Complete shaving of birth hair of babies --what is your tradition?

It is not a tradition in my country either. However alot of times I know people shave their babies hair in order for it grow in better. I never did shave my children's hair. For my first child his hair was so long that I trimmed it when he was six weeks old. My second son I didn't cut his hair until he was 1 year old and it was so long and curly at that point. It really is interesting reading this discussion. Thank you for sharing with us and starting such a different discussion. Have a great day and happy myLotting!!!

Hello Kalav! Thanks for sharing your own tradition. In our case it is not a tradition but it has been most likely a practice that we could cut a baby's hair after one year. Older people tell us not to cut the hair of the child, not until he or she has reached at least one year. In this modern day, young people may not seem to understand what makes it bad to cut a child's hair. This practice was just passed on to new generation and only a few can explain why we have to follow. Anyway, we have nothing to lose if you follow. So we still do.

Hi Kala, Late in my reply but better than never LOL Us Bengalis give the first shaving to a baby when it is 18 months old and not before that. Some go to temples as they have some oath over there but most call the barber at home and get it done. I don’t know about me (mom must have forgotten by now) but for my son, we got the barber at home when he complete 18 months. I think one reason for this is that the knife which the barber uses is very sharp and can easily nick a newborn baby’s scalp which would be dangerous…at least an 18 month old baby is somewhat more stronger LOL One funny think I must share with you is that before we shaved off my son’s head, his birth hair had become very long and I used to make small ponytails with colored rubber bands and strangers used to say ‘what a sweet girl you have’ LOL and we had to correct everybody that its not a girl but a boy

We also have that tradition but not shaving off the whole hair. When a baby is a month old there will be a one month birthday celebration followed by a snip on the baby's hair. Every newborn have to undergo the cutting of hair and I suppose I was no exception.

When my daughters were born (about 40 years ago) that was done matter of factly at the hospital with no tradition attached to it that I know of. Now it seems that some baies don´t get that first haircut. Many of them lose part or all their first hair though.

Hi Kalav We have a similar tradition too running in our family. Normally the age is the factor - Dad's family believes in getting this done within a year of birth and mom's family believes in 3rd birthday or the 5th Birthday. As in many households, when it comes to such matters, the views of mothers prevail, my nephew, was tonsured when he was 3. I was when I was 3 and my brother was on his first birthday. We have a kind of cycle running here in the family. For the place, I neither remember mine nor that of my brother. But yes, we did organize the tonsuring of my nephew in oir house itself and kept is a faily get together. The only similarity - We all were crying horribly when it was our turn - I saw mine and my brothers pics - we both were yelling and the same happened with my nephew. He gave the barber a tough time... really tough and kept running from one corner to another until he was promised a big big cake and many gifts I should have been born much later than him

Hi Kala! Nice to see you board with a new discussion. Head shaving is called ‘Mundan’ here in North India. In our families, it is not less than a big ceremony or festival when ‘head shaving’ ceremony of a ‘male child’ takes place. In our family, the ceremony takes place during the third, fifth or seventh year of the child. When I was a kid, my head was also completely shaved and big party was organized to celebrate the occasion. In case of my son also the same drill was adopted. He had his head complete shaved in his third year. We have some beautiful pictures/album of both the occasions. It is believed that it is one of the important ceremonies in the life of a boy (male child) before his marriage, where all family members, relatives and friends etc. are invited to celebrate the occasion.

I was born with black curly hair that all fell out rather quickly. My niece was born with pretty blond hair, about an inch long and her mother didn't cut it ever, her sister, aunt on other side, did when she came to visit, but only so that it wasn't long enough to get in the toilet...

In the United States, we don't traditionally shave the hair from a baby. All of my children had the hair on their heads cut...the girls around the age of their 2nd birthday, my son when he was around 1 year old. But the cut is more to shape up the hair and make it look presentable. I wouldn't think of shaving the hair on a baby's body. But that is just our tradition.

Here in China we have a tradition similiar with yours. We will shave the baby's hair when he/she is one month old. However, not every parent will follow this custom any more. Since the baby is still so tiny at that time. It can cause any hurts if there is an accident. I love China

Do they use a hand razor and shaving cream, or one of those microblade electric things? When I was a baby nobody did that, but looking at my photo there wasn't much hair on it. I would think it would be better hygiene just to keep the hair clean by washing it. Well, that is an interesting cultural difference.

i didnt know it was an indian tradition but i had asked my Mexican daughter in law (shes ex now) why all mexican girls seem to have lush beautiful long hair and she said it might be because a lot of them completely shave the hair off the girls as a baby. that was quite interseting.

Hi Kala.In our community too they shave hair but in my family me and my sister didnt have to because my parents did not believe in it.Even Me and my sister didnt shave the hair of our kids.So I think our parents were the last ones in the family line to get hair shaved off.But after shaving off the hair I have seen people applying sandalwood paste on the head.So it is possible that they shaved off the hair to apply this paste which has a cooling effect.

Hi didi... here we dont shave the hair of a female baby but yes, the male baby's hair is shaved after one or more years and a religious program is arranged and invitees were feed. have a nice time.

hi kalav this is why I love mylot so as we learn from each other our customs and cultures and share this. I am an American and we do not have that custom but here all boy babies are circumcised at birth and I am really not too sure why but some say for sanitary purposes. to me it seems cruel to cut a tiny baby with no sedative or anything. but that is the custom. No we do not shave our babies heads but a lot of babies do lose the first hair then it grows in really lush. both my children had long curly hair as kids. My son hates the fact that if he lets his hair grow very much it curls really curly too. He says he wishes i had his curly hair and he had my straight hair. I laughed and said I would love curly hair. lol.

Kalaji Yes we observe this tradition, it is called 'Mundan Ceremony' usually this is done in a temple, some do it at home too, each tradition we hindus obseve have scientific reason behind.. after mundan we apply sandal wood paste, rose water, and also paste of some leaves, they help growth of thick black hair.. Thanks for this nice discussion Best of luck. Professor

Nice to know about your culture. I come from africa where we also have our own culture. We give tribal mark to babies when they are born. But this culture is being overtaken by christianity.

In our country, it has been a practice that we cut baby's hair when they are at least 1 year old. This practice has been passed from generation to generation. My baby is still 10 months old, his hair is quite long already, in fact it covers his eyes already so what i did is to comb it so that it wont get into his eyes. Though i don't actually understand the reason why, but i just believed and go with the flow. For now, i'll just to wait for another 2 months to cut his hair. Anyway, two months is not that long.