By Rebecca Talley
My oldest child is a boy. He was born with a full head of hair. In fact, he had so much hair, many people thought he was a girl. Since he was a boy, I couldn't do much with his hair except admire it.
When I gave birth to my daughter, I expected another baby with lots of hair. Somehow, the hair fairy skipped my daughter. By the time she was 18 months old, she finally had enough hair that I could put it in barrettes and curl it. I was thrilled I could fix her hair after waiting for so long.
One night, we went to home teach a family in the ward (I was my husband's substitute partner). While we adults visited after the lesson, the kids ran off to play in another room. After a time, we called the kids back in and they sheepishly returned. Apparently, they'd been playing "barbershop" with my daughter as the customer and my son as the barber. Yep, he'd cut a large chunk of her hair off in the back of her head. All her pretty hair that I'd waited so long to fix was just a pile on the floor. I was not pleased, to say the least, and spent the better part of the next year trying to hide her shortened hair in a ponytail. It finally grew out and my daughter now has thick, luxurious long hair (she doesn't let her brother near it).
My son? He's serving a mission in Italy and wrote in his email a few days ago that he is now cutting his companion's hair. Hmmm. That gives me pause. My son, the barber? I suppose he was simply preparing for his mission all those years ago when he left his sister half-bald. Hopefully, his companion's hair looks better than his sister's did, or all of the mirrors have been removed from their apartment.
I guess they can't ever be too young to prepare for their mission.
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8 comments:
What a wonderful post, Rebecca! I love it!
When my son was young he shaved off all his own hair. Now he's a Marine. Parents of young children beware! There are heavenly sign posts everywhere, apparently!
So glad to have found this site! some of my favorite authors -- and people -- are here!
Thanks, Kerry!
You and my mother would have a lot to commiserate about it. My brother cut off all my hair when I was a child. When my mother, in tears, asked him why he did that he simply replied,
"I don't like girls with curls."
Yeah, you guessed. He still has curls and I don't. I was seriously gypped!
Wow -- all those latent desires, finally finding a home . . .
Reading your post brought back memories of my brother and I hiding in a big cardboard box out in the garage, taking turns cutting each others hair. After all, we needed to look good for school pictures the next day.
I still remember my poor mom's horrified look when she discovered us. Thanks for bringing back the memories!
Oh, I think I would have died! Oh, wait; I'd better not say that aloud or you know what might happen...
Anyway, I can relate to the hair growth thing. I think it has been a little backwards for my kids too. I was so excited to have a little girl so I could dress her up and do her hair; she was born with a head-full, but it quickly thinned and did not quickly grow. It took quite a long time before she had enough hair to do much with, and I think I lost some of my desire by the time she really had much hair. (Or maybe it was that she was too difficult so it made it not worth the effort!)
I've had 2 boys since who were born with hair long enough they needed a hair cut the day they were born (although I waited several months, of course). They also have had curls, and it has been thicker. My daughter's first hair cut was about a month and a half before her 3rd b-day. My son's was about 2 months later, when he was 7 months old; then his second one was when he was 13 1/2 months, and that killed me to cut off all the curls! My youngest boy had his first hair cut when he was 5 months old; he's almost 10 months old now and has been really needing another one that I just haven't gotten around to doing yet. Okay, enough rambling (you can tell I'm not one of the ton of authors)... my point is that it all seems so wasted on my boys, since theirs just gets all chopped off! My daughter (now nearly 6) now has LONG, beautiful hair, but she wants to get it cut. So I guess we'll probably be donating hair to locks of love soon! I'd rather do it with her than to have her (or someone else) take matters into their own hands. I'm sure you know what I mean!
Good luck to your missionary! :-)
Thanks, Rebecca, for the cute story. Sorry I've rambled so long. :-)
Oh, yeah, and guess who usually does my daughter's hair now. My husband! He's good too! I think he has enjoyed learning and experimenting with hairdos. :-)
Isn't it discouraging when the boys have the thick, curly hair?
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