When Grandma Was A Little Girl - #51

I am using my granddaughter LaRue Newby as a model for this story. I don't have a picture of myself when I cut my hair at her age. So 'Thank You' LaRue for being my model! :o)

51-It’s time for a haircut – not my own version this time!

At some time or other, most little kids will cut their own hair. It’s a sad experience for their parents.

I was about 5 years old when I cut my hair. I remember it vividly like it was yesterday. It was a Sunday morning. Now when I was little I had very blond hair that was thin and stringy. At least I had hair. I remember getting up that morning and I wanted to cut my hair. I was going to surprise my mom and cut it. I think church started at 10:00A.M. In those days you went back to church for Sacrament Meeting at 4:00P.M. My mom said she was still in bed deciding whether to get up to go to church that morning.

Well…I had just finished cutting my hair and was so proud of myself. I remember reaching up and cutting it all around my head. I put all the hair in a pile on a big envelope. I knocked on my parents’ bedroom door and walked in and was so pleased with myself and presented this pile of hair to my mom. She was in shock, gave a little scream…and we did not go to church that day! She said she almost fainted.

I was scared and thought I was in trouble. She had me look in a mirror at my hair. Up until then it had never occurred to me to look at the haircut I had just given myself. I just remember being so pleased about it all. I looked into the mirror and started crying. It was awful! My hair looked like it had big bites of hair missing. I did a superior job ruining it! It looked like a mouse had chewed holes in my hair as there were patches missing and short pieces here and there and mighty short bangs. It was awful, just awful! I did this all over my head too! (*I have to say that my granddaughter LaRue did a fairly good job cutting her hair 'evenly' and only left a few big stragly long pieces.)

I remember my mom saying over and over…”it was finally growing and it was thin but it was finally growing and now she’s cut it all off!” Then she cried some more. I vaguely remember my dad saying it would grow back. My mom said that now everyone would think I was a boy. She had to cut my hair really short. I do remember some people calling me a boy. I hated that and vowed I would never, ever, cut my hair again!

One good thing came out of all this. When my hair started growing back in, it came in thicker and grew a little faster! I was so relieved when it grew in again. So was my mom! She also hid her scissors; well at least she thought she hid them. I knew where they were but had zero interest in wanting to cut my hair!

When my oldest daughter Michelle was about four or five years old she cut her hair and showed me her terrific work while I just stood there. I couldn’t say anything and I wasn’t going to scold her because I immediately had a flashback to the day I cut my own hair! The memory was vivid! I just looked at her and said something like, “oh my, you gave yourself a haircut.’ I’m sure if I ask her to recall the moment, she’d have a much better explanation. I took her to the hair dressers and had her hair cut. But she only cut a few pieces of her hair, nothing like the job I did on my own hair. She was much more conservative. Oh I was sad, because she too had very thin hair and it grew slow. Again, something good came of it; her hair grew in thicker and a little faster too.

Then Julie cut her hair. She wasn’t quite four years old. She loved her Grandpa Darrell Guptill and wanted to have her hair look like his. He had a crew cut also called a flat top. Well she wanted to look just like him. She took the scissors and cut her front bangs off to the scalp! Again, no scolding, my vivid flashback to my first haircut. Oh well. She too had a visit to the hair salon and had a hair trim. I’m afraid it took some time for her front hair to grow back in and it wasn’t too fast either.

Lisa took a little snip off the side of her hair, but no trip to the hair salon. It would grow back in a few months.

David also took a little snip out of the top of his hair near the front, but not too much. So all my kids have had a hand at cutting hair!

Doug never cut his hair, however…read the following story!

My daughter Julie was watching a friend of ours, their little girl Tiana. I think Tiana was about 6 or 7 years old. Michelle used to baby sit her but was not around at this time and Julie babysat her. She babysat her at our home this particular night. Tiana was in the bedroom playing with Douglas and David and I think it was Lisa that came out and said Doug cut Tiana’s hair. How nice of him not to cut his ‘own hair.’ However, we never thought he would cut someone else’s hair! Tiana had two ponytails, one on each side of her head. She too had slow growing thin hair. Fortunately Doug did not cut the ponytail off at the scalp. He only cut about two inches off the end of the ponytail. I think he told me they were playing barbershop. Doug told me that Tiana said that it was okay for him to cut her hair. I’m sure he probably convinced her it would be okay to cut her hair. She was a shy, timid girl.

Julie was so upset at Doug for doing this. My worry was to tell Tiana’s mother Cindy when she came to pick her up. Well she came to the door and I told her that Tiana had a great time but Doug cut her daughter’s hair. I just decided to spit out the truth and get it over with. Cindy’s face immediately changed from a smile to horror! Her eyes and facial expression said everything! Tiana was afraid to come out and face her mother. Doug was afraid to come out and face her mother! I assured Cindy it wasn’t that bad. She said that Tiana’s hair had grown so slow and was so thin and that Tiana’s hair was finally getting some length. Well, Tiana’s ponytails were only about 5 inches long, although the one side was now only three inches long. I had Douglas apologize to Cindy and he was so sad and said he would glue her hair back on and felt awful about it. Cindy was so sweet about it but told Doug it wasn’t okay that he cut her hair but it would grow back and not to ever do that to anyone again. I don’t think he ever did that again. The next week I saw Tiana and her hair was cute. Cindy had taken her in to get a haircut. They cut it and it framed her face and came just under her chin and she looked so cute. Her mom was still sad she didn’t have longer hair with ponytails but came to accept it and in time Tiana’s hair grew back but it was never very thick.

And now...my grandchildren are cutting their hair! So the cycle is now complete!