Instagram, Facebook, MasterBarberBrad Pitt must be so proud to know that his work in the 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is now being used as an inspirational tool for punishing misbehaving children.
Russell Fredrick, who owns the A-1 Kutz barbershop in Snellville, Georgia, has found a new, revolutionary service to offer to certain customers. And by "certain customers," we mean "parents of naughty children."
The service is called the "Benjamin Button Special," and for no charge, Russell will style your misbehaving kid's hair into an embarrassing, old man haircut. He reportedly used it on his own son, Rushawn, in the fall of 2014 and saw immediate results. Russell tells The Washington Post that Rushawn's grades had been falling, but after the Benjamin Button haircut, his marks "dramatically skyrocketed."
"Parents are at a loss," Fredrick said. "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."
Russell shared the above photo on Instagram last week with the caption: "So u wana act grown...well now u look grown too The grown-up kids special," and he says that at least one other parent has taken him up on the special haircut since his service went viral.
He tells The Washington Post that despite the mostly positive feedback, he does get some negative reaction to his special brand of discipline.
"There are a few people that are saying it's emotional abuse," he said. "But on average, everyone is applauding the mother that brought the child in—and applauding me as well. I hope that most people won't have to do this unless it's an extreme circumstance and nothing else is working. First, you talk or implement your restrictions. But when the conventional ways don't work these days, you have to get creative."
Russell shared the above image on Instagram recently, showing that he did fix the hair of the kid in the original photo that went viral.
"The pic went so crazy over the net that I had to fix it," he writes in the caption. "Good news is he say he don't want them problems again."
What do you think of this form of discipline for misbehaving kids? Is it a novel idea or does it take the public humiliation aspect of punishment too far?