Toddler haircut nightmare

DON79

Well its over for another four weeks! :j

The nightmare of trying to cut my 4 yr old's hair at home with the clippers! He goes as stiff as a board, hunches his shoulders right up, cries and screams like we are murdering him and just won't calm down or listen to reason at all which results in the cut taking twice as long as it should. He really has hysterics at getting his hair cut. He says it hurts but I am sure it only hurts because we physically have to hold him tightly to keep his hands and fingers away from the trimmers/scissors so he doesn't get hurt. We wrap him in a towel to keep the hair from itching him etc also.

We cut his 3 yr old brother's hair at the same time and don't get a single whimper/peep/moan out of him whatsoever. So we have tried cutting his younger brother's hair first so oldest can see it doesn't hurt etc and vice versa.

Any advice please!! We have done and still do the rewards after getting his hair cut.

zootie

My DS1 is 9 now and the whole street can hear when he has his haircut! Not really got any easier over the years. Good luck!

Raksha

My middle son used to be like this - I ended up doing half before he went to bed, and the other half when he got up.

I've always found having my hair dried with a hair dryer a little scarey, so I can understand how he feels.

Maybe doing smaller bits, then letting him get down and play, then doing a bit more later will help?

jinky67

Clippers do make a horrible noise, perhaps he is scared of this?

I would give up doing his at home and go to the barbers with him :cool:

beedeedee

Why don't you just leave it long? Why are you wanting him to have it cut? Is it clean?

dropscone

I hated having my hair washed or cut when I was younger, absolutely hated it! As I got older I got less sensitive, but it really was horrible at the time.

Is there any way you could just let him grow it for a while? He might get tired of people mistaking him for a girl when it's longer and ask to have it done himself. Or, I'm not sure how dangerous clippers are, but is there any way you could put a safety thing on and let him have some control over it himself?

DON79

beedeedee wrote: »

Why don't you just leave it long? Why are you wanting him to have it cut? Is it clean?

I could get away with this with my 3 yr old but my 4 yr old's hair is poker straight and if left to get long it would just be a total mess, it just gets really scruffy looking after 4 weeks. And I personally don't like longer hair on boys, it makes them look girly in my opinion and he has a little pixie face so would look girly. And of course its clean....

tanith

Leave it long he may change his mind and want a haircut when people start wondering if he's a girl!!! Surfer dude hair is very 'in' don't ya know!! I wouldn't traumatise him just so he's tidy or conforming to what others think is the 'norm'.... let him be an individual

123louisa

DS is like this with clippers, he is absolutely terrified of them. His Step nan did it for his first haircut. Personally I think its barbaric to do it to small children. Imagine you are a 2 or 3 year old and have someone run a buzzing thing over your head. Pretty Scary. Once you have used clippers once on them it makes them frightened every time.

I now take DS here http://www.spikesandcurls.com/. They only do children's hair and are really really good with small frightened children.

He is now cured of his hair cut phobia, he gets to sit in a fire engine or a plane to have his haircut and watch TV, gets hair gel and a lolly.

They also have a cheapish toy shop in the front and if he manages to not cry he gets a present.

beedeedee

Sorry, but I would never force a child to have a haircut if it upset them so much. There's more important things to worry about.

kegg_2

my youngest hated having his hair cut so i left it and let him grow it long. It was lovely and he just tied it back for school. When he got to about 5 or 6 he would let me trim the ends to stop split ends and keep it somewhat tidy and then at 9 he decided he wanted it short.
Now at coming up to 13 he is growing it again but not long just into one of thoses shaggy skater boy styles they all seem to favour at the moment.

It was never a problem for me but if you wont want to let it grow then i think you are going to have to take him to a proper hair dressers and get it cut with sissors rather than trying with noisy clippers which they can find upsetting