Joseph and his hair

Joseph was never very cognizant of the way he looked. He was an incredibly good looking, slight man (this is his mom's view), but his hair! His hair was fine if it was kept short, and under control. But the longer he went without taking care of it the hair would get thicker and bushier, and thicker and bushier, and never any longer. When he was a baby, I blamed his Chinese genes for his hair. But it was too wavy for Chinese hair. Finally, a couple of years ago my sister fessed up and admitted that his hair was just like hers, but much darker! My sister does not get her hair cut, she gets it thinned.

We kept Joe's hair under control in the US by frequent haircuts, not buzz cuts but very preppy short cuts. And when he was tapering for big meets, he would shave his head, an act of camaraderie with his teammates. When Joe first got to Kenya he went to a local barber who cut his hair buzz cut short - which looked alot like his tapered swimming pics - not so nice. The African barbers had no idea what to do with thick, curly, coarse western hair! Anyway, when met Joe at the airport, the first thing I commented on was how bushy his hair was. He scowled and told me that he swore he would not go to a local barber for one last buzz cut; he would rather wait until he was home for his next hair cut! He asked if I would cut his hair. I had tried saving money when the kids were small by doing home hair cuts, and I was terrible at it - and in Africa Joseph did not have a good pair of scissors! So I told him we would try to find a barber in Dar es Saalam. That was one of the reasons we went to the Indian area of Dar, we were looking for a barber. We did not find one.

After the boys climbed Kilamanjaro they went to Dar, and they found a barber. I have this picture of him eating with his new haircut - still not so great!