After having forked out RMB120 (SGD 25) previously for her first haircut by Mr. Dustbin Breath, we thought it'd be more worthwhile (not to mention hygienic!) to try and cut her hair ourselves. Alot of other mummies in the yards already practise their hair coiffuring skills on their little ones, so we thought why not? I ordered a Panasonic children's shaver last week (RMB183, SGD38 - if we cut her hair ourselves at least twice, it'd be more worth it than going to the salon!), but decided to wait till today to give her a haircut.
Why wait, you say? Well, 'pantang' (superstitious) me read before that it's more auspicious for kids to have their hair cut on the first or fifteenth lunar day of the month (except Chinese New Year, of course) - I even chose the 15th for her first haircut. Today being the first day of the 6th lunar month, Wayne rushed home from work in the evening for his inaugural snip of our daughter's hair.
The plan was to have me carry her and sit on a stool in the bathroom, and I even chose to don a top and shorts whose material would not attract as much fine hairs. However, just as we were getting ready to prepare Rosabelle, I decided I wanted to capture the precious moments and be the official photographer, so the nanny carried her instead, and we did it near the dining area.
We stuffed cotton balls into her ears (so she would not be scared of the sound), and used a diaper cloth to shield her.
As it was raining today, I had the windows closed as I was afraid she would catch a cold from not wearing any tops, but it was a bad move as she was perspiring loads from being bundled up like that. It taught us to have the aircon on for future cuts as wet hair is not exactly the easiest to shave.
And Wayne then started his magic, and very surprisingly, Rosabelle kept very still for most of the 10-minute cut!
She was of course curious and wanted to look up at the shaver, but I distracted her by taking photographs and talking to her, and she did not even move her body at times, perhaps knowing that her daddy's doing a job of making her more comfortable and pretty!
Of course, there were times when she got queasy from the heat, and from the nanny holding her tight where she could not even move her arms. She must also have been wondering why it was taking so long, as Wayne had to pause at times to sweep out the hairs from the shaver. It's not as sharp as the shavers in the salon, which is just as well, as there is then no danger of scraping her scalp, but it also meant Wayne had to go over the same area a few times to get the hair cut off.
This shot below was taken halfway through, and after hearing of many mummies saying how their children howled through a home haircut (and also seeing badly cut/uneven hair with scrapes on the scalp at times), I was amazed at how much more painless and easy Rosabelle made it for us.
She was mostly sitting very obediently on the nanny's lap, not being scared at all, and it was after some time that we realized the cotton ball in her right ear had already fallen out, and she wasn't even terrified of the sound. My brave girl!
At times, I attracted her attention to look down onto the floor by using the wind-up bug she loves, just so Wayne could cut the hair near the nape area.
Near the end of the cut, I saw that the outer circumference of her face was all covered with fine hairs, with some near her eyes and nose area, but she did not once squirm. Even for adults, the itch and heat would have been intolerable, so I am thankful that our 9-month-old did not even so much as flinch. The next time we do this, we will get her to lie tilted, like in the salon, so that the hairs will fall backwards onto the floor instead of over her poor, sweaty face.
In spite of her courage and endurance, she must also have been thankful when it was all over...
As usual, we have a very proud nanny who thinks Rosabelle performed very well in not crying, and not even moving/squirming during the wholse session.
And we have a satisfied customer of Barber Wayne.
Immediately after, I then used a make-up sponge to pat up some hairs from her face, and the nanny rinsed out her hair and washed away the hairs on her body before giving her a well-deserved, proper bath. Doesn't she look fresh here?
When sweeping up the hairs later (and thinking that RMB120 at the salon would cover all the cleaning up after...), I realized she does have quite alot of hair, and thought this ghoulish-looking mass (with white cotton balls for eyes) looked quite funny... 
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