Dad Defends 'Fake Cutting' His Daughter’s Hair After His Video Goes Viral: 'It Just Made Her Happy' (Exclusive)
In a video shared to TikTok, Jeremiah Harper is seen pretending to buzz his 5-year-old daughter's hair so she "doesn't feel left out" after her brother's cuts
Courtesy Harper Family
Jeremiah Harper and his daughter RoryThere's lots of love felt in these locks!
In a viral video shared on TikTok, 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."
Rory and her 10-year-old brother, meanwhile, share a very special bond — in fact, "he loves" that she wants haircuts like him! "They are very close," Maddie says of her son and daughter. "He's very loving and sweet... He always calls her his baby."
Courtesy Harper Family
Jeremiah Harper and his daughter RoryAlthough 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."
Maddie and Jeremiah opened up about their video going viral, in addition to the mixed reactions the post has received since being originally shared on July 7. While many of the comments were supportive and positive, they were also met with some negativity.
"People see a very small portion of what's going on and they assume even more," Jeremiah says in reaction to the negative comments on the video. "I just view them as uneducated and I almost shouldn't dignify them with the response," he adds. "They don't have a big impact on me."
While Rory and her big brother undoubtedly share a close bond, she and her dad share a connection just as special. "She's the youngest. She's my baby," Jeremiah says of his little girl.
Courtesy Harper Family
The Harper family"She's got half her mother's soul and half of mine. Sometimes mine shines a little brighter and we just have that connection because of it," he continues. "We're just really... We're close. Yeah, she's my baby."
As for the song choice — "Landslide," by Fleetwood Mac — that Maddie used in the video? "That song always reminded me of me and my father's bond, and my father passed away a few years ago — so, it just struck a chord," she explains.
"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."
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