A cutting day

We have all felt the peril of bad hair cuts, and stylists who did not see things our way.

Meet Scarlette.

Scarlette is just about the cutest thing to walk the earth since the invention of pleated minis, and yet, she was reaching a time of scraggle. Nearing her eighth-month birthday, she had yet to have a grooming. Half shih-tsu, this was leading to hair growing out in all the wrong places, and increasing difficulty in getting her to sit still for a good brush.

The time had come for her first grooming…but like all girls undergoing their first visit to a new stylist, she was a little frightened.

Scarlette though, was so frightened that she bit the groomer, was put in solitary confinement (OK, she actually was just separated from her brother and had to sit with the receptionist until we came and got her) and had a fit when the groomer tried to give her pig tails.

She won though, and got a hair-cut she seems (relatively) happy with.

(Pictured below with Max!)

Still, my little friend remains emotionally exhausted from the experience (we’ve all been there), and has some regrets. (Like, that the groomer got even one bow in her hair!)

If Scarlette had it her way, she’d never go to the groomer, and eventually begin to resemble a sheep dog! This is not an option for her, and not an option for us two-legged girls either, and yet I hear more and more that women AND men fear change (or bad results) so much they go as long as possible between hair cuts!

This is never a good idea. “Unstyled hair will always look unstyled, especially if you have long hair. No cut is entirely no-maintenance (unless you are shaving your head),” points out Carl Hoffman, a stylist at Tonic Salon in Las Vegas.

Granted, he was talking about people. But as my shorkie-tsu isn’t about to get a crew cut, I have decided that this advice applies to all animals, whether they stand or crawl or beg or talk. In fact, even more so for us!

Note: I do not agree with Scarlette. I think her hair cut (and she) is adorable! And, I did tell her it was not nice to bite her stylist. (Though, seriously, haven’t we all sort of wanted to at one time or another?!)