A hairy tale

Do you see this?


This is not the norm around here. It's lovely, but who has time to do that everyday? And how practical is it really? A couple of hours after this shot was taken, we sprinted through the rain in order to jump into an indoor swimming pool, wasting all that effort in exchange for a good time. A tradeoff that I will repeatedly make.

And do you see this?

This was my attempt to do something a little dressy to her hair when we went to "The Lion King" production in the summer. I am not good with hair. I've rarely had hair long enough to cover my ears (and, by the way, that would be handy in the winter around here) so I have no practice.

Without help, my girls normally have hair ranging from rat's nest bedhead to staticky (sp?) hathead to slightly wavy. The slight wave exists only under the top layer of hair, so it doesn't necessarily fall neatly. It can have the appearance of bedhead hiding under a fine layer of brushed hair. Only Laura has straight hair requiring little upkeep. And Beth is starting to care about her hair. While that's a welcome change from the years of screaming as I approached with a brush, she has my hair in texture and curl and I've never known what to do about my own besides cut it off. She doesn't want short hair.

My Christmas solution is this.

While pencils in the hair would work too, these are prettier. I found them at a craft fair. The girls were with me and the expert saleswomen made beautiful French twists and buns in each of the kids' hair.

It looked so easy that I thought I'd try them. Hopefully I can get it right or Beth and Laura can learn to use them themselves. They even put a tight little bun in Alice's hair, but I think I won't be able to get that quite right. She still has fine, fairly short hair. I don't want to overestimate my hairstyling skills here.

These may get more use:

Totally simple to make and easy to put in your hair. Beth has taken to using all sorts of hairbands, but the plastic ones break and are uncomfortable.

She is not a "pink" girl so much anymore, but every once in a while I throw some pink at her and it takes. I'm getting a little worried that she may be growing up. I made a greenish cordorouy one just in case the pink doesn't appeal to her this time.

You can see how simple they are to make. Just a tube of fabric attached to a bit of elastic. I like the elastic because kids don't always have a ton of hair. This allows the back of the hair to lie flat and stops the hairband from slipping off.

Laura is not excluded from this gift because she could use them too, but I have to save something for her birthday in January. If she makes jealous noises at Christmas I'll know what to do.