We are delighted to welcome back Emma from Me, The Man And The Baby to the BornFree Parent Panel. Here she is talking about a classic parenting milestone-baby’s first haircut!

I remember the time when someone first asked me, whilst looking at Oli’s hair: “will he getting a haircut soon then?” and I replied with a “no not just yet”. The honest truth was that I never wanted to get his precious little blonde mop cut; it was so cute with the little curls that appeared after being washed and I wanted it to stay that way. His hair had taken so long to grow (he was a bald baby for such a long time) and I was so pleased that he actually had some. I liked the way it looked long on him and it just suited him. I thought if I was to get it cut they would take away all this precious hair of his.

Sadly it did get to the point where it really needed a cut, but another reason why we had put off his first haircut for so long was that he was a wriggler: he just doesn’t like to stay still at all. The thought of trying to get him to sit still in a hairdresser’s chair made my hair stand on end-he would surely scream the place down. I use a mobile hairdresser myself so instead I decided to take Oli to her house and we took along all the toys we thought we would need to distract him.

Oli's First Haircut

We were right about him not wanting to stay still. To allow the hairdresser to get near his hair we had to sit him on my lap and I had to hold him. I’m glad we picked someone who is used to children; she told us about how cutting children’s hair was quite nerve wracking at first because of how they like to move around-not good when you’re holding sharp equipment! So my one tip would be to go to someone who is experienced with cutting children’s hair and who is used to children not wanting to cooperate.

As well as trying to distract him with books and toys we tried to get him involved with his haircut by showing him the scissors and letting him use the comb to comb both mine and the hairdressers hair as well as his own. Part of me does wonder if I should have got it done earlier, even if it was just a little snip, so he would have been used to it from an early age. I guess it’s another lesson I’ve learned as a parent.

What was your baby’s first haircut experience like?

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