An anniversary and a haircut

Yesterday was the first anniversary of the day that we officially adopted our sweet budgie, Belle. A year ago, we rented a car and went out to our friend's house in Senneville to meet Belle for the first time and to bring her home. We already knew by the photos that our friend had sent us in the 8 weeks since she had hatched that she was going to be a funny character, and I remember how excited we were to be finally bringing her home.

I also remember that our trip back home was interrupted as we witnessed a scary accident on Highway 40. A few hundred feet in front of us, a vehicle hit the barrier on the right hand side of the road, flew through the air and flipped over onto its roof, slid into the middle of the road and then caused another vehicle to flip over. In shock, we stopped on the side of the highway to call 9-1-1 and help the people out of the vehicles that had flipped over. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured and we eventually made it home safely!

May 18, 2019 was certainly a memorable day and I still remember it all so clearly. Anyways, since it was the first anniversary of her adoption day, I watched the video again that I had made for her first hatch day on March 21. She's such a character and so funny and smart! She comes up with new sounds to make and funny things to do every week - she's such a joy to have as a pet! 💝

As for the haircut, well, Hal was seriously in need of one. The last time that he had gotten his hair cut was the week before the pandemic was declared... so, almost exactly 11 weeks ago! He decided that we would have to try doing it ourselves at home, so he bought some clippers at Pharmaprix last week and found some videos on YouTube for me to watch so that I would know (sort of) what to do. We took some "before" pictures and headed for the bathroom to try our first at-home "quarantine" haircut.

Before yesterday, I had never cut anyone's hair and I had never used a pair of clippers. It's a good thing that many other couples have had to do their own quarantine haircuts at home and were kind enough to make videos of the process and post them online! Some of the videos that we watched even included pretty basic instructional tips on how to use clippers, which is a good thing because, like I said, I had never used them before and honestly had no idea how they worked!

We started off with a larger guard so that I could get used to the feel of the clipper in my hands and get comfortable with moving it through his hair... and so that if I made a mistake, it wouldn't be disastrous. Once I was comfortable with that, we moved onto a smaller guard and on with the haircut. I couldn't believe how much hair came off of Hal's head - he has really fine hair, but so much of it! Here he is at a couple of different stages of the haircut...

I must say that it was kind of scary to be holding clippers in my hands for the first time and cutting my husband's hair. I didn't want to make a horrible mistake and send him off to work today with a weird haircut. I did it though and now understand that it would be pretty hard to totally botch up a haircut that is done entirely with clippers. The final result of the haircut is not perfect, but it's pretty good for a first try and Hal's happy with it.

So, the haircut is done and we've both learned a few things on the journey to get there. Who would have ever thought that something so seemingly simple as a haircut would be a source of stress and tension in a marriage. Maybe it wouldn't be for every couple but it certainly was for us.

When you combine a bit of fear from both people that is just below the surface and not really voiced, it can turn into a difficult situation. His fear that someone who has literally no idea what she's doing is going to cut his hair, since he doesn't want to end up with a horrible haircut and still have to go to work the next day. My fear that I am going to make a terrible mistake, because I have no idea what I'm doing, and give him a haircut that looks ridiculous. Add some pandemic stress and fatigue on top of that and you've got a challenging moment!

It's a good thing that no one has a video of our first at-home haircut experience, because it wasn't one of our finest moments and I definitely wouldn't want anyone to see that video. Photos can paint a picture that is only somewhat reflective of reality, and another couple's at-home haircut experience can be so far removed from your own.

Some of the couples that made the videos that we watched said that they had a blast doing their first at-home haircut. We definitely did not have a blast, but we got through it and hopefully learned more from the experience than just how to give a man a haircut, especially since it may need to be repeated again, depending on how long the lockdown lasts in Montreal and when the barber shops are allowed to re-open.