Thank Goodness For Retakes

It happens every year. I get the wee ones all dressed and prepped. Their hair is done perfectly, and their clothes are chosen to complement the background. I hope and cross my fingers that they will have their annual school photos turn out ... decent. Not even great, my goal in life is down to just "decent" school photos.

Little Miss's photos arrived yesterday. As I pulled them from her backpack to peruse them, I smiled. I looked through the little (operative word) window in the envelope and saw that she was smiling and her headband was still in - keeping that nutty hair from falling into her face. Her eyes looked tired, but that's not a big deal. And that particular headband in that photo made her look very 60s-ish, but that's ok; it's cute. We escaped this time around.

Then I pulled them from the envelope to begin the task of cutting them.

Wait wait wait.

Seriously, what photographer took this picture and thought it would work? Where was the parent volunteer who straightens the clothes, makes sure the hair isn't sticking up, and generally manages to minimize the need for retakes?

My mom saw it and thought it was cute. It made Little Miss giggle. My mom thought it showed personality. Little Miss giggled again. I have plenty of photos that demonstrate her personality. It sounds shallow, but I'd like a picture to share with my family that shows not just her personality but show how beautiful and perfect she is in my eyes no matter what she's doing.

The photos have been returned to their envelope and soon will return to the school for retakes. If the next photo comes out like this, so be it. It will be an interesting memory from her first grade year and will show her personality. But I'm still trying for a different picture and yes, selfishly, a "better" picture.

Unfortunately, I know from our experience that the photo she first took - the photo with her hair doing some weird and bizarre sticking out thing that it does not normally do, mind you - is the one that will be in the yearbook. And in the class photo distributed to all her friends. Of course.

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The Grand(?) Reveal

As you may have noticed from my post on Wednesday, I donated my hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. This isn't the first time I've done this. I donated my hair almost two years ago, as well.

When it donated my hair that time around, I went to my usual hair place, and while I was a little nervous about short hair - having not had it for a long time - they found a way to work with my hair: the partial curl, the cowlicks, the tendency to flip, etc.

This time around, I'd been told that Great Clips does this on a regular basis - they'll cut your hair for free and send it off for you. Or so I'd been told. Me being me, I looked it up on their website. I called to ask about this, and my local salon verified. I was set.

I went into my salon a few days later and explained to them what I wanted to do. The woman knew what we had to do for the donation and asked me what I wanted for my cut. Hmm.

Since I haven't done short hair in a really long time, I don't know what works so well for my hair. I explained that it's curly and that makes cutting and styling it fun. I did not want bangs, and it needed to be long enough to pull back for sports and the like. I showed her my two cowlicks, as well. Beyond that, so long as it was flattering, I was open to suggestion.

She recommended cutting it about ear length, which was fine with me. She asked again if I wanted bangs, and I reiterated the no. My hair went into a few different ponytails, and snip snip went the scissors.

And let me be clear ... I'm not looking for compliments here. I'm being honest in my assessment.

When the woman was done, she started tucking my hair behind my ears furiously. As a public service announcement, that is never a good sign when your hairdresser tries this maneuver in an attempt to keep it from sticking out everywhere.

A) I now have bangs. Lots of bangs. The bounce in my eye as I run.
B) The bangs accentuate my cowlick on my forehead because the hair isn't heavy enough to control it but too long to hide it.
C) This is not ear length hair, except for the longer part in the back of my head.
D) It is not long enough to pull back for sports by a long (pun intended) stretch.
E) In fact, there is much of my hair that is not long enough to even tuck behind my ears.
F) My hair isn't long enough to straighten.
G) My hair is too short to curl properly.
H) My hair is short enough that it is "extra full bodied" as one friend put it. That cowlick in the back of my head? It's taking massive effort to keep it from popping up like Alfalfa.

All in all, when I left the salon, my hair looked to my eyes like the late 70s or early 80s perms with the super short hair. Very androgynous. And it stuck out in various places.

My motto was to give it a week. In a week, I'd have time to adjust to it and learn how to style it. It would feel more natural to me. Today is that week. And I still hate it. I've tried different things each day, and nothing looks good to me. At the same time, I feel like I don't want to cut it shorter because it will just have to grow out later anyway.

Any styling suggestions? And no, I won't be heading back to Great Clips again until it's for a simple trim of my once again long hair. This should not scare anyone away from donating hair - it's a great cause and so easy to do. This was my fault for trying something new while attempting to save money.

Oh, best part? When I went to the front, the woman charged me full price. When I asked about the hair donation and free haircuts, she looked at me blankly. And yes, by that time I was just done and wanted to leave to lick my wounds.

