Our little boy was born with lots of dark hair, some of the softest stuff I’ve ever laid fingers on.  Thank goodness it wasn’t too cold in the hospital (or in our somewhat tropical apartment), because once I took that hospital cap off him for the first time, I couldn’t stop stroking his sweet little head.

 

Every time we introduced him to family and friends in those first weeks, I’d encourage them to stroke his head, too.  Feeling those silky locks layered over brand new baby skin, my goodness!  How could you not believe that children are a miracle and trust that all of creation is meant to be good and glorify God!

 

By about week four, however, things started to change.  One evening after coming home from work, John pointed out that our precious son was balding.  No, I said, that can’t be true.  My incredulity was not a result of any sort of rose-colored mommy glasses.  I recognized that Jacob had a serious case of baby acne that had taken over his face and was starting to encroach on his neck and even his ears.

 

As we looked back at photos from a week prior and then two weeks prior, there was the proof.  Our baby was indeed losing his hair.  His case of cradle cap had broadened to include baby acne, hair loss, and a scaly dry scalp that makes him look like he has the worst case of dandruff I’ve ever seen (although the pediatrician assures us this is all normal).  Poor little guy.  I theorize that he’s trying to get all the physically awkward aspects of adolescence and middle age out of the way now.  Here’s hoping it works, and he never has to experience any of these again.

 

What’s funnier is that the hair that’s falling out is concentrated on the parts of his scalp that touch the sheet or blanket when he’s lying down and looking around.  So while most of the hair in the front is gone, now he’s also developed a ring of baldness around the rest of his head—kind of like the reverse of a monk’s cut.

 

As his sweet, soft newborn hair falls out in this silly pattern, his big-boy baby hair is already starting to grow in.  In the front of his scalp there is a very, very short crop of hair coming in.  So far it seems to be a bit lighter in color than the last set, but only time will tell.  It’s still so short that it looks like an overzealous buzz cut, like someone used an almost negative setting on the razor.  But while this hair is very short, the hair in the back is still rather long, which means . . .

 

. . . that’s right.  You wouldn’t call it so by looking at him, but in the strictest sense of the word, our baby has a mullet.  Or as the Germans say, a vokuhila—short in the front: vorne kurz and long in the back: hinten lang.  Here’s to the little guy embracing his roots (pun absolutely intended).