“Mommy can I wear my costume?”
“Not yet. You’re going to wear it next week in your recital.”
“But I want to look pretty.”
“You do look pretty,” I replied, but apparently she didn’t believe me.
It wasn’t too long after that conversation that it happened. I was fixing dinner and I realized the house had fallen silent. The silence hit me louder than any scream. When you have four kids, you rarely have silence and when you do you can be sure to find trouble.
I shut the stove off and went in search of my “too quiet” children. As I approached the bathroom, I heard a few noises. I opened the door slowly.
Amanda’s big eyes met mine. She had an alert wide-awake look, which was enhanced by the lack of bangs above her long black eyelashes.
I surveyed the room, taking in the damage. Autumn was perched on the sink with a pair of scissors at her feet. Bits and pieces of blonde and brunette locks were scattered across the sink, countertop and floor. I grabbed the scissors and left the room without saying a word. I found the other two children still napping in their room. I sighed with relief as I saw at least their locks were still intact.
In my bedroom, I found my sewing box open. I hadn’t even realized there was a pair of scissors in there. (Which sort of gives you a clue about how often I use my sewing box.) But the two resourceful little girls in the bathroom in search of beauty had found them.
Under control, I went back into the bathroom to assess the damage. Autumn’s hair had reached the middle of her back in beautiful ringlets. Amanda’s hair had just grown long enough to brush her shoulders.
Upon closer inspection, it seemed Amanda had received the bad end of the deal. Her bangs had been cut as close to the scalp as you could get without the aid of a razor. I couldn’t even grab the little bits of hair left where her bangs should be.
Autumn’s curls were untouched, or so I thought when I first looked at her. Her bangs had been cut, but they were fixable I decided. Until this point, the only scissors that had come near Autumn’s head had just trimmed her bangs.
Her hair is thick and curly while Amanda’s is thin and straight. I reached out and gathered her hair in my hand and knew immediately something more than just her bangs was amiss.
Normally too thick to gather in anything but a very large hair tie, Autumn’s hair felt thin in my hand. Although the outside of Autumn’s hair remained intact, the layer underneath on one side of her head had been cut. The entire left side of her hair was gone. The longest point just reached the bottom of her left ear.
Amanda’s haircut was laughable. The extremely short bangs made her look so alert and her eyes so big. It was so obvious that it was the result of a toddler with a pair of scissors. Autumn’s haircut, however, made me blink back tears. Her long beautiful baby ringlets were gone and I knew I’d never see them again.
I bit my lip and grabbed the scissors. I trimmed up Autumn’s back and other side to match the self cut job. I then loaded the girls into the car and took them to the beauty salon. The lady was great. As she cut the girls hair she talked to them about how they needed a license to cut hair and all of the training you should have. She told them about the special scissors made just for cutting hair.
I walked out of there convinced they were cured. One week later, Autumn and Amanda performed on stage in their ballet recital. Amanda’s hair made it into a little bun, but it took a lot of tugging and pulling to even get Autumn’s newly shorn locks into something that resembled a ponytail.
It’s a year later and Autumn’s hair is once again nearing the middle of her back. But as I suspected the ringlets are gone. In their place is thicker hair with lots of body waves. Amanda’s hair is still thin, but it has finally reached the middle of her back. More importantly she has bangs!
I’d like to say I no longer have any beauticians in training, but it would take just one look at my youngest daughter’s hair for you to realize otherwise. Oh, don’t get me wrong. She looks cute now in her little bob that just reaches the bottom of the ears. I just want it known that I was not responsible for the haircut she sported for months before her hair grew back even this long!
Last week, at a parent teacher conference I was presented with my children’s cuttings. It seems they need practice with their scissor skills.
Any one willing to volunteer?
Copyright © 2000 Linda Sherwood
