Andrew's Hair

When Andrew was a baby he had lots and lots of big curls. He was sporting a pretty good mullet. I wish I had a picture but I just don't have it in me to search and scan right now. While we were living in St. George I shaved his head.

It was so, so hot down there I thought I was doing him a favor. Paul almost cried when he got home from work and saw him without the curls. You know how sometimes the baby curls never come back? I think that is what he was afraid of. We let it grow out again but in a slightly different style and the curls did come back, sort-of. Here he is at 2.5 with is fluffy, mop head.

As he got older he enjoyed me brushing and styling his hair less and less. That meant we kept it short. It was short like this for years! Once it would grow out enough that it needed to be brushed he would ask for a haircut.

Then something happened. I'm not sure what it was but Andrew wanted to grow his hair out. We aren't the type to get worked up over a boy with longer hair so we said sure. It was a pretty painless transition this time since he did it over winter. He always had a knit cap on so we didn't have to see it as much.

There were times where it would get unruly but there were signs that the curls were coming back so we dealt with it. It was a fun experiment.

It got bigger and bigger but we all were sort of loving it. Now it has taken on a life of it's own. It's big, hard to manage and truth be told, sloppy looking but he wants to keep it. It gets him a lot of attention though. People are always asking where the curls come from. I proudly tell them "from my dad!"

His plan is to let it grow until then end of school then he wants to shave it into a mohawk for the last day. I'm not on board with that. We've done the mohawk before. I'm over it. It always seems to screw up our family vacation pictures. If he does get a mohawk he won't be keeping it for long.

Andrew has a unique style. He loves bright colored clothes. (These are actually two different purple shirts in these pictures) He piles on accessories. He might have more bracelets and necklaces than Emma. He just likes to be different and around here this shaggy hair is not something you see on a lot of kids his age. Like I said before, we aren't going to get worked up over long hair. (Paul actually loves this as much as he did when Andrew was little. I think he would almost cry again if we shaved his head now.) If this is how he wants to express himself I'm okay with it. There are a lot worse things he could be doing.