Toddler Hairdressing School
I’ve always been pretty bad at doing hair. My own, someone else’s, doesn’t matter. No creativity, no skill. And, really, it has barely mattered. As someone who has had long, straight hair her entire life, I never needed to do much. Wash it, brush it. Throw it in a ponytail. Eventually I mastered the double french braid, but that was more utilitarian than cute.
Well, now I’ve got a little girl. A girl whose hair grew straight in front of her face.
And who thought barrettes, rubberbands, and the like were the tools of the devil, trying to steal her soul.
Eventually, she grew to accept the presence of the barrette. No idea why, just one day she got distracted and stopped screaming about it.
In fact, she started insisting on two barrettes. Every day. That she had to pick out BY SELF. That never, ever matched each other. Or what she was wearing.
I can’t imagine what possessed me to try to put pigtails in her hair, but I did it. Whenever I could distract her, I did it. Because it’s stinking cute.
And yet, all the time I had put into parting her hair to the side every night after bath, in the hopes that it wouldn’t fall in her face, meant that I now had to fight the part every time I tried to do pigtails. So we mostly stuck with the barrettes, which were alright, but annoying and always slipped out. Still a mess.
I even attempted a single ponytail, once. Kind of cute, but didn’t stay in.
I don’t know what took me so long to hit on the two half-ponytails. Duh! Keeps the hair out of the face, doesn’t fight the part. Genius! Trouble was, she still really preferred the barrettes, so I kind of had to distract her to let me do the ponytails.
Then, I realized something. She had become completely enamored of the barrettes themselves. She loved the accessory. She didn’t want ponytails, because she loved the barrettes. Duh, mommy! Ponytails AND barrettes!
And so, now that is our routine every morning. She demands ponytails AND barrettes, each of which she has to meticulously inspect and choose from the basket of hair accessories. And every morning, I have to practice my ponytail technique. I’ll figure this stuff out yet.
January 6th, 2010 at 9:04 am
I’m totally going to be this way and I have TWO girls! I may be doomed. I never had that Barbie head that you do the hair, makeup, etc when I was a kid and I firmly believe that is my problem now. : )
January 6th, 2010 at 9:44 am
We do a sort of top knot/half pony for both kids. And it’s actually our son who’s been wearing it for longer (just about a year now). Since we’re Orthodox, we follow the tradition to not cut a boy’s hair until his third birthday.
It’s funny because I’m not fantastic with hair, but I manage okay. Basically I just sit the kids down in front of me, put each hand on a side of the forehead with my thumbs behind each ear and then just close each hand. Whatever hair I get in it, I use to make the pony. It stays in pretty much all day and takes very little time in the morning, which is good when we’re trying to rush everyone out the door to school.
I don’t know if I can post links to pictures here, but if so, here are some shots of it.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2462/3930036305_62ebd7282e_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3340/3607318396_e8c6f3dbba_b.jpg
January 6th, 2010 at 10:03 am
OMG. This is like looking into the hair future for my daughter. Already I’m complaining about how fine and straight her hair is and have to sweep it aside after a bath in the hope that it will stay out of her eyes the next day. I’ve tried barrettes but so far they just fall out after 5 minutes. Hopefully as her hair gets longer I can try the ponytail trick!
Stacey´s last blog ..Dropping the third nap
January 6th, 2010 at 10:06 am
Thanks for the INSANE CUTENESS this morning. I’m probably lame but one of my dreams when thinking about having a girl was to do her hair because as a curly girl, there are few options for your hair.
LauraC´s last blog ..Good idea, bad idea, good idea
January 6th, 2010 at 11:18 am
This is a great way to keep you and Rebecca happy. I will add that if you glue a small strip of shelf grip liner to the inside of the barrette, they will stay in place.
January 6th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Great photos and nice mommy-daughter time every morning. Penny is still in the “no barrettes” stage so we just cut her bangs and let her very fine, straight hair be all over the place. She is really into getting dressed (knows which clothes are hers that I bring into the playroom) so hopefully we can soon do hair too!
Mommy, Esq.´s last blog ..Krafty Kids
January 6th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
This is like looking into the future for me as well. (hopefully! please let their hair grow in 2010!)
Have you seen the little corker bows you can put in ponytails? Totally cute.
January 6th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Melody has become so outrageous in her demands (“I want three braids, with most of my hair down, and I MUST be a princess”) that I’ve started following this blog: http://www.princesshairstyles.com. I’ve also learned how to French braid.
The three braids? I ended up parting Mel’s hair on the left and doing three teeny parallel French braids from the part to the right in the front. She was satisfied with her princess quotient.
This morning’s demand was easy. “One ponytail holder and one braid, Mama.”
Sadia´s last blog ..Doctor’s visit
January 6th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Omigosh Goddess, ALL the pictures (and toddler hair styles) are “so stinkin’cute”!
That shot of her in the car seat? Adorable. Personality oozing out of every pore.
Happy New Year, Goddess!
Cheryl´s last blog ..Way Back When-esday: Tw-Inside Jokes
January 6th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
I love the adorable photos! I’m still waiting for Tiny to have enough hair evenly distributed around her head to allow me to do something with it. I think she’s still in the pulling-the-barrette-out stage (it’s been a while since I’ve tried). So for now she’s just a walking pile of curls.
reanbean´s last blog ..We Have the Potties…
January 6th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
I do hair while she is watching Dora. It keeps her from running away, but I’ve been putting her hair in ponytails since she was 3 months old!! Madeline’s hair is almost to her butt now.
On another note…am thinking of taking a quilting class that I saw offered in my town. It says its for beginning to intermediate quilters. I am a for sure a beginner as I have never quilted before, but have a good amount of general sewing experience. Think it is fairly easy to pick up?
January 7th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
So cute! I can’t wait for Eva Rose to have enough hair to play with. I’m waiting to see how curly all their hair will be.
Amy´s last blog ..New Year, New Me!
January 8th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
[...] seeing the adorable hairdo’s Goddess’s daughter has been sporting lately, I started to feel really guilty about the state of Tiny’s hair [...]
January 11th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
I can’t wait for the moment where you can add, “and then she cut her own hair”
my oldest cut his hair TWICE and I was so annoyed because you can see it in his school picture. My youngest boy has hair all up in his eyes like your daughters, but I can’t put him in barrettes you know. And I don’t want to cut it, because he is on the verge of cute little curls. Could he possibly pull off a very manly headband if it was perhaps in camo color or something
January 15th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
She just gets cuter as time passes! I usually just do one on top or two upper pigtails for Saylor as well! Rebecca seems like she has thicker hair though.
Marie´s last blog ..Day 1
January 20th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
OMIGOSH. Will you please come to my house and give me lessons? I am bookmarking this post for future reference. I have three girls and hair is SO not my forte (yet)! I really want to do more ponytails with my little ones but its HARD! The hair is so fine and they are so wiggly!
March 2nd, 2010 at 10:22 am
[...] you either need to keep doing it or deal with the pain of growing it out later. Goddess In Progress wrote about this in January and I’m hoping once Cameron’s hair gets longer things will be easier. Anyone else have [...]