Haircuts--New York City Style

After a false start on Saturday, which started with a half-block walk and ended with a mangled umbrella and 8 very wet bodies, we set out again on Sunday afternoon to get the boys haircuts. There was a break in the rain at the time, so other than a chilly wind, it was a fairly pleasant walk.

We take the boys to a little barbershop about 10 blocks down town from us on Broadway, because they have reasonable prices--$10 for little boy’s cuts. Our Supercuts, which is just a few blocks further away, charges “$24 and up” for children’s haircuts. No way am I paying $120 plus tips for 5 little boys to get haircuts. And that’s not even considering that little statement “and up!” Their hair grows so fast they’ll need a new cut in 6 weeks anyway, and well, $120 every 6 weeks would buy a LOT of fabric...or chocolate...or yummy drinks at Starbucks...but I digress...

So we go with this little barbershop instead. The catch? The guys there are Dominican, and only speak Spanish. Jeremy knows just enough Spanish to barely sort of get by; I know just enough to communicate the really important stuff, like “My cat is in a tree” or “I like the yellow banana”—you know, the useful stuff you learn in 7th grade Spanish class.

So we go through the motions of attempting to tell them in Spanish what we want, they go through the motions of nodding and smiling (the smiling, I’m sure, is really an attempt not to laugh out loud at our Spanish) and we walk out 45 minutes later with a bunch of boys with basic, no-frills haircuts. So far, everyone’s happy with this arrangement.

There's another little perk to this place besides the price tag--the ancient coin-operated horse just outside. With a few dollars in coins, I can keep a few boys happily occupied while a few others are getting their cuts. And we all know keeping children happy and occupied is a good thing!



Jordan and Joseph





Joey using his trusty bow to shoot invisible arrows at imaginary villains


Joey...amazingly, he is sitting still for his haircut

I sure hope living in the concrete jungle isn't having a negative effect on Josh and Jon. There was a time when they knew how to ride a horse--at least the basic seating arrangement. They've obviously become a bit confused on this issue. I wonder what else they're forgetting?


Jon and Josh





Um, still not quite right, guys...


Okay, I give up! Carry on...

This was Josiah's first haircut--which is the primary reason I had the camera with me in the first place. One of these days I'm going to get back to scrapbooking, and I can't have any one child scarred for life by being the only one without 1st haircut pictures. I'm sure the stylists loved me--I was totally in their way, and I kept forgetting and saying "Smile for Mommy!" when Josiah was supposed to look down and keep still! He was quite the little wiggler, and required a good bit of wrangling to keep his little head still. But we managed to remove an appropriate amount of hair while preserving his ears, so all ended well.


Josiah waiting patiently for his haircut


Joey, remarkably enough, is STILL sitting still...don't worry--he more than made up for that lack of activity the rest of the day!


Josiah isn't quite sure about this whole haircut thing


Josiah finally takes his turn on the horsey! Yay!

After all that sitting still, the boys were ready to go crazy the whole way home. I had no idea that you could engage in a wrestling match with your brother and walk at the same time. There are things I STILL don't get about boys! But if they had to draw attention to themselves, whooping and hollering the whole way home, at least I could take consolation from one thing...at least they all had nice-looking hair!