A Hairy Situation

By Paige Tucker
PHOTO: Sophia Bush, age 5

It’s a rite of passage for many children, cutting their own hair! It all too often happens before something important like, oh you know, family pictures or a portrait sitting.

I have seen pictures and received several texts over the years of “new haircuts” that my friend’s children have given themselves. The best is when it’s a group text and several friends weigh in with a hair horror of their own. The trims are usually memorable and a few of them have made me laugh out loud, with the unintended bangs, choppy layers and sideways snips leaving messy mullets.

With an appointment for some special pictures coming up, I scoured our house and gathered all the scissors I could find. I put them up as high as possible and made sure they were out of my four-year-old’s line of sight. I never knew we had so many pairs of scissors! Just when I thought I’d safely scissor-proofed our home, I’d find another pair. But I was determined to avoid Julia Reynolds curiously cutting her own hair.

My younger brother, Tyler gave himself the classic Dumb and Dumber look when he was a little boy. He was a day away from his birthday pictures, and oh my mom was not happy about it! He was old enough to know better and he had beautiful hair — bright blonde and the most perfect, floppy bowl cut you’ve ever seen! The chunk of bangs he took out of his forehead, à la Lloyd Christmas, really took away from his otherwise adorable “do.”

It was the only haircut he gave himself but not the only bad haircut Tyler had to endure. When he was a little older, I acting as “the baby sitter,” shaved his head one night our parents went out for dinner. Yep, he was still rocking that straight as a stick bowl and I gave him a buzz cut! It was a bit of a shock to everyone, including Tyler and even more shocking when it grew back curly!

I’m happy to report we got that particular photo session of Julia Reynolds in without any amateur haircutting techniques on display. I know we’re not out of the realm of possibility of a crazy coiffure but so far, so good!

After twelve years in local news, most recently as evening anchor of NBC 26, Paige Tucker is now a work-at-home mom and freelance journalist. She produces two series for NBC 26 TV, First Responders and 26 Women Today, and you can see those stories on Tuesday nights. Paige and her husband have one daughter, Julia Reynolds, who is three years old.