Hair Styling

I don't remember as a child having very long hair.  From pictures, I know it was shoulder-length for much of my primary school years and was put up on the front sides to get it out of my face with those figure eight elastic bands that sported a plastic marble on either end.   Other than that, I don't think my mother or I did much with my hair.

I do have memories of tangled hair as I got older, with the responsibility on me to brush it out.   I must have avoided this task for enough time that it was an endeavor to get them out when I did get around to brushing.   In this way, my daughter is a lot like I was: her hair tangles easily without regular brushing, and she has zero interest in brushing her hair.

When I got older, I wanted to have long hair.  I don't remember my mother ever requiring me to have short or long hair, so the choice must have been mine on length.   My hair was thick, frizzy, and curly and was something I never liked.  From time to time, I would get frustrated enough with it and cut it shorter.  On one occasion in seventh grade, I  cut it very shor.  I was mortified the next day when people at school mistook me for a boy.   Since that incident, I've never had short hair again.

What I wanted was long, long hair.  There was the frustration of the frizzy, curly mass of hair that never looked good long, no matter what I did to it.   I tried straightening it, which worked, pulling out the curl, but left all the frizz.   That was another experiment I never repeated.   Relatively recently, the evolution of keratin treatment finally gave me the type of hair I could manage at longer lengths.  It smoothed my hair, also removing the curls.  Flat iron technology also advanced, giving me the ability to dry my hair and add smooth curls back to enough degree that I've been able to have long, stylable hair.

For my daughter, I wanted her to have long hair as well, although other than adding hair products before drying her hair, her hair is all-natural.   She and I have long hair now.   I've been interested in doing various styles to her hair, including intricate braids or other ways of styling it to get her out of her face.   Except my daughter doesn't want me to style her hair.

I got a hair styling dummy on Amazon for the shockingly low price of $17.99 including shipping to practice on since my daughter wasn't interested in me honing my skills on her head.   I've watched a good number of videos on different styles, and now and then, my daughter will let me do something simple on her, but not often.

Then, a week or so ago, she and Madison got interested in doing each other's hair.  This week while she's been home without her brother who is now back in school, she asked if she could do styles on the hair dummy.   I set her up with the dummy head on a tripod and brought the spray bottle of water and hair accessories out for her to work with.   She's been showing me her styles (very minimal, including mostly twisting hair and clipping it up on the top of the dummy's head).

Today, my daughter unexpectedly asked me if I could style her hair.   She asked me if I knew "Dragon Braid," which I think she made up, but I knew it was actually a thing.   While I worked on her hair, she styled the dummy's head.   I think she likes her hair being done in a special way.   Maybe now she'll let me do her hair more often.

The Big Boy Math Question:  Interrupting the conversation at a table of ten at dinner over the holidays my son asked, "when was the last time you divided by thirty?"

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has a lot of work to do over the holidays.   She's getting close to finishing reading her big book now.  What she hasn't been doing is writing journal entries every day.   She's starting to catch up, but she has a lot of writing to do each day.  Fortunately, that's easy for her.  Today, she went through a whole package or review material for The Braille Challenge, which is coming up next month.   The good news is she sort of likes doing the work.