Hair advice of an abnormal sort-boy/girl hair?

SalonGeek

Help Support SalonGeek:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

AllieM

Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2015
Messages
7
Reaction score
5
Location
White Plains, NY
Hey all. I have a question that I'm hoping folks on here will be able to weigh in on with some advice. Hopefully it will get noticed here. I had trouble selecting because there are so many forums, but this one seemed like previous topics were similar. Anywho....

My issue is this: My son Aidan is going to start competing in pageants, but he'll be competing as a girl. I'm trying to find a hairstyle that will allow him, as far as possible, to look like a normal boy during his regular life, but that will look fantastic when done up for pageants. Aidan is nearly 7 years old, has thick straight light brown hair that is currently about 1" below his shoulders, and a face that I would call somewhere between oval and heart-shaped.

Those are the basics of my question. However, I'm guessing that a little more background might lead to more helpful answers and less rude comments. The first thing I emphasize is that Aidan wants to do this. I would never force my son to do something like this if he didn't want to. However, I'm sure you all understand that some young boys are as pretty or even prettier than their female counterparts, and Aidan definitely fits into that category. It was actually my sister who suggested the idea. She competed in pageants until she was in her 20s, and her daughter did for a time as well, though she's headed into the realm of tomboy over the last few years. But my sister told me that she sees "the spark" in Aidan that makes a child a good pageant contestant and suggested it. I thought that she was crazy at first, but she pointed out that Aidan has always had a tendency towards girlishness. It was actually him that begged me to let him grow his hair long two years ago, and once I saw how gorgeous it was going to be, I certainly didn't discourage it. So eventually my sister presented the idea to Aidan and asked him if he wanted to try dressing up. He was uncertain at first, but agreed to try, so we gave him the works--hair, makeup and nails--and found one of my niece's old pageant dresses he could wear. As soon as we saw how beautiful he looked, my sister and I both knew that he could compete and were hoping that he would be interested. After some consideration, he said that he'd try. Since then, he's dressed up a few more times, mostly casually in my nieces hand-me-downs. But recently our church had a womanless pageant fundraiser. Aidan asked if he could compete, let me dress him, and he won! He also enjoyed all of the attention and that really lit a fire under him to do a real pageant. He even picked his own girl name: Angela.

So there it is. I'm happy to talk about this more if anyone is has general questions, but mostly I'm hoping for advice regarding the hair as I stated at the beginning. I've asked for advice at a few different forums like this, but so far, no luck. I'm hoping that you guys will be able to help. Thanks in advance all!

Allie
 
Could you just keep trimming it at the length it is? If it's at the shoulders you can do up styles and have it for day to day as it is now, the other option is perhaps a pixie crop but you'd need to go more towards the Justin bieber type one to keep it boyish for day to day, I must say your story is quite fascinating, I wish your child all the best for the future, I know adjusting to a lifestyle like this can be quite difficult at first, normally more for the people around the child rather than for the child himself, a lot of boys have hair to their shoulders on the tv shows we watch from the USA like Nikki Ricky dickie and dawn for example, the boy on there's hair is nice and long, so I imagine that wouldn't be too out of place
 
That was a fast reply Kahuna! And thank you for your thoughtful reply.

Your suggestion is kind of what I was thinking as my "default" option. Right now, Aidan's hair is straight, very neatly trimmed at all one length and, as I said, down about 1" past his shoulders. It's also quite thick. That thickness means that it looks beautiful when down or in braids or ponys or pigtails, but makes styling difficult because the weight tends to flatten his hair. For that reason, I was contemplating some layering but have been hesitant because....well, I'm thinking that layers may be too girlish for him to look normal when he's just being a boy.

And indeed, thank you for appreciating the sensitive nature of a boy doing this sort of activity. Aidan is so funny though. He's interested in so many things. One minute he's rough and tumble playing outside with his friends and the next he's sitting next to me on the couch while I paint my nails asking if I can paint his too. He's actually quite the little soccer player, but that's also where he got the idea of long hair: his best friend for the last several years is on his team has long hair, so he wanted it too. However, I doubt that his friend is going to end up wearing curls and updos in his long hair ;)
 
Haha no I doubt it lol but tons of famous footballers do have a ponytail! Layers like this are cute?? This is Nicky I think off Nicki ricki dickie & dawn
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    36.6 KB · Views: 56
Can I ask why your little 7 yr old.son is.competing as s girl in a beauty pageant?
 
Hey, you're right. His is layered. I've only seen that show a couple of times. Aidan doesn't do a lot of TV watching. He's mostly on the go. But Nicky's hair is super cute! And he's definitely a boy. However, his hair is a little on the short side. Do you think it could still work significantly longer than that? I think that if I were going with layers, that I'd probably want to add some length to Aidan's hair, maybe an inch or two.
 
Can I ask why your little 7 yr old.son is.competing as s girl in a beauty pageant?

Well, as I said in my original message, he wants to. He's a lively kid and loves experiences. I think Aidan is thinking that it's going to be a lot of fun. He's gotten a lot of positive feedback so far because he does look like a complete doll when he's dressed up. So as long as he wants to, then I'm OK with it. The minute he really doesn't want to do it, then he can stop, but for the moment, we're going along with it!
 
@KHS I watched a tv show recently about this http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05qkzt2


@AllieM please don't be offended by this link I'm not implying anything about your child in any way but this show has a young child with a story quite similar to your own, I have no opinion to give on it in any way, just want to show my fellow geek what I saw
 
Just googled boys with long hair and theres loads!
Don't see why you cant layer it, he could wear it abit shaggy and messy too x
 
@KHS I watched a tv show recently about this http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05qkzt2


@AllieM please don't be offended by this link I'm not implying anything about your child in any way but this show has a young child with a story quite similar to your own, I have no opinion to give on it in any way, just want to show my fellow geek what I saw

I'm not offended at all. I realize that this might just be a little fun for him, maybe nothing more than a game, but I also realize that this might be him expressing something a little more deeply engrained in his psyche. I'm OK with either of those outcomes. For now, I'm just trying to keep it light and fun for him. Time will tell the rest and I'll love him regardless of the outcome.
 
Maybe catch up tv might have it? I don't know why it's not available it was only on a few weeks ago
 
Just googled boys with long hair and theres loads!
Don't see why you cant layer it, he could wear it abit shaggy and messy too x

Hmmm. I tried the ol' Google and didn't really like much of what I saw. If you wanted to post links or pics, I'd love to see what you came up with!
 
I hope you weren't offended, I was just curious.

As for boys with long hair, lots of lads throughout my son's schools as he grew up had long hair,
 
I hope you weren't offended, I was just curious.

As for boys with long hair, lots of lads throughout my son's schools as he grew up had long hair,

Lol. No, I wasn't offended. I know it's a weird question to be asking so I don't blame anyone for wondering. When my sister Ashley suggested it, I was wondering the same thing: why am I even considering this?

But as for the style, maybe I'm making this hair thing more complicated than it is, but I really can't seem to find that right compromise between hair that will be great for competition but still be OK for daily boy hair. I think that the problem I'm having is that I realize how incredible an asset his hair could be if it were just treated like girl's hair and allowed to grow and be cut into the most flattering style. But I can't quite do that so I'm looking for that compromise.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top