April 18, 2017

When I was a freshman at BYU, my cousin, Kyle Widdison, bought some hair clippers and asked me to be his barber.  Kyle was one of my best friends in the world, but I had never cut anyone's hair.  Ever.  He was confident that I could learn, and he let me keep the clippers so that I could cut other boys' hair too if I wanted.

We set ourselves up in my teeny, tiny dorm room kitchen, and I started cutting.  I was VERY nervous and I cut VERY slowly.  THREE EXCRUCIATING HOURS LATER, with Kyle coaching me along, we had somehow shortened his hair a bit.  It was a start.  My very first hair cut.

I did eventually get better at being a barber.  And there was always a line of boys at BYU willing to let me practice on their heads.  When I met Greg the next year (Kyle was on his mission) and he found out that I knew how (sort of!) to cut hair, he was super happy to jump in the chair and be my client.  And it was super fun since he took off his shirt too!  And it usually involved some kissing action too.  One time his roommate and cousin, Josh, stood by my side and gave me some great tips.  (He probably felt he needed to chaperone us!) Josh had been Greg's former barber, (apparently Josh's hair cuts weren't nearly so fun!), and he had given many hair cuts while on his mission.  Thanks to Josh's tips, I was able to speed up the process to about 45 minutes.  Thanks to the distraction of Greg with his shirt off, I slowed things back down to an hour to cut his hair. :)

I cut Greg's hair in the kitchen in Hooper just before our engagement pictures, and I was also the one who cut his hair just before our wedding.  I thought he should get a professional, but he thought I did a fine job, and the way I brushed the hair off of his bare back and chest with my hands was enough to end the discussion about getting a hair cut elsewhere.  I still remember how fine he looked as he stood from the chair a few days before our wedding with a fresh hair cut.  He was shirtless and muscular, shaking out his t-shirt to put back on, and I wanted to wrap my arms around him!!  I think I did.

Fast forward nearly twenty years, and I'm still cutting his hair.  And he still takes his shirt off.  And thanks to all those times I've wanted to wrap my arms around him, we now have a whole crew of little ones in need of haircuts.

Today I powered through my regular five haircuts. FIVE! It probably took a little over a half hour.  I've gotten really, really fast at cutting hair.  Sometimes I think of all the money I could have made at BYU by giving haircuts in ten minutes or less!

By the end, I'm covered in hair.  And I'm pretty soaked from loading boys in and out of the shower as I go, but I still love a boy with a fresh hair cut.

That's a LOT of hair! I have a LOT of boys!

Hair cut, showers, and ready for bed!  Love it!