His hair, dark blonde, long and wavy, has been confusing all that meet him.

Comments include “What a pretty girl”“How old is she?” “What beautiful eyes she has” and a look of amazement when we tell them that ‘she’ is in fact a boy.

backpacking with a baby SE Asia

The hairband, courtesy of Aunty Pop, didn't help matters!

With the majority of people assuming he is a she (OK, so the teething necklace doesn’t help), and 14 weeks of us telling them otherwise, we decided it was about time for ‘the boy’ to have his first haircut.

We found a quiet little salon in the centre of Chiang Mai for the transformation to take place.

‘The boy’, unsuspecting that he was to lose most of his crowning glory, was easily distracted by the manager of the salon.  Curl after curl dropped to the floor and feeling quite sentimental about the occasion I collected a few locks to save as a keepsake.

Fifteen minutes later and the haircut was complete.

‘The boy’, with his new short fringe and unobstructed vision, looked quite different. My other half described it as retro mod.

I, on the hand, couldn’t figure out what his new barnet reminded me of. It bugged me for days and then it finally came to me. ‘The boy’ was now sporting the hairstyle of the star from my favourite movie – Maria, from The Sound of Music!

Maybe we should opt for a short crop next time.

backpacking with a baby SE Asia

'The boy' sporting his new 'Maria' hairstyle

Top tip of the day:
We’ve found that a bandana (the type that is elasticated and also ties at the back) is the only hat our baby will keep on his head for long periods of time – he manages to pull all other hats off. We haven’t found any similar bandanas on our journey so it’s best to buy before you leave your home country.

backpacking with a baby SE Asia

Losing his baby curls for his transformation into Maria!