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As long as I'm hovering about again for now, I might as well ask:
My son is 10, and has decided that he wants to grow his hair out. I don't ob ject to the idea, in fact I told him this is a good time to do it, the kids he's in school with now are a lot less critical of the in-between stages than people will be when he's older.
The problem I'm running into is, the boy has NO CLUE about combing his hair, no matter how frequently we show him and help him he just doesn't get it. He's had pretty short hair most of his life, it's just easier to maintain that way. He does okay at washing it, and as it grows out I'm sure he'll get with the idea of conditioning it. But I'm not sure about having him continue to grow it if he can't get the combing/brushing thing right.
Any thoughts, advice?
-m
perhaps you should do what my parents did. Much like you they had no problem with me growing my hair long. however, they told me if i ever let it go un-kept i would have to cut it. not saying that this is the best way to do it, but it worked for me.
Well, I've told him a few times, if it gets bad, I won't hesitate to shave his head. It caught his attention, but he just doesn't seem to be able to get it right....I really hope he can get on board, 'cuz he'll have fantastic hair. It was long when he was a baby, but we cut it because there were too many "What a cute little girl, what's her name?" comments, no matter how decidedly boy-ish the clothing. :)
-m
My own son a buz cut from when he was little. He wouldn't stop pulling and twisting his own hair - then it became fashionable at his school. At around 10 (after watching Star Wars) he wanted long hair. Fortunately his and his sister's school pictures were handy and she has long hair. Both my wife and I said - "sure you can if you want to" and then I asked him to think of the long hair of his sister on his own head. One "ick" later and that's been the last of it. He now at 13 his hair is in a "Ceasar" cut that he refuses to take proper care of but he's happy with it - especially I think because it requires practically no effort.
AndrewB
Our kids both have relatively long hair (son aged 14 and daughter aged 10).
Our son is only just beginning to grasp the idea of combing from the bottom up, but is averse to water! We can hardly get him to wash it. He does show some interest in combing it, though.
Our daughter, who's the age of your son, can scarcely be bothered to comb or brush her hair atall. That is, she can when it suits her, but is happy to go to school in the morning looking like a haystack if we can't grab her and brush it before she walks out the door. She knows she has to comb it out if she wants to put it a ponytail, for example, but if she's leaving t loose it's like she works on the principle that it's behind her back so she can't see it.
My son is 13. Since he was about 10, he has wanted longish hair and then not. Our take has been to honor what he wanted for his hair with the agreement that it be kept clean. Clean meant daily washing, and attempts at brushing. I could speak to him about a man's responsbility toward his long hair because I have long hair. He knew that. He listened. He still needed reminders and guidance. He's a kid.
When he comes home and says he wants a hair cut, we go get a hair cut. At this point in his life, to me the most important thing is balancing honor for how he wants to wear his hair with personal responsibility for it.
Like most parenting issues, not a black and white solution, and requires daily working at it.
Bob
Just keep persisting, i wanted to grow my hair at 10 as well, and ended up getting a half inch cut every month, before i relaised i wasnt getting anywhere, so i was a little dumb.
There are some kids around 11 or 12 in my school at the moment, who have long hair, and there is some atrocious bullying, so be wary about that.
Good luck
Provided it's cleaned, then dabbed+shaken mostly dry and at least had some fingers run through it, my personal experience has been that unmolested hair tends to fall in a flattering way shortly after washing.
Unless he's got a case of massive tangles, you might want to watch how it dries undisturbed over the weekend sometime and re-evaluate the 'you're not going to school with hair like THAT' proposition. 15 minutes of drying time (car ride + 5 minutes of settling in in class) can make a big difference. And give him one of those wide-toothed combs, if he's got the other kind. I remember the needly ones being uncomfortable as a kid.
Show him the way you comb yours and he'll learn. He'll probably look up to his dad :D
Best regards,
Josh