Short and Sassy

Every year, this particular week in August, I do the back-to-school haircut post. I let the girls' hair just go all summer long. Then we go to Ms. Robin and get fresh new 'dos for school.

However, last spring, Lucy announced that she wanted to grow her hair long because she wanted to donate it to Locks of Love. Really, I can't argue with such philanthropy so I said OK, but she has to be in charge of it, meaning brush it and put it up neatly. This is the child who, if I get within three feet of her head with a hairbrush, starts to cry and I had no intention of listening to that for the next 18 months. She's been really good about that, and Elaine announced she was going to grow her hair for Locks of Love, too.

I foresaw more problems with this scenario, particularly since she has hair like mine, which I once decided to grow out. I did that for 15 months and, I'm not kidding you, it grew two inches. She'd probably be able to donate her hair around the time she left for college. But...I said OK to that, too, and she grew it all summer. Except each morning, it would be snarled up, and she would cry when I tried to run the brush through. Any cute hairstyle I gave her, she would remove within five minutes. Basically, she ran around looking like a shaggy dog all summer.

Last week I told the girls that we were making our end-of-summer visit to Ms. Robin, to at least get their bangs trimmed.

"I want my hair cut," Elaine announced. "I don't like it now. I want to look like Sal."

Do you remember Sal?

I asked, "Are you sure? Lucy's still going to be growing hers long. You can get yours cut if you want, but I don't want you to regret it."

But, being the inner short-haired person she is, just like her mom, she assured me she was dying to get it cut and she was going to bring her book so Ms. Robin would know exactly how to cut her hair."

"Man, that starts early, doesn't it?" Darren said, having been used to me dragging various pictures to the salon for the last 15 years. He just doesn't get it. But frankly, I'm comforted that he's not clipping magazine pictures and taking them to a stylist. He's a simple razor man.

Here's the shaggy dog outside Ms. Robin's shop:

In the chair, ready to take the plunge (she can hardly see):

Spraying on the "magic water":

Look how much she's cutting!

Getting excited about the new look:

Almost finished:

Side view:

Ta da!

Isn't that cute? And when it's dry, it curls up even more.

"That cut suits her," Ms. Robin remarked, "Short and sassy!"

"Yeah, especially the sassy part," said Darren.

Like a typical woman, she couldn't stop checking herself out in the mirror and saying with a satisfied little bounce, "NOW I look like Sal!"

She looks much more like the little cat she is instead of a shaggy dog, for which I'm thankful. And gone are the morning brushing/crying sessions for which I'm even more thankful.

Win-win!