Timi and his mother lived in Mozala Town. There was something very unusual about Timi – his hair! It grew very quickly. It grew so quickly that every Saturday, Timi’s mother had to take him to the barber to have his hair cut. And if there was one thing that Timi really didn’t like, it was having his hair cut! Haircut time was worry time for Mom because Timi would cry.

“I don’t want to have my hair cut!” he always said.

Mom would cuddle him before they set off to the barbershop, but as soon as they arrived, Timi would burst into tears. Then Mom would have to do all sorts of things to try to get Timi to sit still while he was having his hair cut. Sometimes she would give him some biscuits. Timi loved biscuits, but he would gobble them down and start crying again. Sometimes Mom would break into a dance. She would dance to the left. She would dance to the right. She would shake her body, but Timi just cried and cried.

As soon as Jango, the barber, got ready to cut Timi’s hair, Timi got ready to cry even more! First, he would sniffle, then he would sob, and then he would let out a loud cry, “Hiyaa, hiyaa, hiyaa!” “It’s only a haircut, Timi. It’s not painful,” Jango would say, trying to calm Timi down, but that made Timi cry even louder. Sometimes Jango would sing to comfort Timi, but still Timi kept crying. One day, Timi cried so loudly that some passers-by peeped into the barbershop to see what would make a boy cry so loudly! “Oh, my goodness! It is only a young boy having his hair cut,” they said. Timi did not care that people came to stare at him. He cried and cried until Jango had finished cutting his hair. Another day, he wailed so loudly that Grandma Binite came limping in with her walking stick. She lived next door to the barbershop, but had been woken up from her afternoon nap by Timi’s loud wails.