When I picked up E. from school today, I had this lovely note waiting in her folder:
Well, at least I got the hair back. At first, I didn’t get who the “someone” was. E’s school’s policy is that its teachers will not tell who the perpetrator is when it comes to things like biting, kicking and scratching. I naturally assumed, at first, another kid had done it and I sort of chuckled. It’s not that much hair, after all.
So, I ask E, “Who cut your hair?” She immediately casts her eyes down and says, “I don’t know.” I was trying to figure out which of her buddies she was covering for, and I pressed her again.
This time she said to me, “I don’t want to tell you” and that’s when I realized who the Edward Scissorhands was — E.
“E., did you cut your hair?”
“I don’t know.”
“E”
“Yeah, it was me. Don’t tell Daddy!” (as if he’s the mean one. Ha!)
And then I had a sudden realization. This is totally my fault. Well, not exactly my fault. But it’s 100 percent the library’s fault. You see, this was one of the books E. picked out on our last trip there.
I thought the title “There Was a Little Girl Who Had a Little Curl” was cute, and since E. has curly hair, I thought she’d enjoy it. The giant pair of scissors on the cover should have been a clue. What can I say? I’m more concerned with getting E. out of the library without a major incident. Who has time to actually read the books before bringing them home?
In the future, I think I’ll give them a least a glance-through. This page should have raised a red flag.
Who would write such an evil book? Why give my daughter such dangerous ideas? Can I nominate this to some sort of banned books list?
Thankfully, unlike poor Isabel in the book, E. stopped at one snip.
And it was hard to stay mad at her too long when she was THIS excited for her second ballet class.
Now that we’ve survived our first DIY haircut, what else do I have to look forward to? Home hair dying parties? Head-to-toe body glitter? Testing out of her design skills on her clothes?
It’s a rite of passage – all little girls cut their hair. Once when I was babysitting these two little girls all summer when I was in high school one of them cut out a huge chunk right in the front of her bangs. I felt terrible since it happened on my watch. I cut my hair when I was little (also in front) because I was going to try to glue it onto a popsicle stick to make a paint brush. Didn’t work. Oh well.
I definitely felt lucky that E’s snipping seemed to come from the back of her head. It wasn’t until her bath last night that I finally found the spot where I think it came from. Her curls in the back are very good at covering her lack of hair anyway!
Um, hair paintbrush? That’s pretty awesome! Very inventive of you. Too bad it didn’t work. You could have revolutionized the art industry!
Be happy she didn’t have any friends in on the hair cutting drama. When I was in 5th grade I was really tired of my long hair, but my parents refused to let me get it cut. So one night my cousin decided she would help me take matters into my own hands and cut my hair up to my shoulders. Most parents would immediately take their daughter to the hair dresser to ‘fix’ the cut, but not my parents. I had to live with the uneven ‘bob’ for months – until it finally grew out. BUT to this day I refuse to concede with my parents that I did anything wrong – I still turn it around on them that they should have just taken me to cut my hair. Somewhere deep inside that 10 year old little girl still breathes strong. 😉 Of course, I know I’ll be telling a COMPLETELY different story when my own future daughters gives herself her own haircut some day.
You poor thing! In the book Isabel’s mother takes her to the hair salon to get her hair fixed. Although I must say, I’m going to remember your mom’s tactics. I bet you never considered cutting your own hair again after living with the consequences!
I know that I got off easy this time with just one snip. Hopefully that quenched her curiosity … please, God, I hope! She doesn’t have enough hair to start willy nilly clipping it away!
That is so cute. I remember when I cut my hair … I really did have pretty long hair, and for some reason I just grabbed Tommy B’s scissors out of his hand one day in kindergarten and went to town. It was very uneven. My mom nearly had a heart attack, but after a quick trip to our neighbor/hair stylist, I sported a cute bob for a while.
I’m now starting to think that every child who had a bob as a kid had one because of DIY haircuts! Very cute story. I love that you still remember it was “Tommy B’s” scissors! I can’t remember the name of one kid in my kindergarten class!
When I was little (about a week before I started kindergarden) I cut my own hair. I remember it exactly. My mom was on the phone in the kitchen, ya know the phones that used to be attached to the wall? (ha!) Well she had her back turned and I was sitting at the table doing some kind of craft project. I had a pair of scissors that were shaped like a bunny rabbit. I thought it would be a good idea to see if they could cut my hair. Now my hair was way past my shoulders at this point and I’ve always had thick shiny hair so I really did love my long hair. I took the scissors and cut a huge chunk of hair off right in line with my eye. My mom turned around and realized what I did and freaked out. She then took me to the hair dresser and needless to say for the next few years I had a darn “bowl cut” until it grew out. Ohhh memories!
That is such a vivid memory for such a young age! And your poor mother must have had a heart attack. Like I said, I think I got off lucky since E. took a snip out of the back of her head rather than her bangs.
Thanks for the sharing that cute story!
I don’t remember cutting my hair, but I remember my younger sister did when she was about 5. She cut her hair with those dull kid scissors, then didn’t know what to do with the evidence and stuck the hair and the scissors in an envelope and hid it in her bookshelf. It was kind of hard for her to deny doing it when my mom found the envelope with all the evidence…
Don’t feel bad MomJovi, your cousin Sarah chopped off the bangs off her hair right before she was the flower girl in Joni’s wedding! Also Holly cut about fivce inches of her long hair when she was four while daddy was playing Nintendo instead of watching her. She had tape stuck in it and tried to get his attention first but he didn’t help. She had a boy haircut for the summer and her mommy cried!
I always hated getting my haircut as a little girl. My mom would coax me with the encouragemnt, “It will grow faster if we cut it . . .” So in grade 1, I got tired of waiting for my hair to grow. I snuck under a table with some scissors and a friend and came out with a pixie cut! I figured If I cut it really short, it would grow really fast!
Thank you for this story. you have helped me write an important essay due tomorrow. ;-]