white mama at the black stylist...

It's crazy, I know, but I'm feelin' really good about our last haircut experience!  Not only did we find a stylist to give Jameson a great cut (which she did), but we finally found someone who knows and encourages what we want to attempt and she's willing to help us get there.  

We're going towards this look.  Love it!

There's alot of great variety in black men's styles, but in my town, it's been difficult for me thus far to find a place that understood natural hair care (caring for the hair with products that properly care for, maintain, and celebrate natural kinky curls) and a place that didn't always automatically equate black boy with super short hair.  I tend to like the longer styles, so I want to try one out!

Sure, longer hair on Jameson will be harder to maintain than short.  (and who knows, maybe I'll end up giving up halfway there.)  But really.  My daughter's bald.  I've got time to maintain some hair around here.  As long as he'll let me.

I learned a ton from this stylist, who was recommended to us by a neighborhood friend.  She cuts hair in her home part-time, and it was evident she knows what she's doing!  She gave me some new products to try for Jameson's hair type, and she taught me more about Jameson's hair in particular.

Apparently with Jameson's very tight curl pattern (there are all different variances in curl patterns, by the way-- I naively used to just think all african-american hair was the same), she said it would look best really short or really long. (like the picture above)  And everything else in between would be the "ugly stage."

So hopefully we can survive the ugly stage of growing it out!

His hair will still need regular trimming and shaping every 2-3 weeks as it grows out.  This cut was to get everything even and ready to begin.

When the cape went on, he started BAWLING.  If only haircuts weren't quite so traumatic.

Sweet Caroline came quickly to his rescue with lots of big sister-ly hugs.

 Aaaaand like every haircut before this, we tried all the tricks in the book to get him to stop crying when those buzzing clippers turned on.  

We gave him a pacifier.

We gave him snacks.

We let him watch a show on our phone.

We even tried putting Caroline in the seat WITH him.

 And still, nothing worked.  (although he looks relatively calm in this picture- don't let it deceive you...)

 Thankfully, we got through it. 

She gave Jameson a little shaping on the sides that he's never had, too.  He looks cute and I'm excited to see how it will look!  

I think it was most encouraging to me to hear her say that I'm moisturizing it correctly even if it doesn't always do what I would hope it would do.  I needed to hear that what's happening has more to do with his hair and less to do with me.

Well, whew.  Maybe I'm not as clueless as I think.

    

 So here's to finding a great barber!

Now let's try and grow some kinky curly hair!