Haircut tips needed

DS1 is 2.5 years old and his hair is CRAZY. He was born with masses of hair and we have had to cut it every 6 weeks or so since he was 15 weeks old. It is just really thick and grows incredibly fast - and I can't stand mullets!

Recently he has decided he doesn't want his hair cut. Whenever I talk about it he puts his hands on the top of his head and won't let me near. The usual bribes (DVDs, iceblocks, stickers etc) don't work either - he just hands them back when he realises what he would have ot give up in return! We tried taking him to the hairdresser and it was a total disaster - he threw a right proper tantrum and went ballistic. We had to leave with no haircut.

Having had no haircut for nearly 4 months he looks utterly ridiculous now (picture serious mullet with sideburns that cover half his face) and I need to do something about it. I'm leaning towards taking him to a barber and just holding him down while they give him a No 2/3 or something so that it's done and I don't have to do it again for a while, so that next time he will be older and it might not be such a big deal.

Am I going to traumatise him irrevocably? Does anyone have some great ideas for hair cut bribes or something to occupy him while they do it??

Get daddy or grandpa etc to take him to a barber to get their hair done- they can have a special outting and make it all about the dad getting his done and dont even mention about his - he will be assosiating u with cutting his hair and it not being fun,...so make it that u arent involved at all and see how they go.

DS went through the same thing at that age. Somehow we got onto Party hair....I think it originated from him going to his older cousins party whom he idolises and he was getting his cut.

First party haircut tho required a DVD on the laptop, a bag of chippies while I cut it and icecream with marshmallows as a reward.

Took about a year till he got over it, now he asks to have it cut whenever DH does. :)

Good luck

Thanks everyone for the replies. We have successfully cut the mop but it was a long road!

In case anyone is interested...we went to the barber on Friday and sat there watching a man, and then a little boy, have their hair cut. DS1 found this all very interesting so I had high hopes. But he knew what was going on and as soon as it was his turn he dived under the benches and started screaming "don't want a haircut! go home now!" at the top of his voice. Coaxed him out and he threw the mother of all tantrums. Barber understandably said he simply couldn't try to cut his hair while he was in that state and we left in disgrace, after watching haircuts for an hour!

That night I went to the Warehouse and bought some clippers. DH and I took turns holding DS1 down while we cut/clipped his hair. He screamed blue murder but obviously we weren't hurting him and he wasn't frightened or even really upset, he just didn't want it. We took breaks every couple of minutes, for about two minutes each, during which he sucked on an iceblock and watched his DVD (which we had going in the unlikely event he calmed down to watch it while we cut his hair), and in those breaks he was completely fine. And afterwards he was happy and had his bath etc as if nothing had happened. So I don't think we traumatised him too much!! In the hour or so afterwards we gave him a few treats like finishing the iceblock, watching the DVD, playing with some stickers - basically all the bribes we had ready and didn't use during the actual haircut, and repeated that these were for being a good boy and getting his hair cut. Hopefully some positive associations might make it easier for next time.

And if not, we gave him a No 3 so hopefully won't have to even think about another haircut for at least 3-4 months!!