Ok, I admit it. Ellie has been "follicle-challenged" for the first two years of her life because of me. Yes, it's my fault. No, I haven't been cutting her hair (although people actually ask me that all of the time - honestly why would I cut my child's hair into a mullet? why?) but I definitely did bring on the baldness. When Ellie was first born and the doctor announced that we were parents to a baby girl, I admit, my first irrational feeling was panic. Hair-induced panic. A little girl means doing little girl hair. It means pony tails and pig tails and braids. It means all of these things that I haven't the slightest clue how to do.
As the mother, all eyes are going to be on me to make sure my daughter has presentable hair. When she has a lumpy, lopsided ponytail people are going to look at me like I'm the crazy one. Not Marty; he is not expected to know how to do such things. In fact, he is expected to make her hair look silly. People will laugh and say, "Oh men can never do little girls hair" and think it's cute when Marty puts her hair up all lopsided and lumpy, but if I do it people will think that I am a terrible mother. It's sexist but true! Not to mention, she has this gorgeous red hair that everyone stares at and comments on so her hair is a focal point to begin with. Everyone on the planet will be paying even more attention to her hair and will be judging my hairstyling skills! So I began to panic, right in those first few hours after giving birth. How does one learn to put a pony tail into a child's hair without big lumps in it? I can't even do that to my own hair. I wonder if there is a class that I could take...
Well, here we are two years later and it is still not an issue for me. Not because I magically learned how to do hair but because my daughter still does not have enough hair to put into a ponytail, therefore I cannot make it lopsided and lumpy. Hence, I jinxed my child with baldness. However, we've noticed in the last few weeks that things are actually happening in the hair department. It's like she turned two and the jinx wore off and all of a sudden she's growing hair. Don't get me wrong, she's still no Rapunzel, but she does actually have a little bit of hair on the top of her head and it's really coming in in the back and it's getting fuller and thicker. And it's curly! (Marty and I both have stick straight hair, so we have no idea where that came from - maybe it's a red head thing)
The funny thing is that Ellie loves hair. She loves having her hair brushed, and loves brushing other people's hair. She will stand perfectly still for an obscene amount of time (she doesn't stand still for anything else ever) to let you brush her hair. And when you're done, she runs over to look in the mirror and says "I pretty!" I have no idea where she gets this from, believe me it's not something we've taught her. She just loves her hair. I predict that she'll actually need her first haircut in the next six months. It's crazy to think that sometime soon she will actually have so much hair that some will need to be cut off, but I do believe that is on the horizon.
I am not panicked about putting a pony tail in her hair anymore though. My skills have not improved and I do think I will be horrible at it, but honestly it doesn't bother me anymore. I have come to realize, that like everything else with parenting, there will be trial and error, but eventually you figure it out. Besides, so what if her pony tail is lopsided and lumpy? It won't mean that people will think I'm a bad mother. They will think her father did her hair.
Ok, I admit it. Ellie has been "follicle-challenged" for the first two years of her life because of me. Yes, it's my fault. No, I haven't been cutting her hair (although people actually ask me that all of the time - honestly why would I cut my child's hair into a mullet? why?) but I definitely did bring on the baldness. When Ellie was first born and the doctor announced that we were parents to a baby girl, I admit, my first irrational feeling was panic. Hair-induced panic. A little girl means doing little girl hair. It means pony tails and pig tails and braids. It means all of these things that I haven't the slightest clue how to do.
As the mother, all eyes are going to be on me to make sure my daughter has presentable hair. When she has a lumpy, lopsided ponytail people are going to look at me like I'm the crazy one. Not Marty; he is not expected to know how to do such things. In fact, he is expected to make her hair look silly. People will laugh and say, "Oh men can never do little girls hair" and think it's cute when Marty puts her hair up all lopsided and lumpy, but if I do it people will think that I am a terrible mother. It's sexist but true! Not to mention, she has this gorgeous red hair that everyone stares at and comments on so her hair is a focal point to begin with. Everyone on the planet will be paying even more attention to her hair and will be judging my hairstyling skills! So I began to panic, right in those first few hours after giving birth. How does one learn to put a pony tail into a child's hair without big lumps in it? I can't even do that to my own hair. I wonder if there is a class that I could take...
Well, here we are two years later and it is still not an issue for me. Not because I magically learned how to do hair but because my daughter still does not have enough hair to put into a ponytail, therefore I cannot make it lopsided and lumpy. Hence, I jinxed my child with baldness. However, we've noticed in the last few weeks that things are actually happening in the hair department. It's like she turned two and the jinx wore off and all of a sudden she's growing hair. Don't get me wrong, she's still no Rapunzel, but she does actually have a little bit of hair on the top of her head and it's really coming in in the back and it's getting fuller and thicker. And it's curly! (Marty and I both have stick straight hair, so we have no idea where that came from - maybe it's a red head thing)
The funny thing is that Ellie loves hair. She loves having her hair brushed, and loves brushing other people's hair. She will stand perfectly still for an obscene amount of time (she doesn't stand still for anything else ever) to let you brush her hair. And when you're done, she runs over to look in the mirror and says "I pretty!" I have no idea where she gets this from, believe me it's not something we've taught her. She just loves her hair. I predict that she'll actually need her first haircut in the next six months. It's crazy to think that sometime soon she will actually have so much hair that some will need to be cut off, but I do believe that is on the horizon.
I am not panicked about putting a pony tail in her hair anymore though. My skills have not improved and I do think I will be horrible at it, but honestly it doesn't bother me anymore. I have come to realize, that like everything else with parenting, there will be trial and error, but eventually you figure it out. Besides, so what if her pony tail is lopsided and lumpy? It won't mean that people will think I'm a bad mother. They will think her father did her hair.
1 comment:
Look at those locks!! She'll definitely be in ponytails soon! I can't wait to (finally) meet her, and to see you guys. Much love!
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