To Cut and To Shave

We have pamahiins (superstitious beliefs) in the Philippines that pertain to cutting hair. One of them is not to cut a child’s hair until he or she has completed a year old. Another is to have a smart or intelligent person make the first snips if you want your child to grow up smart and intelligent as well. For the same reason, another pamahiin is to get a bunch of those hair strands and keep it between the pages of a dictionary, encyclopedia (if you still have one) or any reference book. And still another is to shave off all the hair so that it will grow out thicker.

For Caila, since her hair was very, very thin since birth, we did all of those beliefs. I waited until she was almost 13 months to take her to the salon, and I was the one who made the first cut. In Primary School, I received certificates and awards and was the School Captain, I belonged to the top section in my last year in High School, and I made it to the Dean’s List in University so those at least account to something, right? (Nag-defend talaga ‘no? Hahaha!) After I cut a few strands, the lady at the salon shaved the rest of Caila’s hair off, and when we got home, I tucked the strands I cut in a dictionary.

Here’s how her hair developed:

Hubby with our little Shaolin

a couple of months later

hair growing

curls developing

mix of straight hair and curls

her hair now
(unruly hair on the left, combed hair on the right)

After we made her bald, Caila’s hair grew very fast so we would regularly trim her hair due to split ends or to make them even. But now, she doesn’t want to have it cut at all. Blame it on Tangled because she likes the movie and wants to be Rapunzel one day. But I have to admit that her hair does look nice. I’ve lost count the number of times we’ve been asked if her hair is really like that or if we use a curling iron to make it that way. I assure you, it’s naturally straight with natural curls at the end. Why would we destroy our daughter’s hair at such a young age? Still though, it’s getting pretty difficult to keep her hair tied and tame all the time so I need to convince her that she needs a haircut…and soon.

As for Sophie, not a single pair of scissors has touched her head. She was born with pretty thick hair, but as time passed by, it didn’t seem to grow out evenly. Instead, it became straight and thin just like Caila’s when she was her age. Now, her hair is uneven and all over her face. We always tie it back, but she often pulls off the hair ties.

thick hair at birth

thin hair at 1

her hair now

So since she’s turning 2 years old in a few days, I told Hubby that if we want to shave off Sophie's hair, we need to do it right after her birthday. At least she’ll still look cute even without her crowning glory. If we delay it, she might just look weird. 

Of course I’ll be doing the pamahiins that I followed when Caila had her first haircut, but I don’t want to be the one to cut the first strand this time. I want a doctor, nurse, or lawyer to do it. Any volunteers? =)