A bad idea

There are lots of costs of having kids. Diapers, clothes, food, daycare, college funds - eventually it all adds up. But one cost that has always bugged me is associated with Teddy's haircuts. He hasn't had many, but to get him one, I tend to take him to the barber with me. When we're lucky, the barber charges him the half-price "kid rate". But most of the time, we end up paying the same amount for him as for me - around $25 with tip. (One could quibble that $25 is cheap for a men's haircut in DC, but that's not the point of this post.)

Part of me thinks that this is a good father-son bonding experience. While our barbershop isn't completely old-school, which would make it a real male bonding event, Teddy seems to enjoy it enough that I have figured that it's worth the cost. Still, I've always wondered whether we could figure out a better arrangement.

Back in December, Teddy and I spent some time wandering around the mall in Tyson's Corner while Mama and Margaret went to a performance of the Nutcracker. As we were walking through Macy's, I noticed a haircut set for around $30. (You can probably see where this will end up.) "Hmmm," I thought, "$30 for a razor.... that's almost as much as one haircut for the boy." I ended up buying it, in the process telling the checkout lady that it was for Teddy. "Does his mom know about this?," she asked. "Not really," I responded, "But maybe we'll make it a Christmas present."

Which we did. So, on Xmas day in Chicago, Mama and Teddy opened the haircut kit as a joint present. It has spent the last month sitting around our house as Teddy's hair has gotten longer and longer. We debated whether to take it back, but never got around to doing so. I read the guide included with the kit a few times and figured that it can't be that hard. After all, I've seen lots of barbers run their shears over my head without much subtlety. And my mom cut my hair until I was around 12, at which point my vanity necessitated heading to an actual salon.

To sum up: It's just absurdly expensive to get a 3-year-old's hair cut in DC, and it can't be that hard to cut his hair in any event. This past Saturday, Teddy was the guinea pig on which these various theories were tested. You can judge the results in the following pictures. Notably, his mom has been pretty tolerant about the whole situation, both the underlying theory and the actual implementation. I do, however, blame her for the ultimate length of his hair, as she kept saying, "It's too long in that spot" which led me to keep cutting more to even it out. And he was a squirmy little dude, making it even harder. Not sure if we'll give it another try, but I figure that every kid needs to have a crew-cut at some point.