Barber Offers ‘Old-Man’ Haircuts To Help Discipline Misbehaving Kids

A-1 Kutz, a barber shop outside Atlanta, is offering embarrassing "old-man" haircuts to misbehaving kids to help parents discipline them. Barber Russell Frederick says the "grown-up" hair cut is punishment for kids who want to act up.

So you wana act grown...well now you can look grown too

Frederick—known by many as Rusty Fred—shaves the top of the child's head until it starts to look like a balding old man.

He originally tried this punishment on his own son after his grades dropped significantly last year. The little boy in the picture above was Fredrick's first customer outside his family to receive what he calls "The Benjamin Button Special."

Since posting the photo, Fredrick has received mixed feedback—some parents praising the barber for his "it takes a village to raise a child" approach, while others say that shaming as a form of discipline is counterproductive.

The barber says he understands where the negative feedback from some of the parents is coming from, but also recognizes that some parents get to a point of frustration where they feel like nothing is working.

When you go to discipline kids these days, they can’t necessarily use physical punishment the way parents did in the past, but they have to do something. If you don’t, and your kid ends up doing something crazy, everyone is going to say the problems started at home.

Frederick says that even though some have been critical, many have reached out to him for help—and for some of his younger patrons, his barbers are the only positive male role models in their lives.

By the way, the kid in the photo above came back 4 days later to "fix" his "old-man" haircut. The boy's mother said he "learned his lesson" and even joked about it, calling himself "old man Jenkins."

Effective discipline? Or a form of abuse? Comment below with your thoughts!

[via WashingtonPost]