As the parent, you, of course, have every right to decide how your child’s hair should be cut and kept. I just encourage you to think about options that you may not have considered.
If the parents are divided on the issue of how to cut or keep the child’s hair, let the parent who advocates the higher-maintenance option take responsibility for keeping the hair groomed. Either the parent will come
to realize the difficulty, or the child’s hair will be groomed by the person who wants a specific look. Either way, the hairstyle problem will be resolved.
Gender Concepts and Kids’ Hair:
With infants, the visibility of the hair is often a perennial concern. Even with little boy babies, the parents are most pleased when the child has a lush head of hair. And when a
little girl baby is born, it’s not long before the parents are desperate for enough hair growth to be able to put in some adornment to signify that the child is, in fact, a girl. The situation doesn’t change as the
child gets older, either. From birth through toddling age, many parents want their little boys to look like “little men” and their little girls to be “girly”. Even among the most liberal-minded people I know, these
gender concepts prevail.
When gender concepts come into play, they often result in low-maintenance, easy-to-style looks for boys (if any styling at all is needed), but girls are often kept with hair as long
as it will grow, which requires much more care, and needs a lot of attention to keep healthy. This seems great with little boys, and bad with little girls, but not all little boys should have a super-short cut, and not
all little girls are suited to long hair. This doesn’t even consider the needs of children with coarse or very curly hair or those with whorls, hair streams and cowlicks. Children of different ethnicities will have their
own, specific hair needs, too.
Let’s talk about the kids’ hair types, their common difficulties, and some potential solutions:
FINE hair is not uncommon among small children, especially those who were born with primarily vellus hair on the scalp. Fine hair, in and of its self, presents no real problems with hair care for kids. (At really young
ages, the shampoo and bath used is extremely gentle anyway.) Cutting the hair, though can present issues, particularly combined with other features of the hair.
FINE & STRAIGHT hair needs to be cut in more blunt styles. Not only will layering the hair make it look thin and wispy, but it will make it easier to become frizzy and unkempt during normal toddler activity. Kids with
FINE & STRAIGHT hair generally rely on clips and barrettes for holding the hair rather than ponytail bands, since these often slide right out. Use accessories with rubberized grips to get more secure hold. For little
boys, FINE & STRAIGHT hair means that the bowl-cut styles or styles with minimal tapering are well-suited.
FINE & CURLY hair may need some layering to prevent bushy, triangle-head looks, but keep the layering shallow. Furthermore, make sure you use a light-formula detangling spray after shampooing or whenever you need to
comb through the hair. FINE & CURLY hair is sometimes prone to tangle – especially if the child is very active – and the curled areas of the hair strand can be weak points which will break more easily. (Just remember
to use something light enough that it won’t weigh the hair down too much.) Don’t use a bristled brush, but rather a wide-tined vent brush to separate the curls or a wide-tooth comb to remove snags. For little boys,
the FINE & CURLY hair often means a bowl cut or short circle cut to keep the volume of the hair to a minimum.
When gender concepts come into play, they often result in low-maintenance, easy-to-style 
