Hair

It’s an issue; but it needn’t be.

The combing of it, the cutting of it and well general maintenance. Constant consternation.

The cubs are mixed race. A term I hate as it signifies the human desire to neatly pigeon-hole everything away. Everything must have a classification. I digress.

They are half Afro-Caribbean, and technically quarter Mauritian, quarter Scottish. To the eye, they’re Caribbean. Hope you’re keeping up.

Their ethnicity is important because their hair is typical of our race; slightly thicker and prone to tangles if not cared for correctly. Correctly maintained, it looks amazing. This subject has caused and causes countless rows.

Girl cub loves having her hair done and always did. We had a heck of a search for the rights products but when we found them, bingo. Products are the key.

Boy cub? well that’s a whole separate chapter. All I can say is sorry. To my neighbours, passers-by and probably to a couple of nearby postcodes. Washing his hair sounds like a horrific assault.

I mentioned a while back that when he was younger, we nearly lost him to an ear infection that put pressure on his brain. The resolution, following a brief stay in hospital, was to be fitted with grommets. A drawback of having grommets is that you have to limit water getting into the ears.

When his hair needs washing, out comes the cotton wool. And the screaming. I mentioned horrific before. It really is quite bad.

He hates it. He hates water in his face and in his eyes and isn’t shy at letting you know. I tried so many different things including using dry flannels, getting him to look up, using the shower (with and without the head) and using a cup. All resulted in increased decibels.

I went to the internet for help.

I found this

There was the usual due process that I apply to everything and I wasn’t convinced. It was 32p, so I bought it.

It took a while to arrive so I promptly forgot that I bought it. It arrived and I thought it was a suspect package.

I opened it, and I wasn’t convinced. It was folded for easy transit so it was badly misshapen.

I tried it on and nearly passed out. In their defence, they’re made for kids and I’m not the smallest of humans.

Bath-time arrived and I decided to give it a try. I took it out of the hair product basket in the bathroom and showed it to him.

He looked at it for a little while, then shook his head.

We tried it anyway.

It worked and I stand corrected. This could be the best 32p I’ve ever spent.

BSD