No matter how long you have been with your current partner, new experiences can always pop up and contribute to your relationship growth.
These experiences can be as complex as an exotic trip to a foreign country, or as simple as, say, giving your partner a haircut when you’ve never, EVER, done it before.  Although the fact that hair grows back, offers a softening blow to the permanence of a poorly executed haircut, the hair on our head and the way in which we style it, is still a defining visible characteristic of who we are.  More so today, in the world of mask wearing which places even greater emphasis on our facial parts which remain uncovered.  But it is exactly this necessity for wearing a facial mask, that lead to the necessity of me having to give my husband a haircut!
I do take great comfort in knowing that I am not alone in my haircut drama as millions of other untrained family members have had to provide much needed haircuts to members of their own quarantining family members — further validating the current slogan of “in this together”.
But as much as this comforting fact exists, I alone held the scissors and the razor, ready to wage the war of ‘hairstyle’ on the fastly growing hairs on my husband’s head.  I had never used a razor for haircutting with any sense of style in mind.  My haircutting razor experience consisted of completely shaving a head which is relatively easy to do since no real technique knowledge is required.  Although, I did notice that it is necessary to try and do an even shave, lest you leave your victim with some patches of shaved hair higher than others.  My scissor cutting technique experience was even more dismal, as it involved randomly snipping off dead ends.  On paper, I would NOT be hired in a barber shop, but in my “I’m the only option you have” home, I was it!
I know, with certainty, that my husband did not have the greatest confidence in my abilities.  I cannot blame him at all since I would rather tip my head upside down, grab a pair of craft scissors from the kitchen junk drawer, and cut my own hair than sit in a chair and blindly grant him access.  However, my husband is not uber concerned with the necessity for a high quality, fashionable haircut, and so he let his stronger desire for shorter hair dominate, resulting in him sitting in a chair, wrapped in a cape, with me standing at the ready with a razor and scissors.  I also had a comb, hair clips, a small brush, a hand-held mirror, a dustpan, and a bandage (just in case) nearby.
In the end, we learned a little bit more about one another since he learned that I am “sensitive” to criticism and what I may perceive as criticism, and I learned that he is more “particular” about how he likes his hair to look than I thought he was.  With only one real “sort of” visible spot of a mistake, we both chalked up the experience as a success.
I am also a believer in the saying that “practice makes perfect” and I may be looking forward to giving it another try.  Or maybe not?
Grow! Grow!
Kathy Naumann, possessor of NATURALLY curly hair and the understanding that you can’t control everything!

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