How to Cut Your Young Son's Hair

If your family is like most families with young children, you're on a tight budget. Wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to pay for haircuts? It's fun if you make the area you'll be doing the hair cutting in into a pretend barber shop and play barber with your son while you're cutting. Try this indoors during the winter, but outdoors is the best--less messy hair clean up!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Sharp hair cutting scissors
• Comb
• Glass of water
• High chair or stool
• Sheet

1. Have your son climb up into the high chair or stool, preferably with his hair just washed or wetted down. Wrap a sheet around his shoulders, leaving the neck exposed. To make it fun, you can say you're playing barber, and you're going to ask him a bunch of questions like a real barber would.
2. Decide how short you want the hair. Comb up a piece in the front by his forehead, and hold it straight up between your fingers, deciding how short to go.
3. Using your 2 fingers as a level, once you've picked how short, cut the hair sticking out on top of your fingers.
4. Let go of this hair and comb up another 1/2 to 1 inch square of hair right next to the first patch, INCLUDING a piece of the first cut. The first cut will show you how short to cut the second piece. Pull your fingers up the hair until you get to the end of the first cut piece, and cut the second patch of hair to match the first cut.
5. Continue working your way around the head using this technique.
6. For ears, face your child and cut the sideburns aiming right at the center of the ear. Comb the hair down over the ears and cut the hair over the ears to expose the ears, and then continue down the back.
7. In the back, comb hair straight down and cut with the scissors flat against the back of the head, starting behind one ear, cutting down and across along the natural "U" curve of the growing hair. This is only a neatening trim at the ends, the majority of the hair will have been cut during the earlier process.
8. Check your work by pulling out a piece on one side of his head and a piece on the other side of head and see if they match in length.
9. If the hair dries out, wet the comb with your water and comb into hair.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember that hair shrinks when it dries, so always cut a little longer than shorter to avoid a big shock of too-short hair.
• Kids get wiggly, so you can promise a lollipop at the end if they stay still, just like at a real salon.
• Ask those questions as the barber and watch how your son enjoys pretending to be grown up.