I think my favorite was when someone said they "hoped" it was doll hair.
Oh what a dream that would be!
No, unfortunately it's NOT doll hair at all.
Real, beautiful, silky, light brown locks.
You guessed it - Ms. R.
One blogger friend said ... "My worst nightmare"..... and as a dramatic as that sounds... it's a bit how I reacted, too.
It's one of those reactions I wish I could take back.
I WAS STUNNED, people ... STUNNED when I laid eyes on her.
I've mentioned that Ms. R often plays in her room after we put her to bed at night. She just needs to wind herself down. We have no issue with this because she stays in her room and when she's finally dead tired she puts herself into bed and goes to sleep.
On this particular night -- she decided to try her hand at beauty school - on her own lovely locks.
When she came down in the morning - she buried herself into my chest. She usually wants a big hug in the morning so this was nothing new.
I finally sat her up because we were on a time schedule.
It was their first day back at preschool. Due to illness and her ENT surgery they had been out for about a month.
Yes - it was THAT day... in which I was already anxious about because I knew we'd be going through a transition.
Little did I know - my anxiety would go through the roof as soon as I laid eyes on her.
Chop, chop, chop.... mainly her bangs and on both sides.
I pretty much lost my mind which caused Ms. K to start crying asking "why did Ms. R cut herself"??
Oh my goodness.... you must know ... prior to this - the girls had only been given one "real" haircut.
It's just my taste - but I am not a huge fan of bangs because it's much easier to pull their hair back and it seems they eventually want to grow them out anyway.
So I always let their bangs grow. Ms. R in particular had a nice growth pattern to her hair. It almost looked naturally layered. Her bangs were almost as long as the rest of her hair and it was really easy to take care of.
TO HER SCALP.
It was as if she was aiming for the "face frame" effect with how she cut the sides of her hair. Good thing NEON is back in for the summer - we're definitely sportin' 80's hair round here!
Well, He did give me strength actually. Timing is everything and as luck would have it my mom was here the morning this all went down.
Thank God because she was able to help me gain my composure and not let the girls know how drastic this was.
It's tough - because of course I want them to know scissors are for paper cutting ONLY, but I didn't want to crush R's little soul. And it was starting to go down that path.
My reaction was a total mom fail.
And - speaking of fail....... just HOW did the scissors end up in Ms. R's room?!?!?
I don't have an answer for that other than she brought them there without me knowing.
Just that simple. She walked them up the stairs and into her room.
That's the truth and the only explanation I have.
So, back to that morning.....
After I attempted to pick us all up off the floor .. I put her hair into a ponytail (while breathing into a bag) and brought them to school.
When I got back home - my mom told me she attempted to find and confiscate the hair so I wouldn't have to see it.
She looked in her bed, first - but didn't find anything.
She then glanced over to their little play kitchen and BAM!!! there sat the PILE of hair with the little pink scissors adjacent to the hair.
What?!??!?
She piled it all neatly and all but left a note saying ... "I'm guilty, mom".
I was back at square one.... total pit in my stomach.... could not believe how much she cut off.
I spent the whole day wracking my brain about how I let this happen.
I was guilt-ridden to say the least.
Then I got a sweet text from one of my besties laying it out for me...
It went something like this...
"I need to talk you down from the ledge... first you are a CO-parent.. is hubs beating himself up over this? Second.. whose child DOESN'T have some access to scissors? Mine certainly do. She could grab one of the five pairs in the unlocked drawer (or laying out on the counter/table/desk/hell, even the FLOOR at times!) And third, it's not remotely funny now, but in time you will LAUGH about it... invest in some headbands! LOVE you!"
Just what I needed.... I tell ya!
So - after school I surveyed the damage even more. I played with her hair to see how I could hide the damage.
We had our dear Grauntie D (in real life beautician) give her a haircut over the weekend to clean it up a bit. It certainly helped.
The hubs mentioned that Ms. R has definitely reinvented herself since her surgery.....
She's a skinny minny from all the weight loss, her voice has changed due to the surgery and now she has a new do!
Be still my heart.
I still do a double take when I see her in the morning..... it's just those BANGS!!
I've been hearing from many that this isn't uncommon and especially in 3 year olds.
I was so distraught the first day or two - I stopped neighbor friends on the street to see if any of their darlings had pulled such stunts.
To my surprise ... yep, many had.
I even had a friend whose six year old cut her pony tail off just the week before.
Our sweet Ms. R is such a little beauty inside and out - and of course her hair is just an accent.
Her smile and laugh make up for any loss of hair for sure, but I think it's going to take me quite a while to trust the girls with scissors.
They are LONG GONE for now..... and surprise - they haven't even asked for them!
Now as for being able to laugh at the situation..... well, I feel that's going to take time and GROWTH of hair before I'm officially at that point.
With three little girls in our family --- I hold my breath this will be the last beauty shop "incident".
It's been a humbling experience and a reminder that these little people are more curious than ever.
I didn't realize we'd be looking at career opportunities this soon - because, by far, the biggest reaction to her new do has been .... "she actually did a pretty good job"!
Bahahahaha!
I'd say she has some learning to do, but I guess you never know!
The take away in all of this:
To all my crazy busy overwhelmed mama friends ---
Put the scissors UP, UP, UP and out of reach....
And if you happen to forget and the unthinkable happens ... CUT yourself some slack and then email me for support!
With love,
Cuz I'm the mama!
Oh wow! That is quite the story!!!
ReplyDeleteOh boy! I'm waiting for this experience to arise. My moma says itll be payback for my own hair fiasco. Shes still precious as ever. I guess she was ready for own look. :) xo
ReplyDeleteI would have had the EXACT same reaction as you, my girls' hair is so long because I just hate cutting it! However, Ms. R. looks so cute and your Grauntie D did a GREAT job with it! I really was hoping it was just doll hair though!!! This is so common, I have heard SO MANY people tell me their girl had cut her hair, that I'm afraid to even get the scissors out for fear I'll leave them lying around somewhere. In fact, the only reason I probably haven't is because of two cute little girls that we see in gymnastics class, both with beautiful long hair. Well, they came in the other day with hair practically SHAVED to the scalp...BOTH of them!!! Their mom said that they took turns cutting each others hair and by the time she found them, there was practically nothing left!!!! Can you even imagine? See, it could be worse :)
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