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My grandmother made me get a haircut. I know to many of you, getting a haircut is not a big deal – but for me this was my first real haircut in a salon in about a decade. Why? First a little background on the topic of hair.
Hair, I have noticed, is for some reason wrapped up in Jewish traditions and stories. There is the custom among many – if not most – married Orthodox women to cover their hair. Then there is a custom in many circles not to cut a boy’s hair until he is three years old, and then to hold an Upsherin and cut his hair. (There is a great article from Aish.com , a right-wing Orthodox site, which does a good job of explaining why you may have seen little boys running around with long hair.) There is also the famous Biblical story of Samson and Delilah, where she is able to rob him of his strength by cutting his hair.
I hadn’t cut my own hair for a few years before I got married as I was growing it long to donate. Once I got married, I followed in the tradition of covering my hair in public or in front of men who are not related to me. Therefore, the idea of going to a salon was just not practical. Granted, there are places for women only, or salons with a private room. But as I was never the ’salon’ type, I didn’t feel I was missing anything.
Every once in a while, I’d have a friend or my sister cut my hair, or I’d just cut it myself while standing in front of a mirror. Was it perfect? No. But then again… who was going to see my hair anyway?
A few weeks ago I cut it again. I don’t think I did that bad of a job – in fact I think it looked quite good. But I somehow let it slip to my prim and proper grandmother that I had cut my own locks and she was horrified. Without even seeing the result, she made an appointment at a local salon and made me promise to go. And like a dutiful good girl that I am, I went. Although I did try to protest, but resistance seems to be futile when arguing with my grandmother.
So I go into the salon and the stylist seems surprised to see someone of my age showing up for the appointment. It seems that my grandmother was kind enough to tell the beautician that her granddaughter had been playing around with scissors and had cut up her own hair… and of course she told me she had been expecting a seven year old.
Anyway, why am I telling you all this? I don’t know. But I really would like to know what the story is with our Adam – whether we will be able to adopt him or not. Because now, at 15 months, he’s got the biggest baby afro I have ever seen – and I’d really like to give it a little trim… but my husband won’t let me. If we are able to adopt him, my husband would like to let his hair grow until he’s three and then have the traditional Upsherin at that time.
My question is this: What if he’s older than three by the time we are able to adopt him? Do we still have an Upsherin then?
