How to Give a Newborn a Haircut

Very slowly.  :)

So, Jess said something pretty recently (before Jimmy was born) that REALLY stuck with me.  He told me that he hated to have hair on his ears. (Not the old man kind, though I'm sure he would HATE that, too... but the kind that grows from the head and is just sorts resting on or brushing on the tops of his ears).  So, when Jimmy came along and I was really noticing his hair (day 2 or 3) I realized that his hair was brushing the tops of his ears.  And I thought, "Oh, I want my boy to be like his Daddy and NOT like hair on his ears... so I think I need to cut his hair soon."  I should've started when he was a week old, but I wasn't able to focus and I was still super tired.  So I started on his two week birthday.  And I finished a few days later - for the most part.

If you don't know how to cut a boy's hair, you may not understand what I'm going to describe... please forgive me.  If you DO know, then hopefully this will make perfect sense.  And, honestly, even if you don't know how already, I hope it makes sense!  ^_^

I started on that first day with just cutting in his ears.  In case you're not sure what I mean, I combed his hair down and folded his ear down (after I knew where to cut) and cut the hair around his ears so it would NOT touch his ear when they were upright.  That was difficult enough because Jimmy was awake most of the time.

As a result of that experience, I highly recommend that you make sure your baby is sleeping quite soundly when you attempt to cut his hair.   Jimmy was asleep the next few times I cut his hair and it went SO much more easily.

When cutting the length off of the hairs around the hairline (above the ears and around the back of the head), you need to hold each section of hair between two fingers (index and middle) with fingertips pointing either to the hairline or the top of the head, depending on which side you're working on and whether you are right or left-handed.  A section of hair consists of a smallish rectangle running from top to bottom of the area in which you're working.  Make sure you do NOT make your sections from side to side.  This will result in stairsteps along the child's head.  You can ask my brothers!  :(  Poor boys.  They allowed me to cut their hair before I was trained!

So, I started cutting around Jimmy's head on Monday and finished on Tuesday.  Altogether it took about an hour... but that also included the line around the back of his hairline.  So, including around his ears, it probably took me a good hour and 45 minutes.  I'm hoping for a shorter cut next time!  Oh, and I didn't cut the top at all cause it looks really cute all on its own and it's not TOO long yet.

Let me know if you experiment with cutting a newborn's hair sometime soon!  ;)
Talk to ya later,
tori

P.S.
If you'd like to check out a homeschool carnival click on the link below.  I think it's clickable, anyway.  :)  I linked one of my recent posts there.  If you read here regularly, you've already read it.  But the whole carnival is pretty cool.  ^_^