Using hair to hide face

[PigmentLiner202]

Hi,
I haven't posted on here in years! But just looking for some parenting advice for my 11 year old son.

Around a year ago he asked to grow his hair and it's now around shoulder length. It isn't my favourite but I wanted him to start having his own choices and independence in a way?

Yesterday he had an awards assembly and he had his hair covering a good 80% of his face, and after he told me he grew his hair on purpose to hide behind.

I said it's a shame because he's got a lovely face and a lovely personality that he shouldn't feel he needs to hide. I feel it's worth mentioning he's very popular at school despite being quite socially anxious.

What would your response to this be going ahead?

Let him be entirely, maybe suggest tying up his hair for school for a while etc to get him used to not having his hair to hide behind

I'd love to build his confidence somehow so he doesn't want to hide anymore but I really don't know what to do!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

At secondary school the rules will be to have it tied back. I would show him the rules and ask how he wants to handle it. Along the lines of "oh the rules at X are Y, have a think about if you want to change your hairstyle or if you are going to learn to tie it up and get into practice." Then leave it with him.

For anxiety it's just all the general advice. Talk to him about what anxiety is and how pausing and breathing a bit can help.

Lots of resources on overcoming anxiety if he's open to listening and working through them.

Thank you for your response! Sadly I've just checked the uniform policy and it doesn't say he'll have to have it tied up. I wish it did!

I think I might just have to say that I'll expect him to tie it up to make sure it's neat, because they do have high expectations at the secondary he's going to

I just wish he could see how lovely he is and to have more self confidence!