been a long journey that started in utero. At one ultrasound, my OB said that Munch had what appeared to be a particularly round and large head. We then started picturing Charlie Brown and I started worrying about birthing a baby with a head like a bulldog's. My husband has a rather round and large head, so we weren't terribly surprised.

Luckily, Munch's head is perfectly normal sized and it's not noticibly round. He was born with a very light dusting of blond fuzz that he promptly shedded. My cousin once had an ultrasound where her daughter's hair was waving in the breeze (I understand that the breeze was fluid, but my way sounds so much nicer).

Not Munch's. Munch had no hair to speak of and he seemed to get balder as the months went on. He had the finest layer of hair and appeared totally bald for the first 6 months. His hair started filling in until his first birthday he had essentially a tiny mohawk on top, where his hair came to a point over his forehead, not much on the sides or in the back.

From his first to second year, Munch's hair took on a life of its own. He grew curls, corkscrewing, wonderful curls along the back of his head. His head of hair thickened, and he fell as in love with it as I did--he often laid on my lap, drinking his bottle, and caressing his own hair. Eventually, when wet, the back of his hair fell down between his shoulder blades. Daddy created rock star spikes with shampoo. He would wake up with bedhead like you've never seen. And I loved my red-blond-light brown baby's hair as much as my own (and that's a lot, since my hair is basically the only feature I'm vain about).

We marked his second birthday pictures as the milestone to get to before the cut. We wanted him to look like "himself" in the pictures. Those happened in mid-April, and we just kept delaying and delaying. Munch grew messier by the day, with his bangs falling into his eyes and his sweaty curls clinging to his cheeks after each muggy May playground afternoon.

It was time. He looked nuts sometimes, with the curls poking out every which way. He had a tangle of curls.

The stylist cautioned against going too short--I think it's like when a woman goes in with hair down to her butt and demands a pixie, the stylist balks. She cut off some of the length in back, but it still curls up. She shortened the bangs and the sides. Munch looked cleaner. I was so happy to get to keep the curls.

Then, he woke up the next morning, with his hair flattened by sleep and his bangs down on his forehead. Hubs said, "I think he looks even more girly now--I didn't expect that."

The thing is, Munch now looks a bit like Hayley Mills in The Parent Trap--after they cut East-coast twin's hair. Google it, I'll wait ....

Yep, that's Munch right now. He looks like a middle-aged woman with a light perm. I think it's the poufyness, along with the bangs. He also looks a bit like George Harrison in the 50s.

I'm not terribly devestated by this, it's just taking some getting used to. And, I told Hubs, this first haircut is a point of reference--next time, we can say, we need it shorter or thinned out. We've at least cleared this hurdle.

The Parent Trap was always one of my favorite movies anyway.