A Simple Choice, A Layered History
For most kids, a haircut is just a haircut. For Alexander Redhead, watching his nine-year-old son climb into a barber's chair to cut off his long braid became something much heavier — and much more profound.
In a personal essay published by CBC, Redhead describes the moment his son finally decided to cut the braid he'd worn for years. The boy had grown tired of being mistaken for a girl and corrected by strangers in public spaces who didn't know better, or didn't care. It was his choice, made on his own terms. And that's precisely what made it so powerful.
Echoes of Residential School
Standing behind the chair, Redhead found his mind drifting to his late father — a man who never had that same choice.
Like tens of thousands of Indigenous children across Canada, Redhead's father was taken to a residential school, where one of the first things to go was his hair. Cutting children's braids was standard practice at these institutions — a deliberate act of cultural erasure designed to sever children from their identity, their families, and their communities.
For many survivors and their descendants, hair carries weight that's hard to put into words. It can be a symbol of pride, of spiritual connection, of resilience. Having it forcibly removed was not just a physical act — it was a statement about whose culture was allowed to exist.
Choosing, Not Losing
What struck Redhead most in that barber shop wasn't grief, though grief was present. It was the difference between his son's experience and his father's.
His son chose.
He chose when, he chose why, and he walked out of that shop on his own terms — still fully himself, still connected to who he is. That's something his grandfather was never allowed.
It's a small but significant shift — the kind that doesn't make headlines but quietly marks the distance a family has travelled across generations.
Healing Doesn't Always Look Like What You Expect
Redhead's reflection is a reminder that healing from intergenerational trauma is rarely linear or dramatic. Sometimes it looks like a kid sitting in a barber's chair. Sometimes it looks like a father noticing the difference between a choice freely made and one violently taken away.
Canada is still working through the legacy of residential schools — through truth and reconciliation efforts, through community-led healing programs, through the slow, hard work of families rebuilding what was taken from them. The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented 94 Calls to Action, many of which remain unfulfilled.
But alongside those policy gaps, there are also these quieter, deeply human moments: a nine-year-old making a decision about his own body, and a father standing witness, carrying his own father's memory, and seeing something shift.
Three Generations
Redhead's essay doesn't offer easy resolution. It doesn't pretend the wounds of the residential school system are healed because one boy got a haircut he wanted. What it does is trace the thread connecting three generations — the grandfather who lost his hair by force, the father who carries that memory, and the son who gets to choose.
That thread, once severed, is slowly being rewoven.
Source: CBC News, Alexander Redhead, first-person essay on Indigenous identity, hair, and intergenerational healing. Read the full piece at CBC.ca.
