I Don't Want My Kid To Look Silly!!!

Working in a salon that is specifically for children I find myself helping out quite a few parents to fix haircuts. Surprisingly enough most of the time it is the parents handy work that I'm asked to fix. On occasion I am presented with the challenge of fixing the child's idea of the world's best haircut that took him or her not only a lot of thought but also a lot of skill. I visit with most of the kid's that come in having cut their own hair and have come to learn that there are typically 3 reasons why they did it. Reason 1. They have seen a particular hairstyle which they adore and in their mind have replicated perfectly. Reason 2. "My hair was just getting too long, it was just time for a haircut." Reason 3. "I don't know, I just felt like it." For the most part I have felt pretty confident with the work I've done when these particular clients leave the salon, but every so often I have one that I'm just not that proud of and sometimes there is only so much I can do. In fact I fear when these rare cases walk out the door everyone is going to ask "Who did this to your child?", and I really don't want my name associated with that cut. Just last week I had such a client, she was a very energetic 4 year old. Before I even had a chance to look at this girl's hair, I heard the words from the dad "I don't want her to look silly" that is when I knew this wasn't going to be a normal trim. What shocked me was that immediately following those words he said, "if you could please just cut her hair like Joe Dirt." That is right Joe Dirt.

At first I thought that he was joking but after discussing it further I came to realize that he was not. This little girl had hair down to the middle of her back and had decided that she would cut one side very short. It was now the beginnings of a beautiful mullet. So what was the problem? She only did the one side. I tried to convince the dad that perhaps a nice pixie cut would be a better choice...

I was given the response "No I told you I don't want her to look silly." I replied "Oh course not we wouldn't want that; ok then Joe Dirt look it is." He was willing to allow me to cut the back to her shoulders so that it could grow to be the same length a little faster. What I'm still trying to figure out why he bothered to come and have me "fix" it. He was ok with the one side she cut why not just ask her to go ahead and cut the other side to match. What made this cut so difficult was the dad told me he knows nothing about hair but refused to even consider my professional suggestions. I'm there to do my job and part of that is giving people what they ask for. As they walked out the door very happy and impressed at how well the Joe Dirt cut looked on her I couldn't help but notice the worried look on the faces of the parent's of my next client.