Those of you who know us well, have seen us from a distance, or have only seen my blog, know Katie has always had this amazing long, thick hair. Case in point:
6 weeks old, on her blessing day (Nov 2005)
7 months old, with pigtails--pigtails! (Apr 2006)
2 years old, yes that was her natural curl (Sept 2007)
just before she turned 3 (Sept 2008)
at 4.5 years old (May 2010)
I have never been one of those moms that wouldn't cut my little girl's hair. She's had many trims and even *gasp* haircuts of two inches or more over the years. But her hair has always been exceptionally long, thick, and beautiful for her age. Which requires a lot of upkeep. The older she gets the thicker it gets, and the thicker it gets the harder it is to keep it unsnarled. Last week, as she whimpered through me brushing through her hair, she said, "I wish I could cut my hair." Normally, she is talking about how she wishes her hair was as long as Rapunzel's (or Chandler's, a girl her age in our ward who has even more exceptionally long, thick hair than Katie), but I realized it was taking upwards of 20-30 minutes just to brush her hair, say nothing of styling it. So, knowing I was probably fighting a losing battle, I reminded her that if we cut it there would be a lot less hairdos we could, well, do. She was insistent. I told her we would think about it for a few days.
She brought it up every day for a week before I got the courage to get out the scissors. I sat her on the stool and cut about three inches off the bottom layer, then showed her how much shorter it was (kind of in a hope to scare her into agreeing to the length I was comfortable with). She was not having it. "I want it to be the same as yours," she said for about the millionth time. So, off came another three inches. At this point, I realized the gravity of the situation--I had not taken a "before" picture!! I let down her top layer, and took a picture (you can see the difference in length of the shorter hair showing through, but it did get shorter as I evened things out):
And then we cut it off! I after I finished and swept up the hair on the floor, I felt like I was having a panic attack. Her hair had been so much of her identity, I was worried about her being "special" anymore. So vain, I know. But she was so excited, and is still so thrilled to have less hair to comb, less hair to weigh her down, and a brand new "grown up" look:
We'll post more pics of it "done" soon, I just wanted to put this out there for those of you who have been waiting with bated breath!
4 comments:
Wow--that was a drastic cut! But as someone who used to have hair all the way down her back (and then finally chopped like a foot of it off), I can say how NICE it felt to have it shorter. She still looks adorable!
On the other end, Madelyn's hair will probably remain a short bob until she begs for something different....
It is darling and I bet it is a relief when brushing through it.
I asked Keirra what she thought of Katie's new hair and she said, "I think it's cute, but not for me." I like that she recognizes that what she likes on herself is not what everyone else has to like. I also like that she doesn't feel the need to change what she likes because her best friend likes something different. That makes me really happy.
Totally feel your pain. I just cut Savanna's hair. It was a rough day. She loves it though. It is MUCH easier to comb.
I remember when we chopped Ry's for the first time! I felt the same way about it being her identity, but she didn't seem to feel that way and it was fine! Katie looks cute!
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