When a Haircut Turns into Something More

My daughter, she's 13, but she's not the type of teenage girl I expected. When I think teenage girls, I think girls who are into the latest clothes, the newest boy band, boys, make-up, and probably more girly thing I can't think of at the moment. My daughter is not like that. She's a jeans a tee kind of kid. She loves Doctor Who. Make-up has never touched her face outside of Halloween and she hasn't expressed a desire to change that. This is why I was a little thrown off guard when she asked about getting a haircut. And not just a trim, but a major hairstyle change.

She was closer to two years old when her hair finally started to grow. Since then, she's always had long hair. The shortest it was ever cut was below the shoulders.This new hair cut she wanted? It was closer to a longer pixie cut. I talked her out of it for a year for fear it wouldn't look right. She has a hint of her chubby cheeks from when she was a baby. She wears glasses. Would those things work with super short hair? That's why I continued to say no.

Until last week.

I told her to pull up some pictures of what styles she liked. I wasn't sold on any of them, but I continued to nod and smile. I spent an hour helping her brush her hair. Her long hair almost always had giant knots in it. Once we finally got all the knots out, off to the salon we went. Thankfully a stylist took some time to pull out hairstyle books and go over a few styles with her. And then it was time.

The pile of hair on the floor nearly made me cry. In the end, I love her new 'do, but looking back, I realized that pile of hair on the floor at the salon was more than just a pile of hair. My daughter was letting go of her hair as I was letting go of my daughter. She is and always will be my baby, but it took something as simple as a haircut for me to realize that she is of the age where I need to pull back so she can start to figure out who she is as a person.

As a parent letting go is one of the hardest things to do, but seeing a smile on your child's face makes it all worth it. Also, my daughter giggling for the rest of the day because she loved her new 'do that much... you can't put a price on that!


Until next time...