All gone

Finally, we've done it - when James began chewing his hair in earnest a couple of weeks ago (coinciding with the good weather and us putting him in t shirts) we agreed we were going to have to do something drastic. For the last four years (well, since it was long enough to be classed as "long") we have left James' hair long as it suits him so well. He has lovely blonde highlights that swish and sway when he shakes his head back and forth (one of his many stims!) and he has a pretty obvious plagiocephaly, so keeping his hair longer avoids the "Phil Mitchell" look. But I've seen pictures of trichobezoars (hairballs to you and me!) in medical journals and knowing my luck, James would be one of the rare cases that develop intestinal obstruction and require surgery to remove it! So after a lot of agonising and soul searching we decided to have it cut quite drastically. Ronan was a star, once again, and very patient with James throughout the "procedure". I was virtually in tears watching his locks fall to the ground, wondering if I was doing the right thing. When we walked out, he was barely recognisable to me - he looks much older and more "masculine" (although he has very male features, with his longer cut he was usually referrred to as a "girl" even when in what I'd call "boyish" clothes). I'm still doing a double take when I get him out of bed in the morning. I think he suits it shorter, but we've deliberately left him with a surfer look - it's much easier to look after now and we're not having to spend 10 minutes getting the knots out in the morning. Most importantly, he can't get his hair in his mouth - so he's taken to chewing the front of his t shirts! That one's going to be a bit more difficult to prevent I think....