Lili's first trip to the Barber Shop

I can't really remember my first haircut.  I do remember getting haircuts as a kid, though.  For some reason, I can remember sitting on a booster seat type thing like below (not my picture - it's one I found in the Internet) that was laid across the armrests to lift me up so it wouldn't be so uncomfortable for the barber to trim my hair.

Image Credit

I also remember the smells in the barbershop and seeing black combs soaking in some blue liquid in a glass container.  As a college student, I remember the LSU Union had an old time barbershop and I loved going to get a clipper cut with the #2 guards on the clippers.  The best part of the cut was at the end, when the barber would shave my neck with a straight razor and real shave cream.  Then he would reach into a white box that looked like a small refrigerator and pull out a hot moist towel and wipe the back of my neck.  Oh man!

The haircut I'm talking about today is not as nice or nostalgic.  It is getting to be time for the livestock shows and Benjamin is going to be showing Rosie and Lili in the Jefferson Davis Parish Livestock Show.  As a result, we must clip their winter coats off.  I know.  It sounds cruel to do this to them when it is so cold.  I assume that livestock shows were originally scheduled in the winter because it was the slow time of the year for farmers and they could attend shows that wouldn't conflict with planting or harvesting.

We don't keep our animals specifically for the livestock shows.  We like the fresh milk they give us.  But showing livestock is a nice learning experience in responsibility for the kids and gives them an opportunity to win some awards and travel a little bit.  We have a pair of Andis livestock clippers that do a pretty good job of trimming the coats off of the cows and every year we get them out and do our best to trim the girls.  They don't particularly like it, but neither did I when I was younger.

Can you take a little off the top?

I'm not much of a barber, but I do the best job I can.  We take the bulk of their coats off with the big clippers shown above and then we do the fine tuning with a smaller pair that allows us to get in the hard-to-get areas.  When done, we pull the blades off and bring them to the Feed Store as there is a gentleman that sharpens them back up so they'll be ready next year when we trim again.  He can also work on the clippers and fix them if they break.

As I stated, it is not an enjoyable experience for the girls, especially when we trim their heads and ears.  The noise annoys them and so does the vibration.  To trim their heads you must remove the halters and hold them steady with a nose clamp that looks similar to the one below.  They don't much like that.  I wouldn't either. Before long, though, the haircut is over and both of us are relieved.

Image Credit

You can really see the difference that the clipper makes.  At first the cows and calves are all wild and woolly, but once trimmed, they are shiny and sleek and ready for the shows.

Finish the job, Barber

We generally trim them a couple weeks before the show.  Inexperienced barbers, such as myself, often mess up and need the 'forgiveness' that a couple of weeks of hair growth will give you!  Lili is looking mighty nice with her new 'do.'  You can still see the green ink in her ear from the tattoo we gave her couple of Saturdays ago.

Lili is looking spiffy!

She looks a lot different without her winter coat, doesn't she?