rite of passage.

i’m pretty sure every girl has done it at least once in her life.  i know i did it several times.  and last week, allie did it for the first time.

i had just woken up from a nap and this was the first thing i saw…

don’t let the bright yellow box of crayons distract you (sorry, remember that i had just woken up.  otherwise, i might have thought to tell allie to put the crayons down before snapping her picture).  look north.  above her eyebrows.

“mommy!  i cut my hair!” she proudly announced.  “do you like it?”

still in a daze, i asked her where she put the hair she cut.  cuz isn’t that the obvious first question to ask?  she promptly ran to the back corner of the playroom and cheerfully produced this…

long, long strands of hair that used to be attached to her head.

apparently, she got sick of having to constantly brush her hair out of her face and so she cut herself a little window.

thankfully, she only cut a few clumps of hair.

still in my daze, i somehow decided that RIGHT THEN would be a good time to cut the rest of her hair.  myself.  what can i say, it was a flash of sleep-deprived genius and i ran with it.

only…  only, i didn’t quite realize how thick allie’s hair really is.  (she has her dad to thank for that.  lauren and her wispy, super-fine hair has me to thank.)  and i also didn’t realize that using a pair of kid scissors would probably not be the best tool for the job.  finally, i didn’t realize that wetting her hair would probably make the task ahead infinitely easier.

my bad.

so what was intended to be quick haircut kept taking longer and longer as her hair kept getting shorter…  and shorter…  and shorter.  as i vainly tried to even out her hair.  allie wondered if the haircut would ever end.

an hour later and much to allie’s relief, i finally gave up even though it was still lopsided in the back.  i didn’t want her to end up bald, after all.  phil suggested that maybe i could take her to a hair salon to even it out.

and so, after a quick trip to supercuts, allie ended up with a brand new ‘do!

thankfully, she loves it.  and kept asking if we could go back to the hair-cutting place next time.  i think she just wanted to make sure i wouldn’t try to cut it again myself.

and it only took a very quick and gentle talk to let her know not to cut her own hair again.  i believe we both learned our lesson:  the business of cutting girls’ hair is best left to the professionals.

but every girl’s gotta try cutting her own hair at least once, right?  it IS a rite of passage after all.  🙂