Boy, 2, Goes to Barber, No One Prepared for What He Comes Home With

A first haircut is usually a big milestone but for one family in Florida, it didn’t exactly go to plan.

Noell Jett posted a clip on TikTok (@jettsetfarmhouse) documenting what happened after she took her 2-year-old son, Case, to the barbers.

The result? A haircut social media dubbed the infamous “Karen” cut.

Case, now 2 and a half, had never had his hair cut before. Noell and her husband Daniel loved his long-haired look and let it grow naturally.

“It had finally gotten so long, it became hard to control with his little man bun, so we decided it was finally time to chop it off,” Noell, 43, told Newsweek.

At the barber shop, what started as a routine trim quickly took a turn. The barber stopped mid-cut to check if they were happy with the length, explaining it would take another 15 minutes to refine the style.

Case decided he’d had enough and so the Jetts decided to leave it as it was.

“I was a little unsure in the actual chair but as soon as he started walking around, we realized how bad it actually was,” Noell said.

Their oldest daughter, Ashley, posted a video of the cut on TikTok, and the comments came rolling in, many dubbing it the “Karen” or even “congresswoman” haircut.

To Noell, a “Karen” haircut has a particular look: “A ‘Karen’ haircut is a short, angled bob with stacked layers in the back and longer pieces in the front, often paired with side-swept bangs. The look became associated with the stereotype of an entitled, middle-aged woman who demands to speak to the manager.”

Once they got home, Daniel tried to salvage the cut but with little success. Realizing they needed professional help, Noell called her trusted friend and hair stylist who squeezed them in on her day off.

“She took her time to look over Case’s hair and figure out exactly what she could do to give him the cutest little cut ever while still salvaging a little bit of the length and giving him that shaggier look that I was going for,” the mom of five said.

Noell’s clip clocked up over 700,000 views and over 100 comments. Many other moms shared their struggle of getting the haircut they wanted for their toddlers.

“It took us years to find a salon for our one son with longer hair. Had many bad cuts along the way,” one user shared.

“My son had his super long hair cut into a bob when we took him to the barber. It was so bad,” another laughed.

Noell posted a three-part series on social media and reported “incredibly hateful and vile” comments over her son’s hair on Facebook and Instagram.

Luckily, TikTok saw the funny side. “TikTok seemed to see the humor in the situation we saw and enjoyed the process with us, laughing with us and also providing lots of helpful tips to remedy the situation,” she said.

While the internet had a lot to say, Case himself didn’t seem to mind one bit. “He is unbothered! He is just the coolest kid, exuding confidence and totally rocking his hair through all the stages,” Noell said.