Julie Jay: My three-year-old has finally been convinced that haircuts are not to be feared

"Sure, telling a hairdresser what to do with your hair would be like telling the dentist how many fillings you want — it’s called deferring to qualifications."

“I want to go for a haircut, Mammy,” Ted says when I pick him up from his childminder on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. And who am I to argue with a three-and-a-half-year-old who knows what he wants?

For going on two years now, I have been cutting Ted’s hair, with mixed results. More often than not, we have a very uneven approach to hair trimming, with corporate finance on one side and Electric Picnic on the other being the order of the day. Still, needs must and so Mammy does her best, given that Ted has refused to go to the barber despite persistent cajoling for nearly 24 months.