Dad Defends 'Fake Cutting' His Daughter’s Hair After His Video Goes Viral: 'It Just Made Her Happy' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Jeremiah Harper and his daughter Rory.Photo:Courtesy Harper Family

Courtesy Harper Family

There’s lots of love felt in these locks!

In a viral video shared onTikTok, Jeremiah Harper is seen “fake cutting” his 5-year-old daughter Rory’s hair so that she wouldn’t “feel left out” after her older brother got his hair buzzed, a gesture the dad’s been doing since she was 2 years old.

The Wisconsin father and his wife, Maddie, spoke with PEOPLE exclusively about the sweet moment captured in the clip to explain how the fake haircuts started and why they’ve continued to keep it going in the three years that followed.

“When she was 2 and her big brother was getting haircuts, she would sit down and she would want one too,” Maddie tells PEOPLE of how the act all began. “But she was 2 years old, we weren’t going to buzz her hair off!”

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“He would just pretend that he was buzzing it and it just made her happy,” Maddie explains of Jeremiah’s fake hair-cutting move. “And so, to this day, she’s still doing that,” she says of Rory, noting that they do it “probably every two to three months.”

Jeremiah Harper and his daughter Rory.Courtesy Harper Family

Although Jeremiah has kept the fake hair-cutting gig up for three years strong, Maddie admits that it probably won’t last “too much longer” because “she’s getting older.” Also, the mom of three points out that Rory “understands” that her dad isn’t actually buzzing her hair during these sessions.

“She currently wants her hair long and I trim it if it needs to be trimmed. She definitely doesn’t want it buzzed off,” Maddie says. “He’ll cut off a little on the end for her just to give her a little trim himself with the buzzer… But as far as completely buzzing it off, she understands that that’s not happening.”

The Harper family.Courtesy Harper Family

“I had a really close relationship with my father and I see that my daughter is having that with her father,” Maddie adds. “And it’s really, really wonderful to see.”

source: people.com