collisionwork | Aug. 17th, 2008

So Berit hasn't had a full haircut in at least nine years. I trimmed her mane a few times every now and then a few years back to get the ends even, but pretty much its been untouched for almost as long as I've known her.

At its longest point, her hair had reached about four foot, eight inches.

She enjoyed the long locks in some ways, but really really hated it in others - she said she only didn't get it cut as she didn't want to deal with the hassle of maintaining it (her hair grows faster-than-average to begin with).

I've heard the complaints for years (it's heavy, it's hot), but she seemed a few days ago to be getting more serious about this - again, though, I've heard it before.

Friday night, she was saying that it was all coming off that night. I didn't quite believe her.

We got home from the show that night, she did a little internet research on what she planned to do, and went off to the bathroom to prepare. It took so long, and I got sleepy and ready for bed, so I didn't think anything would be happening that night.

Nope. As 2 am struck, she told me I had to stay up and be the haircutter.

Here, she has combed out and prepared the stuff for cutting. We laid out a painting tarp and chair in the biggest open spot we could find in our cluttered place, and I got the implementa ready . . .

(you sure you trust this man with scissors?)

The first, biggest step took very little time . . .

We held her hair back at shoulder length and I cut it right across, leaving a pound of hair on the floor (we weighed it later).

And it was a lot lighter up there now . . .

Hooker the cat had trouble comprehending what was going on, having a tiny kitty brain . . .

Then, out came the barber clippers my mother gave us a few years back . . .

. . . and the kitties ran and hid for a bit.

I started with a 1" clipper and worked it down, then went to 1/2" in the back and 5/8" on the top, except for the part where she was keeping the full length (she thought this style was a "Chelsea" but it apparently is actually a "Devil Lock").

The kitties slowly came back out during the clipping to watch, warily:

Mommy . . ? What happened to the Mommy?

Yeah, they weren't sure quite how to react. After the tedious process, Berit took the clippers into the bathroom to work on places I had a hard time reaching without hurting her, and Hooker examined things more closely.