The story of a quarantine haircut from the perspective of a photographer's child in Ottawa Ontario

Living in the time of Covid-19 has meant adjusting to new ways of doing almost everything. For my son that has meant learning to do school work online. It has been a steep learning curve for him but he has really wonderful teachers who have made it an overall very positive experience. For my wife that has meant learning to work from home. She loves having access to our fridge at lunch and being able to work in shorts all year long. But dogs barking in the middle of Zoom meetings is less than ideal. For me that has meant having to refocus my effort to create digital artwork for my clients when I can't see them in person (see my silhouette and regal pet work). But wow do I miss regularly seeing clients. And, for all three of us, that has meant at home haircuts. If I'm being honest there is no upside to this. I realize that you might say the upside is saving money but I would gladly trade in every luxury item I've ever purchased to sit in my hair stylist's chair right now.  As lesbians, Tracy and I find an unreasonable amount of our identities in our hair.  If you had told me 15 months ago that we would go a year without seeing a hairdresser I would have been horrified. I'm still horrified. 

But, here we are. Cutting our hair in our living room. Vacuuming repeatedly and marvelling at how far tiny hairs can travel. And being very aware that in the grand scheme of this nightmare pandemic, having to cut our own hair is a small inconvenience.

There have been some OK haircuts in the last year and some terrible ones. One day this summer I walked into our house and was greeted by my wife saying: "Mac's head is shaved. Don't ask about it. He cried. I cried. We are trying to forget it."

So, to commemorate a year of at home haircuts, I am sharing the photos from our first living room haircut from April 2020. And, as a special treat, Mac has recorded a dramatic retelling of the emotional wound that created. Definitely scroll to the end to listen to that.