When my son came out of the Wilderness Program at the end of September, he was pretty scruffy. Before heading to the new school, he was able to take a really long, hot shower at our hotel. On the packing list was an electric razor. They don’t allow regular blades, as you can imagine. After he cleaned up, he looked amazing! WOW!
But his hair was still long, about shoulder length. I didn’t really mind it that length. He looked good. But we were sure surprised when we heard from his therapist that all the boys just had their haircut, a few weeks into his stay at the Ranch. When our Skype call began, what a sight he was! Short hair! He said he hated it! Another WOW! He looked good. It was a little short on the sides and a tiny bit longer on the top.
These haircuts were part of the program and to have self-respect for caring how one looked. I liked it, but I’m a parent! Each generation has their fads. Remember how long everyone thought Elvis wore his hair? And the Beatles? And the hippies in the late 1960’s? We hardly think about it anymore. We didn’t even flinch when our son asked for purple hair, or other colors in the past two years. We didn’t need to make that one of our battles!
But I can see how differently he acts with this new shorter hair cut. There is a sense of “clean-cut-ness” to make up my own word! So the sixteen year old is clean shaven AND short-haired! What a change from four months ago. His last hair cut was for his 8th grade graduation. And with that haircut, the purple dye was added by our loyal hair salon owner friend. She even came in on her day off to help us out! What a pal!
Now we hear that the boys at the Ranch are participating in “No Shave November”. It raises awareness for cancer patients. I’m all for that! We hear that some of the staff members are joining the boys on this one! Way to go guys! One week in the month down, three to go! I’ll keep you posted to how it all goes!
Until then, “keep it short on the sides”!
WARRIOR MOM