Five year old wants to shave his head.

[The Urban Farm]

My son has been interested in shaving his head for a couple of months…I think it started with Mom talking about long hair being hot in the summer. So we looked at some pictures and talked about how long it will take to grow back, shaving, razors, shaving cream - which led to a lot of shaving cream on the walls of the shower for a few days until the can was empty :-).

It always seemed like more of an interest than something he would actually do.

This morning he took scissors and cut some deep holes in the hair at the front of his head. He has done this a couple of times in the past and we just cut his hair and let it grow out. I mean he certainly doesn’t care - he cannot see it!
:-)

However this time he cut it right down to the skin because he said he wants all his hair to be gone. So I got out the electric clippers and used a number 3...that is about as short as we have ever cut it. It still did not look good, and he wanted more off…so I went down to a number 1 and with blonde hair he definitely looks bald. It's a boot camp kinda cut for sure.

I was putting the clippers away and he was cutting again with the scissors….clear down to the skin. He is demanding I shave his head. I don’t know why but I am really hesitating on this and telling him that for some reason I am just not comfortable with the idea of completely shaving his head.

I am curious to get see what some of you would do or say.

Thanks!

Marty

[Elisabeth]

Well 1st reaction is its just hair, it will grow back. What's the harm? What are you worried about? If it is already that buzzed...seems like it won't make much of dif. He can wear bandannas, hats, sunscreen if your worried about burning.

My very traditional parents let my brothers and I shave, dye, were too long, our hair...when we were growing up...to them it was small stuff...just hair...and ours at that.

Elisabeth mama to Liv 10 and Lex almost 9

[Sandra Dodd]

I'd shave his head. It will grow back pretty soon.

My kid Marty wanted his head shaved for years. For a while, when he was six, he had a "reverse Mohawk," shaved down the middle.

Sandra

[Amanda]

If you are worried about cutting him, you could take him to a professional.

[Sylvia Toyama]

I have three boys and over the past 24 years I have seen more haircuts come and go than I can count. My oldest, Will, (24yo) currently shaves his head, leaving sideburns and a goatee. Not a look I'm crazy about, but my position has always been 'it's only hair'. It'll grow back, or not (he keeps shaving it). Over the years he's had shaved stripes, spikes, a rattail (all at 4yo -- it was a stylin' look), it's been long and curly, skater cut with too much body.

My youngest, Dan (8) has worn his hair long most of his life. Three years ago he let me talk him into a short cut, and immediately hated it. Took us almost a full year to re-shape it so it could grow out. It's been dyed -- yellow, black, blue, blonde streak. Again, it's his hair.

Andy, who's 13, has enough hair for 4 people! And every day it gets curlier -- puberty does that to most of the boys in my family. He's had it long and wild. Right now it's kinda short and wild. Sometimes he gets it cut short, hoping the curl will disappear, I think.

And even as I say "it's only hair" I know that how he looks is a big part of each of my boys' sense of self. I think, to varying degrees, we all feel somewhat defined by how we look.

What is it about having his head shaved that bothers you? Will one-eighth of an inch really make much difference, especially on a blonde head? Will's very blonde hair was invisible at that length when he was little.

[Hema A Bharadwaj]

If it helps... shaved heads are so common here in India... mostly done for religious reasons.... and if Raghu ever asked for one... i'd be happy to oblige. Its a lovely feeling to feel the first pricks start to grow back again.

Do you have some health concern?
hema :-)

[Deborah Cunefare]

If you're worried about hurting him, take him to a good barbershop.

Otherwise, it's just hair. It grows back.

Hair is a REALLY good "place" to practice getting over your own fears of what people will think. It gives you a chance to practice thinking "why not?"

One good reason to say YES is that frankly, you're risking more by saying NO. It's far less safe to have him hacking away blindly with a scissors than to have you or someone else shave it.

[Meredith]

If you're worried about cutting him, look at some electric razors - not clippers the kind men use on their faces. There are some that are wet/dry, even, so he could, theoretically, shave it himself without you worrying about dropping the darn thing in the sink.

Mo used to cut her own hair, although she never wanted it shaved. She'd cut it in quirky little asymetric styles that I could never figure out. It always mangaged to look stylish when she did it. Ray had waist length hair until a week ago and then decided to dred it! It looks good, but very different than his previously sleek locks. Mo, in protest, has started brushing hers, something she usually prefers not to do. Go figure!

[Amy Lewis]

My son, now 6 and 1/2 goes between growing his hair out and buzzing it with the shortest attachment possible! DS does the buzzing and dh helps him finish up. This cycling began when he was 2 or 3. Our dd, now 2 and 1/2, has her hair cut quite short, not buzzed...yet.

We figure it is their hair and it will grow back. Even though we cut dd's hair, she still takes scissors to it herself to cut it shorter and shorter. She just enjoys cutting her own hair, so we make sure she is safe and then even it out for her.

[Robyn L. Coburn]

Why do boys get the fabulous hair??!!!!

[Caren]

It's a good spot, in those moments of resistance, to figure out what the resistance is about. I usually have to write stuff out to get clarity, so if I were in your situation, I'd start with, "If DS's head was shaved..." and just write and write about everything that brought up. Not to find reasons to stop him, but to find out where I'm stuck, so I could release those fears.

I think one concern I'd have is that if my son was bald, when people saw him they'd think he had cancer, or some other disease. I'd have strangers believing my son was sick, and that makes me feel sad! But I'd let him do it anyway...

When my oldest was 6, he got head lice, and opted for us to give him a very short buzz cut. At first, he was really sad, and wore a baseball cap. But after a couple days, he started trying on this different personality. He was usually quiet and calm, but with his shorn head, he asked us to cut the sleeves off some of his shirts, and he wore those, and was rougher and louder. It was so interesting to me to watch him trying out this different way of being, brought on by a buzz cut!