K's first hair-cut

We finally took K to the barber last Saturday, to have his first hair-cut. Does it seem slightly ridiculous to take a 15 month-old to the barber? Well, in Japan there's a custom of making a calligraphy brush from a baby's hair. The very fine, soft hair makes a very good quality brush capable of producing very fine lines. Nowadays most people just have them made as a momento I think, with no intention of ever actually using them. I suppose it's the Japanese version of keeping a lock of hair in a locket. Anyway, that's why K avoided the pudding-bowl Mum-haircut which he'll probably get next time...

He was a really good little boy and kept (reasonably) still on my lap while he had his hair cut. He looks so grown-up now that his hair has been cut, especially when I see him walking around outside with shoes on too. Actually he looks like a naughty little boy ready to get up to all kinds of mischief...

Before (sweet, innocent, little long-haired baby):

During (getting a bit bored by now):

After (Dennis the Menace in training):

*** Barber anecdote...***

When H described to me the location of the barber he was planning to take K to, I thought 'Hey! That's the Catholic barber!'. When I'm driving home I often find myself stopped at traffic lights in front of a small barbers with a framed photo of the Pope and a statue of the Virgin Mary in the window - not something you often see around here. However, when we actually got near the barbers on Saturday I realised that H was heading for a bigger, newer looking place a few doors down the road. I was slightly disappointed. While we were sitting waiting our turn though, H pointed out a framed photo of the Pope and Mother Teresa on the counter! Mixed in with all the old manga (comic books) and magazines for customers to read there was also a book entitled 'Mother Teresa and her sisters' (I have to admit that I thought 'oh, I didn't know that she had sisters. I wonder what they did... Oh, right, yeah, those sisters...' Doh). Later conversation revealed that the barbers was run by a couple and their son (one of 4 children), that they lived at the old shop but had opened this newer shop a few years ago and that the wife travelled a lot to (Catholic) European countries and had considered entering a convent in Belgium...