Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

On a whim, I decided to give Lucy her first real haircut today. I say "real" because she did have a teeny tiny haircut when she was 5-months old to remove a knot-ridden mullet, but the effect on her looks was practically imperceptible. This haircut, on the other hand, is a bit more drastic.

The impetus stemmed from the ever-increasing challenge of getting Lucy's hair out of her eyes (and mouth, and snotty nose) in a way that did not inspire screaming on her part, and frustration on mine. Down, her hair often looks like a ratty mess. It's quite thick, and long, and with curls hiding underneath straight hair in a way that hides any ringlets and mostly just looks like it hasn't been combed in 12 days. In my defense (and M.'s), we DO comb her hair (despite the crying), and use conditioner, but lately it hasn't seemed to matter. The barrette, while the easiest solution, is a temporary patch that never makes it through the day. Putting some of her hair up in a pony tail on top of her head can be cute (see below), lasts a bit longer than a barrette, and exposes the under-curls, but creating it takes time we don't have in the morning (and by we, I mean me, since M. has not mastered the pony tail) and evokes the aforementioned screaming. Some before pictures (the first two are from today):



Here you can see the back of Lucy's head and all those messy curls hidden by some straggly top stuff (she's the one on the left, her cousin Cameron is on the right)
And here you can see an example of the top head pony tail, already starting to look disheveled


So, despite some concerns that I would lose Lucy's curls forever, I started chopping. First, a bath to shampoo and condition her hair:
Look at how long her hair is when it's wet!

Then, the cutting started, parked in front of the TV with Phineas and Ferb to entertain her. She barely even noticed I was cutting, so I tried to get a bit fancy and put a few layers in. Not as many as she probably needs, but I didn't want to go nuts since I for the most part have no idea what I'm doing when I cut hair. I mean, I've seen it done a lot, and I feel like that counts for something (it looks so effortless when the professionals do it!), but... well, professional, I'm not. Also, I should point out that it is much easier to cut a girl's hair, where you mostly just try to go straight across, than to cut a boy's hair. I cut Finn's hair a few times when he was a baby, and squirmy child aside, I did NOT do a good job. During (we have videos, too, but since Lucy was like a statue and nothing interesting happened, I will spare you from them):



And here is the after, once her hair had time to dry. Note that she will still need a barrette of some sort, because I did not cut bangs (I am avoiding them like the plague, I think they are a mistake with kids - you always need to trim them, it's hard to grow them out, etc). I keep finding little straggly hairs that need to be cut, but overall I think it looks OK. At the very least, it should cut down on tangles, static issues, and tears! And she still has SOME of her curls, so I don't have to mourn their loss (yet - I'm sure it's coming, though)



She finally seemed to notice that something felt different during dinner, and started whipping her hair around (yes, she opted for naked (plus diaper) at the dinner table, we decided not to fight it)




And finally, a bonus picture of Finn, because he's just so darn cute: