A boy and his jar full of hair

A boy and his jar full of hair, originally uploaded by studor.

My heart was sad today as I cut Mr Man's hair. He had told us he wanted to grow it out a few months ago and I was glad to agree. It had developed into this gorgeous, thick auburn with lot's of floppy body. I was hoping he'd let it get long enough that we could at least give it to Locks of Love when he was tired of it. But I was beginning to wonder how long it would last. It was beginning to get longer than the standard "boy" length is (at least around here) and I was waiting for him to tune into people asking me how old my girls were. Mr Man is surrounded by girls. He has a baby sister and 4 female cousins. And he wants NOTHING to do with it. We try hard not to inflict upon him cultural biases regarding gender and gender roles. We just want to see him grow into the man God has made him to be, whether that's a ballerina or a construction worker. This past week he received two comments directly associating his hair with being girly. And sure enough, within two days he told me he was ready to cut it off. Not a surprise, but still, it's sad to me. It's his hair, and I will do what he asks with it (the rule for long hair in this house is no complaining about hair brushing), but it makes me sad to see how quickly we snub a child's enjoyment of themselves. Why a boy with barely earlobe-length hair is seen as being effeminate (and why that is something anyone feels the need to comment on) is beyond me. At any rate, a mama can only keep the real world out of reach for so long....

All that said, halfway through cutting his hair, he looked at the growing pile on the floor and asked excitedly "When we're all done, can we put it in a jar and I can keep it?". Of course! So here's the boy and his jar full of hair. Sweet :) (His little friend around the corner also has longer hair and they had been growing it out together. I told Mr Man that H would probably be a little sad that he'd cut his hair. Mr Man's response: "Maybe. But then I'll show him my jar of hair and he'll think that's really cool. And then he'll be happy again." Hahahaha! I love 4!