Tristan's 3rd haircut

Tristan's second haircut

A year ago, I gave Tristan his first haircut. It was right before Chinese New Year because we wanted him to have a new look. We timed it just the same this year. Here are the before shots for this session:

Last time I gave Tristan a haircut, he was constantly moving and standing up. I trimmed his hair so it would be shorter and more or less even all around. The result? He looked like a little monk :( This year, I went for a more challenging haircut since he is 3 years old now and I just assumed it would be easier to cut his hair the second time around. The result? A cute retro layered haircut :)

It was easier to cut his hair this time. Just so you know, I am not a hairdresser at all. I have been cutting Jean-Louis' hair for maybe 9 or 10 years now but I use one of those electric shavers and it gets buzzed off easy enough each time. He likes his hair style and wants to keep the same cut forever. Boring. I don't use scissors on Jean-Louis. For Tristan, I used nothing but scissors.

I found some cute shaggy retro haircut pictures that inspired me. Then I watched a couple of youtube videos. I loaded the hair pictures onto the iPad for Jean-Louis to show me but I actually ended up just winging it and didn't even refer to those pictures. That's what happens when you are in a hurry! I don't know how hairdressers hold their scissors and comb at the same time. I tried but couldn't so I had to put one down each time. I must be holding it all wrong because my arm was tensing up and hurting. Luckily, Tristan was pretty patient throughout the haircut. He sat the whole time but he kept moving his head. Near the end though, Tristan and Jean-Louis were just nagging me to finish up and not be so perfect. I was only going for evenness, not perfection! Anyways, I think the end result was good. Is the haircut short enough for him to pass by as a "true" boy now?

From cool messy-haired toddler to chubby little monk

Tristan's first haircut

Today is a sad day. At least for me. I cut off Tristan's nice hair and I'm going to miss it :( It took 26 months to grow to this length.

We were at Winners today shopping and Jean-Louis once again tells me that people everywhere are calling him a girl. Why is it such a bad thing for little boys to have longish hair anyway?? The long hair didn't bother me much but it was sort of messy and needed cleaning up. The plan was to cut just the back of the head in time for Chinese New Year. Since Jean-Louis will be cleaning the house tomorrow and we were able to eat an early dinner, we decided it was time. The stars were aligned and I had no more excuses:(

It was our last time to have fun with his hair so we had to take pictures :)

A 5 minute haircut of just the back, ended up being a 30 minute haircut of the whole head. I had to cut the sides since it didn't make sense not to. Then I had to even things out and ended up cutting more and more and more. I would have cut more too but I made myself stop before too much damage was made. Overall, the haircut looks good but it definitely could be better. Since it was my first toddler haircut, I'm cool with just good :)


Tristan behaved well, considering it lasted a long time. He was constantly moving so it was actually very challenging. I never came close to poking him with the scissors but his hair is not quite even since he was moving so much. Well, also because I have never done any other haircut aside from a full head buzz on Jean-Louis. Near the end, we had to give him things to hold and play with just to keep him in his seat. First the hair clip, then the iPhone. I know! Horrible but we won't be doing this often. The new haircut will take some getting used to. Jean-Louis says he looks chubbier. I'm not sure it's an improvement but he definitely looks more boyish now!

Hello Strangers. Our toddler is a BOY.

Those who already know Tristan may be as shocked as I am to discover that most strangers think Tristan looks like a girl. This is of course all because he has longer hair than most toddler boys. In fact, even when we dressed him in blue from tip to toe, people still referred to him as a "she." It has gotten to the point where we don't even bother correcting people when they mistaken him for a girl. We figure it would just embarrass them. It's not such a big deal but it is getting pretty annoying.

Men with long hair are generally accepted in society. I can see how guys may be poked fun of if they have long hair while they are teenagers but at least they are not mistaken for girls. When it comes to babies, it is common to get the gender confused. As infants, sometimes it is almost impossible to tell whether the baby is a girl or a boy. In these cases, the polite thing would be to ask the parents what gender the baby is. Sometimes, I feel like there is too much stereotyping out there. We often dress boys in blue and girls in pink. As the babies age, boys get haircuts to look more like boys and girls get their ears pierced. Something like that anyway.

Tristan with his girly-hair:

Tristan hasn't had a haircut yet. I agree his hair is getting a bit long but I kind of like it :) It's different and I just love that it is so soft. Initially, I wanted to grow it out a bit to see if he would have curly hair since Jean-Louis had curls when he was a baby. It's beginning to look like he just has straight hair. Now, I just want to see how it grows and what he looks like. It took as 20 months to grow it this far! I think shoulder length shaggy hair is adorable on little boys. It would be nice if society would let us do that without assuming that he is a girl :(

Jean-Louis doesn't agree with me completely. Then again, he has the same shaved haircut for the past 9 years or so. He was in his twenties when he settled on his permanent haircut. Boring! Anyway, I keep showing him pictures of other celebrity boys around Tristan's age who have somewhat long hair and they are all so cute! He is still skeptical but hey, it's basically my decision since I will be the one giving Tristan a haircut when it is time :)

Mathew McConaughey's boy, Levi: (photos taken from People.com)

Naomi Watts' boys, Samuel Kai and Sasha: (photos taken from People.com)