Cutting Me Up

So now I have a problem.

My lovely daughter, with her beautiful, long, chestnut hair, is driving us all insane with her daily hair issues. When this happened before (about two years ago), it got so bad there were daily tantrums before school. At that time, I threatened to cut her hair off, and eventually even she had had enough of the daily stress and asked to cut it short. We did a nice little bob and she kept that for a couple of years. Life was good. She could get ready quickly, there was only one style to do, and she could do it herself. As time went on, it grew, and I let her grow it, since she was able to do a ponytail herself and we didn't have any more problems.

Now, though, the problem has cropped up again. With additional hairstyle possibilities, and an increased interest in fashion (could there even be?), she is starting to stress about hair every day. It bleeds into the rest of us. When her hair does what it should, and she sticks to her ponytail, we all have a great morning. When it doesn't, or when she asks me for some special style (like a plait - nothing too complicated, I won't go that far) and it doesn't look exactly like she envisioned it, there are tears, delay, shouting (from James and me), inactivity (from her), and the whole family ends up having to deal with the fallout.

We are at the point where she has had two incredibly bad days in the past week, and if it happens again, her hair is getting cut. I might just take a pair of scissors and hack it off myself in a moment of frenzy.

I know how much she loves her long hair. I know how traumatic it will be to cut it. Because I have no doubt that we will have that next day, where a meltdown occurs because of a stray strand. I know of one person out there who will tell me DON'T CUT IT!! because she remembers the injustice of having her own mother keep her hair short, when she wanted to grow it long. What she doesn't remember is that she most likely had the same hair issues as Kate, and her mum finally had enough! : )

My hair is now long. I went for a haircut a couple of weeks ago, and was stricken with indecision about what to do with it, as it has taken so long to grow it this long. But I think that when Kate has to cut her hair, I will need to do it too. How crappy would it be for me to cut her hair and keep mine long?

Valley Fort

...and a couple of tries made at today's rugby tournament...Valley Fort Rugby Festival...