Hair today, gone tomorrow...

Rogan decided he wanted his hair cut a few days ago. It was sometime during summer last year when I previously went at it with the clippers so it had once again grown rather long. In fact for the past few years, me cutting his hair has been roughly an annual event.


Haircut at 17 years old

Of course what has been making it particularly odd is each time I do it he looks different – not just because he has shorter hair, but because he has grown up a bit more since the last time it was short. As he has journeyed through his teens, 12 months or so has been enough to create a noticeable difference each time.

The first time I cut Rogan’s hair he was 3 years old. He had beautiful golden curls and it seemed a shame to get rid of them. But there were 2 main reasons for doing so. The first was everyone was mistaking him for a wee lass, and he was reaching an age where he was likely to start becoming self-conscious. The second, and bigger reason, was Meg was going into Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow for open-heart surgery.


A tough time for us all

She was only 5 months old and Maggie was going to be spending 2 weeks there with her, through the preparation, operation and recovery.

I was still trying to get my new business up and running, as well as look after my 3 teenage stepchildren, and in among all this, Rogan’s hair was another time-consuming problem to deal with. It required constant attention as, whenever he bent down when playing, it dragged in puddles, mud and anything else lying about. It was definitely time to get out the clippers.


1st haircut at 3 years old

3 months later, when I was cutting his hair again, I was really struck by how much easier short hair is to cope with, so as soon as I’d finished dealing with his, I called Maggie through to cut mine.

This was no small deal as at the time I had a ponytail that reached the top of my arse. For a couple of years I’d been getting increasingly frustrated with it, but it was such a part of my identity that it hadn’t really occurred to me to just get rid of it. Until I was standing there with the clippers in my hand.

For 2 days after it came off, my head kept lolling forward without the counterweight on the back. And for nearly 3 years, every time I put on a t-shirt, my hands would automatically come up to scoop the hair out, before I’d remember it was no longer necessary.

Since then my hair has never been more than about an inch and a half long before I cut it again. And it is a great deal easier to live with.

Meanwhile, it’s now been 5 days since I cut Rogan’s hair and I’m only just starting to not get a shock each time he walks into the room.