The Girl has long hair. It is orange a beautiful shade of red. She has been growing it out in the hopes of donating it to Locks of Love. She tried once before - years ago - but her hair stopped growing at around 7" below the nape of her neck. She needed a minimum of 10" below the nape of her neck to be able to donate. Fed up, I cut it short. It was adorable - cut just below her chin. That was the summer before she turned 7.
Now, she is trying again. It has been a long process (her hair seemed to stop growing for a while again). This time, she is 10. We measured her hair and it was about 11" below the nape of her neck. Perfect! We could cut 10" off and it'd be just below her chin.
We went, on Wednesday, to get it all cut off. I, of course, had my new camera in hand to document this momentous occasion. With gymnastics competitions coming up, the long hair was getting to be a major pain. She has to have "competition hair," which means it must be all tied back neatly with NO hair in her face and nothing too long that she might tumble on it. When we got it cut, I knew I wanted to make sure I could still pull it back out of her face.
We got to the salon and the stylist put The Girl on the chair. She took a long look at The Girl and The Girl's hair. After a few moments, she turned us away. She said cutting now could prove traumatic. We don't have a good idea of what The Girl's hair would look like too short and it has changed some in the past three years. The stylist has a 12-yr-old daughter at home. She said, "You remember your first AWFUL haircut, don't you?"
Oh, do I remember! I was in 3rd grade and my mom wanted my hair short - so my grandmother, who lived in Miami Beach and whose clientele was 95% old ladies, cut my hair. Oh. My. God. It was awful. I had to wear it like that for a week before she went home and Mom could take me to a salon to get it fixed!
Together, the stylist and I agreed not to do that to The Girl. She (the stylist) told me to wait at least one more month, if not two, to get it cut. I promised I would. At this point, I will wait until after all the competitions are over before cutting...which puts us sometime in March. Maybe we'll get it cut during Spring Break!
The Girl was bummed she could not do this for someone for Christmas but we explained it would take such a long time that it would not have ended up a Christmas present this year anyway. With that, we went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of groceries for the local food bank. We both felt better after that.
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What an awesome thing she is determined to do...I applaud her :)
ReplyDeleteI'm doing this as well, growing my hair for Locks of Love. And I swear, my hair stopped growing about 2 months ago. I need about another inch before I can cut it off and not freak out.
ReplyDeleteNice hairdresser, glad she was compassionate enough to understand. Now, did she give you any secrets for growing? :O)
That's a shame, but perhaps the hairdresser does know best!
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Oh, she has beautiful hair! And she's awesome:)
ReplyDeleteVisiting from SITS. First of all, love the girl's hair, my son has read hair... and it is to die for!! Secondly, I love that she wants to do that. She is so generous and thoughtful, especially for that age. So sweet. Happy Sits day!!
ReplyDeleteHer hair is gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteShe is doing such a nice thing. I'm really impressed. As a cancer and chemo survivor, I thank her for being such a wonderfully giving person at such a young age.
I love Love LOVE this post - and your blog, now that I've found it. How sweet of your daughter to want to do something so difficult (especially for a ten-year-old!) and time-consuming for someone else. What a great idea to make HER feel better by helping someone ELSE when she was disappointed about the haircut. Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteShe does have really beautiful hair!
ReplyDeletewow, that hair is beautiful
ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful hair she has! It will be so appreciated. My Mom had the brilliant idea to get my hair permed when I was in fifth grade. I'll never forget the chorus of "Mitzi needs Protein 21" that greeted me upon my return to school. Your stylist sounds like a keeper.
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice story. My sister, my niece and myself all did this several years ago during a school drive. We also had some of my grandmother's hair and our hair stylists hair that were donated. It is such a great cause. My daughter's hair was not long enough at that time, but she is dying to chop her locks. LOCKS OF LOVE is a fabulous program.
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