Yep, you read that right. The kids are at it again. Well, Brooke is at it again. I’d hope the other two are old enough to know better. Actually, I’d hope Brooke is old enough to know better, but she’s quite the problem solver.
The history of child hair cutting incidents in our family:
Summer 2005. Baby Brooke is only 4 months old. Riley is nearing 3, Trevor is 6. Riley has beautiful long blonde hair. We’ve been growing it out since birth, and it’s down to the middle of her back.
Yes, she’s wearing lipstick in this picture- it’s actually the reason why I took the picture because she had applied it all by herself and I thought she did a pretty good job for being almost 3 years old!
This was her first attempt at putting on lipstick:
I digress. Hair cuts.
Here is the full story (from an email I sent out to family and friends immediately after it happenened):
“Riley walked into the kitchen and I came in behind her and noticed she had a large chunk of hair hanging on her back, below the length of her hair. Upon closer inspection, I saw she had a large chunk of hair MISSING off the back of her head! I turned her around and there were also chunks missing on the sides! AAAACCKKK!! I asked her what happened and she said that Trevor cut her hair. I approached him, “No I didn’t.” was his response. I asked Riley again and she said Trevor did it, so doing the Nanny 911 thing, I got down to his level, had him look me in the eye and asked him calmly to tell me the truth. He fessed up.
I was devastated but held my cool, didn’t yell or scream, just calmly talked to him about what a big mistake that was. Except that I told him that he had ruined Riley’s beautiful long hair and that she was going to have to get an ugly haircut and look like a boy (this said in front of Riley), so I had to quickly retract that and explain to Riley that we’d go to the hair salon and see if they could fix her hair and give her a pretty hair cut, although her hair would be really short. Ugh.
The people at the salon all giggled at the story (one of my friends came in to see the damage for herself!) and everyone was very sympathetic. I explained to the stylist that I was so proud of Riley’s beautiful long hair and was trying to grow it another 3 inches or so….that she’d been growing it out since birth. I had thought about cutting Riley’s hair chin length before, but didn’t want to ruin her beautiful hair. I told her I knew there was a lot of damage and that little could be done to save the length, but to do her magic. She asked if I was going to cry, I told her I just might!! But, I didn’t.
She presented two hair hairstyle options. The first would have been VERY short, but would have cut out all the damage. It would have been a very ‘boyish’ cut and although Riley is cute, she said she’d rather not take that route. So, instead, Riley got a short bob- about chin length- with the sides slightly layered to hide some of the damage. I keep it clipped back to camouflage the damage- because there is still a short chunk missing out of the back! We’ll have to go in every 6 weeks or so try to fix it before we can let it grow out. Oh well.
Riley seems to be OK with her short hair. She says she doesn’t like it, then sometimes she says she does like it. Everyone has given her lots of compliments and we tell her she looks very cute. She does! Although we don’t recognize her from the back or sides. It’s very strange.”
No mother of the year awards THAT day! Here’s the damage:
I had trimmed Riley’s bangs just a few days prior, so the super short bangs weren’t Trevor’s doing…I did that all by myself! Ha! Now you know why she has long bangs- that darn cowlick in the front always made short bangs look crooked!
And the resulting hair cut:
And another view later in the week:
After that we grew it out again. All of it, including her bangs. Surprisingly it only took one year to get it all one length and to her shoulders.
2006 School Picture:
And a year after that it was back to where it started.
2007 School Picture:
And then one day she decided she wanted short hair again- here’s the last look at her long hair before it was all cut off (professionally this time).
And ever since then (early 2008), Riley has always had a shoulder-length or shorter ‘do. No more hair-cutting incidents with her, at least not that I recall!
That brings us to Brooke. I know she’s cut her hair at least once (if not twice) before this most recent incident. One time I recall her cutting a section off at the scalp- that was lovely. We were able to keep it camouflaged for a while though until it grew out.
But this most recent incident? Oh how the girl is a problem solver…
It was quiet time, the daycare kids were napping and Brooke and I were hanging out in the Family Room watching some TV and relaxing. She had taken a bath a couple hours prior and hadn’t combed her hair out and it was almost dry, so I suggested she go do that. Before I sent her on her way, however, I had her come over so I could look at her bangs. They were getting quite long, again, and I’m so tired of cutting them all the time. I asked her if she was ready to grow them out and she said sure. So I asked her to not only comb her hair, but also pull her bangs to the side and put a clip in them so they are out of her eyes.
Many many many minutes pass, and I don’t really notice (I’m watching my recorded Desperate Housewives episode from the previous night). Brooke comes waltzing back into the room all proud and beaming. “How does THIS look?” I notice her hair is combed and looks nice….then I notice an area of ‘sparse-ness’ in her bangs. And I notice a rather strange straight-edge high in her bangs. She’s standing about 12 feet away from me.
I call her closer.
Ugh.
She cut her hair. More specifically, she cut the center portion of her bangs SHORT, like REALLY SHORT. There’s no fixing it without giving her Caesar bangs.
Ok, that’s not fair. Here’s a real hairstyle with super short bangs. THIS would be the result if we chopped Brooke’s bangs to the length she already cut them!
Katy Perry style:
Maybe I’m being overly dramatic. Here’s the picture of what she did:
The long term outlook of this- well, she’s already layered and angled her bangs so when they grow out there won’t be that harsh line. Ha!
For now we are just combing them to the side.
Well that’s a sad picture (actually she’s trying to watch Spongebob and bothered that I’m taking her picture!)
Here’s a happier Brookie shot- with the pose and all:
I’ll keep you posted. She DOES look awful cute with short bangs, I just need to show some restraint and not whack them!
Elisa's Ramblings 