His Lion Mane

"Oh, she's so pretty!"

"What a beautiful little girl!"

"Your daughter is adorable!"

Are you kidding me people?! He's not a girl!

Honestly though, it must be a regional thing. Nearly 90% of people we run into who comment on my son's looks refer to him as a girl. This baffles me because a) I don't think he has the features of a girl nor b) do I think we dress him like a girl. 

Regardless of gender, I never intended to cut my child(ren)'s hair prior to their first birthday. Now that is a cultural thing. There are two different versions of an old wives tale that states you shouldn't cut your child's hair prior to either a) the first birthday or b) s/he being able to speak. Now "speaking" has never been clearly defined for me so I guess that could be anything from cooing to full on sentences. Whatever the case- I knew I would be waiting at least until the first birthday.

That was until my son grew a head full of crazy curls. His hair wasn't always like that. He was born with a head full of super straight hair until I had to scrape it out due to that awful cradle cap. I was devastated. I truly loved his baby hair and would stroke his hair all the time. PLUS, I love me some babies with hair on their heads. Bald babies are beautiful but there's something about a baby's hair that I've always loved. 

newborn

I scraped his cradle cap out at around 3 months. it began to grow back immediately although it was a slow start at first. Around 5 months you can began to see it in his pictures more and this time around his hair was different. He had pretty wispy curls around the sides and back but his hair was still bone straight on the top of his head. By the time he was around 6 months he had curls forming at the top of his head... I would run my fingers through his curls all the time. Especially if I was holding him while he slept.

3 months

His hair was always pretty manageable as long as I didn't try to do anything to them. The "problem" was his curls would often get messed up whenever he was in his car seat, so going to events or taking pictures always required a touch-up of sorts after we got out the car. I tried everything to make his curls "stay" through car rides.... nothing did the trick. 

6 months

Nowadays his hair regime includes daily co-washing sometimes twice a day and a full wash every two days. In order to make his curls cooperate it needs some sort of conditioner. If its important enough that I need to "fix" his curls after a car ride (cause that car seat still does them in) I keep a small spray bottle of conditioner and water to spritz his hair and after a little comb through it snaps his curls right back in.       

9 months

Hair has been an integral part of "me" since I was a little girl (another post for another day) so I'm not surprised that I have such strong feelings about cutting his hair. On occasion, I have thought about cutting it. Especially when I saw some of the boys who are a few months younger or older than him get his flirt hair cut. But it just so happens that my husband likes his curls too and doesn't want to cut it either- so I'm safe should I have a moment of weakness.

12 months, with a french fry

When I think about all the curly head little boys (i.e. Corbin Blue) I feel at ease with my decision to let his hair be. Now, if his hair had remained straight... I'm not sure if my feelings would change. I don't know if I will ever make the decision to cut his hair, there may come a time where he wants to make the decision for himself. Does it bother me that someone looks at my Tim's wearing, truck carrying little guy and think he's a girl- at times it does but then again gender profiling is a conversation for a different day. For now, whenever someone calls him a girl we have taught him to say "BOY!" and not only is it the cutest thing ever- it gets the point across.

And so with that... I'm still not cutting his hair.