Transformation

Why this was necessary

When I entered Jamie's Play Palace to pick Sam up an hour early, he was already putting his shoes on and preparing to leave with just Mommy. Jamie hadn't told him where we were going, so as we walked to the car I told him he was going to get a big boy haircut.

"Can we get ice cream?" he asked.

I told him that after his haircut we would go to Culver's for thick vanilla shakes. I told him that the haircut would be fun. He'd get to climb up into a big chair that the lady would move up and down with her foot. I told him she'd put a fancy superman cape on him to catch all the hair so he wouldn't get all itchy like he does when Mommy cuts his hair. I told him he'd get to sit in front of the mirror and watch everything.

"Cool," he said as he climbed into his big boy booster seat. "And then we can get ice cream."

When we walked in he looked around but stood quietly by my side. The place was empty except for an older gentleman in one chair and two women sweeping hair off the floor. One of them eventually took down our name and address information, and I told her this was his first real haircut. "Cute," she said and she led Sam to a seat with a big booster.

He climbed up in to the chair all by himself and he watched in the mirror while she tied the cape around his neck. He sat very still as she sprayed his head with water and begin combing his hair. Aside from the half-dozen times I've cut his hair, it was maybe the tenth time he's ever had his hair combed, and he didn't even flinch. He stared at the mirror while she trimmed the back and then up across the top. He tried hard not to sneeze and we all laughed and said "There you go" when he finally let himself.


I kept trying to get him to talk as I snapped photos, and the woman just kept saying how good he was, how he was the best client she'd ever had, how she'd never had a kid sit so still before. Two other men came in and got cuts in the chairs behind Sam, and I realized that Great Clips is where the boys go. Sam's legs did start to move and he got a little antsy when the woman spent an inordinate amount of time buzzing around his right ear to get it just perfect (if only she knew the client she was dealing with here), but when it was all done he exhaled and smiled. And when he found out he got to pick out a sucker from the big bowl near the cash register he thought getting his haircut was the funnest thing he'd done all day.

On the way out he told me that this place was the barbershop. He knew this because "boys get their hair cut at barbershops."

"Where do girls go, Mommy? Where does Ayanna get her haircut?"

"Probably a salon," I said.

"But big boys go to the barber," he said again before telling me he loved it when it was just Mommy and Sammy and then reminding me that we had to go get ice cream before picking up Eva.


(We won't talk about the major 3-year-old meltdown he had in the car when the Culver's milkshake came with just a straw and not the usual combination spoon/straw.)