Patch Blog: Dadmissions on Hair Cuts

#Dadmissions on hair cuts:

There we were in It's not every day that life moments happen over a fifteen dollar haircut in a South Pasadena strip mall. But this was no ordinary day.

Alicia and Andreya were both there for haircuts. That usually means a slight trim. That usually means a mini amount of hair cut from the back of their heads so they're happy and think they got a haircut, but that you sit there wondering just what you paid for. But this was no ordinary day.

Alicia looked up at the Supercuts posters. You know the ones with the models and the unattainable hair cuts? And she said, "I want that one."

She went for the woman on the bottom right who looked like a runway model with a close cropped hair cut and some swanky bangs. My heart sank. Alicia is the girl known for her long, flowing, golden-colored hair and she was proposing a drastic chop. I figured she'd chicken out. But she didn't.

She got in that Supercuts seat and from across the room, she said again to the hair stylist, "I want that one." And she had officially made her decision. The stylist looked at her mom and I to make sure we were really going to stand by and let this happen.

I sat there quietly, but inside, secretly, I wanted to tear the scissors out of her hand and make a run for the door with Alicia. But I just sat there and did the internal daddy cringe while they took the scissors and swiped away years of little Alicia's hair.

In the end, Alicia had a smile from here to there and back. She couldn't stop grinning about her new cut, how short it was, and how she wouldn't have to worry about her hair being a tangled mess again. Andreya got a haircut too- a pretty little girl cut where they took off just a tiny amount of hair so that she feels like she got a haircut, and I still get to wonder what we actually paid for. But this was no ordinary day.

With one swipe of the scissors, Alicia cut the umbilical cord from mom and dad just a little more. This was her hair decision. It was a big one. And she made it herself. Hope springs eternal for dad, though.

As Alicia's mom says optimistically, "It's only hair. It'll grow back."