First Official Haircut

Since adopting Baylie, I have learned A LOT about black hair. Since adopting Jalen, I have learned that there are also do's and don'ts about boy hair. When we were first considering trans-racial adoption, our agency counseled us not to shave our child's hair while we were sending monthly pictures to the mother because it was upsetting to them. I didn't realize until recently how important it is in the African American culture to not cut the hair at all until after the first birthday. I had mentioned to a couple of my friends that I wanted to trim Jalen's hair and they told me absolutely not. I learned that in some families they believe it will make the hair grow in funny and in other families they think it will make the child stutter or have other unforseen problems. This is interesting because in many Latin American and Oriental cultures, they shave babies while they are still very little. I now feel a little guilty about sending Jalen's birthmom pictures of when we trimmed the crown of his head because it was growing so much faster than the rest.

Ever since Jalen's first birthday, one of my girlfriends has been hinting that I should now cut his hair. It was pretty uneven. So today, we cut it. I should have taken a better 'before' picture, but you can kind of see how fuzzy his hair is over his ears (that's not a shadow on the chair, it's his hair). It was that way on top of his head too, but pretty bald in between.

He was so good. He didn't cry at all and seemed to even enjoy it. I'm having a hard time though because now he looks more like a little boy than a baby. I'm not ready for that.

Seriously, could he be any cuter??!!