Done whining. Here's the hair:

Styled to minimize the "poof" - in person you can see more of the issues than the photo shows.

This is as straight as it gets. Note the still super high poofy cowlick in front.

This is me after walking down the stairs - note how my hair is now falling in my face and flopping around. Boo.

Hair donation is way cool though. I will be growing my hair out and then donating it again. There are several places that will accept hair - each with varying requirements.

The most common is Locks of Love - it can be colored but not bleached and must be 10 inches or longer, stored in a ponytail or braid before cutting.

Pantene Beautiful Lengths is the charity I ended up donating to (though I would have done it to Locks of Love had the Great Clips done that for me), as they are the only ones I know of making wigs for adults and not just kids. For them, your hair must be eight inches or longer, and only semi-permanent dyes are allowed.

Wigs for Kids is another option where hair needs to be at least 12 inches and free from any permanent dyes.

My last suggestion for donation organizations is Children with Hair Loss. Hair needs to be 8 inches or longer. While they will accept any hair (including grey hair - most will take hair that is 5% or less grey only), they prefer it to have not been chemically treated.

I am happy to have donated. It feels good, and I love that someone will be able to make use of it. But the grand reveal? Sadly, it's not so grand after all!

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He's Got A Big Head

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***

With Little Miss in her dual language program, it's been interesting to see what comes home. Since it's all in Spanish for her right now, she doesn't understand a ton, and well I don't either. I've heard from others that it's rough until around November but the kids pick it up somehow then.

I can only hope.

In the meantime, I can see that they're working on learning important vocabulary and on certain units. Family was this week's theme, and each child created puppets of all the people in the family.

Little Miss created one for herself.

And one for Mister Man.

And one for me.

And one for my husband.

My husband wasn't thrilled. I'm still laughing - apparently Little Miss sees him as having a massive melon head. And no hair. My husband keeps insisting that he still has some hair - and I suppose he does. For now.

It'll Never Look Like This Again....

Little Miss has hair issues. Unlike her brother, when she was born, she didn't have long and thick eyelashes, and her hair was pretty much nonexistent. His hair grew in thick and fast. Hers... didn't.

My mom kept telling me that mine didn't come in until I was three, and that it was thin before that -- but look how thick it is now. That comforted me for awhile. At Little Miss's third birthday, I started to question this, but people kept telling me that her hair would come.

Every month that passes, my belief falters just a little bit more. Her hair is thin, and it flies everywhere. It's always in her eyes, because it isn't thick enough to hold a barrette or long enough to tuck behind her ears. You've seen the brushing before and after pictures.

I finally gave up. This is what Little Miss is doomed to look like, forever:



So today, I took her to get her hair cut. I requested that they cut it as short as they can get away with to look "cute" and to make it appear fuller than it is. They obliged. In fact, I told her she looks just like Grandma since Grandma has the exact same haircut now. Doesn't it look cute?



I love that feeling right after you're finished with a haircut. It looks great, no hairs are out of place, and there's just this sense of peace. Until you realize that the woman used product, had a special styling brush and spent fifteen minutes styling Little Miss's hair.

Granted, the hair now looks like this:



However, I don't have the time or talent to recreate this look. Tomorrow morning when she wakes up, the dream will be over. At least until the next haircut. When I may ask them to make it even shorter in the back.

Sisyphus

I'm still trying to figure out why I bother.

This is Little Miss when she woke up this morning:

It doesn't look so bad from the front, does it? She's managed to get herself dressed, and now it's time for Mommy to do her hair.

But wait. Note the rat's nest that is her very thin, very fine, very short hair that refuses to grow. C'mon she's three years old. Isn't she supposed to have more hair than this?



Yay, we've done her hair. She wanted a Pebbles 'do today, but she chose a fuzzy hair binder, which means that it doesn't stick straight up like Pebbles' hair does.



Ahhh... rat's nest is totally gone, and Little Miss doesn't even mind as I brush it out.



Now we've made it downstairs, and she's sitting in her chair ready to start breakfast. Note that her Pebbles ponytail is already slipping out. Somehow.



And that rat somehow has made it's way back into her hair. Seriously. Five minutes after I have her hair all nicely combed and styled and arranged, it looks as though she's never seen a brush in her life. I can only imagine what her teachers say about her "Oh that poor girl. Her mother won't even take the time to brush her hair. I can only imagine what her home life must be like."



Do you think she'd notice if I just shaved it all off and we started over from scratch?