Comments on: Hair today, gone tomorrow

By: amazonmidwife

amazonmidwife — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 04:20:32 +0000

Last fall, the Boy decided to imitate his Uncle Ron’s barbering 3 days after his haircut and gave himself a bald spot over his left eye. When I asked “Why?”, his response: “So I can clone me like they talked about cloning the wooly mammoth baby.” My partner’s quick-witted response: “Hair won’t work for cloning right now; they have to use blood.” which ended the cloning idea. (The Boy is parsimonious with his blood; the tiniest scratches must be immediately staunched with band-aids.)

By: Blue Ox

Blue Ox — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:54:35 +0000

My thoughts on this subject cannot be contained in a comment box; you’ve inspired me to post my own hair story.

I can relate to no bangs, AND mulletedness.

By: mommymae

mommymae — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:37:35 +0000

when i was pregnant with my boy, my 3 year old girls decided to play beauty shop on each other. they were so proud of themselves, but i was devastated. they had horrible mullets made of the most beautiful chestnut curls. i was upset that they chopped the curls, but it turned out alright since they cut only in the back getting rid of the mullets while ending up with adorable chin-length bobs.

By: mattockm

mattockm — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:36:55 +0000

LOVE this story! After all…it is HER hair.

By: missbritt

missbritt — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:51:32 +0000

Wow - she has TONS Of hair left.

When I did that to myself at her age, I had NO bangs.

And possibly a bald spot slightly to the left of center.

By: Vikki

Vikki — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 01:17:26 +0000

It’s only hair, right? It grows back. As a woman with extremely short hair, I try to remember that when it comes to my children. Two weeks ago, our 3 year old requested that her head be shaved to match her brother’s (I’m not a fan of the shaved head on our son because I think it makes him look like a neo-nazi but the other mother in our house thinks it should be his choice). I know it is hair. I know women can have short hair (obviously). It will grow back. And yet, I couldn’t bear to have her head shaved. She was happy with a shorter cut…for now.

By: LesbianDad

LesbianDad — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:17:55 +0000

Welcome, Preemie Twins Nanny. And thank you.

And Chicory, I never caught that! It’s wonderful. She is just so danged cute I had to promote her from link to pasted-in image. Hope you don’t mind. Cute and wily. She followed your dictum to the letter of the law.

Alas, I’m not sure if I ever procured a good reason why not to cut her own hair (in her eyes). I mean, I rattled off plenty that sound good to me: might cut herself, hair doesn’t grow back very fast, it’s really hard for even grown-ups to cut their own hair, etc. But pretty much the clincher is she doesn’t get to use her scissors if she uses them on her body. That’ll be among the handful of hard & fast lines, in a house of much negotiability.

By: Chicory

Chicory — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:19:17 +0000

I was giggling all through the first part of this post. And particularly interested as to whether you found a good reason to forbid the cutting of her own hair.

Then I got thoughtful, as I often do when reading your pieces.

And then I had to laugh again at the picture. Did you catch that picture I put up of Sassa coloring on the bottoms of her feet after I told her she could have her markers back if she didn’t color all over her hands and arms?

By: Preemie Twins Nanny

Preemie Twins Nanny — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:53:55 +0000

Quite an independent little person! I love the haircut and they both look happy, healthy and perfectly adjusted - what a GREAT job you ladies are doing!

By: LesbianDad

LesbianDad — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:54:34 +0000

What a great song! Though of course I am petrified to play it for the lil’ monkey. I don’t think we’ll be out of the woods for a few years. This piece on Yahoo! Canada’s “Family & Relationships” pages, “I Cut My Hair” quotes a professor of early childhood education on the self-shearing propensities of preschoolers:

“They’ve mastered the fine-motor skills that allow them to use scissors, and they want to see what else the scissors work on,” explains Cameron. Ah, that crisp-crunchy sound of blades shearing through hair! It’s heady stuff. “And they’re at an age when they’re ready to take initiative, do things on their own, explore cause and effect. But they’re not quite at the point where they can predict what the effect is going to be!”

Happily, this stage is fairly short-lived. “Usually by five or six, they stop,” says Cameron.

Hey, I got no problem with short short, if she doesn’t. We’ve got lots of inches of wiggle room yet to go.