I’ve heard of kids being afraid of the dark, closet monsters, and the the vacuum cleaner — common childhood phobias. Eli has a couple of fears, but none fall into what I would consider the “normal” category. He cowers when the big snow monster that Elsa creates throws Anna out of the ice castle in Frozen, runs from the room when the monkey in Toy Story 3 comes on the screen, and screams bloody murder any time we try to cut his hair or nails. The cartoon fears are easily avoided, the cutting of excessive hair and nail growth, not so much.
Being the wild, dirty boy that he is, the nails are rarely an issue since they are constantly being broken down, and we only occasionally need to hold him down to take care of toenails. The hair issue, oh the hair! I love long hair on little boys, however, Eli has stick straight hair that grows straight down his face from the middle of his head. The kid could really benefit from a cowlick, but his hair growth pattern is just not accepting for long hair – making haircuts a necessity.
The sheep dog style had to go. He was actually having to tilt his head back to see things!
The first time he got a trim, no problem. The second time he would not even let the stylist near him; there was so much yelling, screaming, and trying to get off the chair. We tried suckers, the iPad, any distraction. Nothing worked! We ended up having my mother-in-law trim his hair while Mr. Seashell held his body on his lap and I held his face steady. He screamed and flipped out the whole time. The third time, I held him while Mr. Seashell buzzed his head on the longest setting. There were so many tears and we again tried all the methods of bribery. We chose clippers because we felt as though placing scissors anywhere near his head would result in massive bodily harm.
So much hair
After the buzzing, super puffy from all the tears he shed
Here’s the thing, what do we do?? We have family pictures this weekend and will need to do a cut before they occur. Our last buzzing session, while getting the hair out his eyes, was patchy and not great. Have you guys had this issue? What did you do? We are having him watch the kid from Ryan’s Toys Review on YouTube (that addiction of his deserves a whole other post) get a haircut. Plus, bribery is a concept he is starting to understand, so here’s hoping! I would love any and all advice!
pomegranate / 3272 posts
When my nephew was young, it was a tag team effort as well. My SIL held him in the stylist chair while my brother held his head and the stylist buzzed it. All while my nephew screamed. He grew out of it. . .
nectarine / 2987 posts
Yeah I think the screaming is a grow out of it stage. I’d buzz on the longest setting asap because a fresh cut looks better after a few days of softening and then try a little mousse to style a smidge and mask any oddities?
guest
We use ear plugs for the noise, a cape because he hates hair on him, and the ipad. It’s not enjoyable, but not as horrible as it used to be.
blogger / nectarine / 2600 posts
My son was also a bear getting his hair cut and I think its sensory related as bath time with water is equally as bad. I was able to find a haircut place he seems to be able to tolerate and so its worth the extra time to get to her I feel but overall I also think its normal to some degree as I hated hair cuts as kid I recall
guest
Our hairdresser suggested playing hairdresser to calm anxiety. Give him a toy client and toy pair of scissors and have him role play at the stylist.
guest
We go to a kids place. They sit in a toy car, pick a movie to watch and eat dum dums. My nephew hated the word haircut but didn’t mind trim for some reason. So they just called it a little trim. Is there a Daniel Tiget episode about haircuts.
My only real advice is to stick to whatever you say. We have had to do that at drop off at school because we were getting meltdowns daily. So now, meltdown equals no Mickey.
pear / 1547 posts
Could you do some gradual deconditioning? Find a kid show with a hair cut episode, work up to sitting in the hair cut place without a trim, then sitting in the chair, etc etc.
guest
I admit I’m a little jealous of this problem. I’m probably crazy, but my daughter is 2 years old and doesn’t even have enough hair for a hair bow or pony tail! She’ll be 10 years old or more by the time she needs her first haircut!
guest
Could you consider just not doing it if it’s causing him this much trauma and anxiety? Think about the reasons why you’re feeling like you really have to do it and see if maybe there are other work arounds for it. I think the societal pressure to cut little boy’s hair is pretty ridiculous. Could you use a clip to hold it out of his eyes? Man bun?