Sometimes I use my blog to dole out advice. Other times I give an opinion or two on a topic du jour. Today, I’m looking for advice from y’all. Oh, how the tables have turned.
Here’s the down low. My little girl was born with the genetic coding associated with my hair. That’s right, she has a ton of really long back, ear and ass hair. It’s gross.
All right, I’m kidding. I am in fact talking about the hair on her head. It’s thin and wavy and there are lots of curls at the back that turn into ringlets from time to time. But it isn’t exactly what you would call thick.
Now, I love her hair. That must be said. But before she was born, I prayed to each of the mainstream deities that she be born with hair like my wife’s. That’s because my wife has the kind of thick and luxurious hair that is the envy of most of the women she meets. At work, her colleagues call her Pantene Pro V because, well, I shouldn’t have to explain that really…
Turns out I forgot to pray to Cheveux, the Greek God of Hair Follicles (obviously not a mainstream deity). Thus, her DNA is from my side of the family.
In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t the worst possible outcome… both my sister and I had virtually no hair until we were well beyond 3 years of age, so Pea is well ahead of us at this point.
The question now becomes – how do we deal with the type of hair she has? She still has some patches that are pretty thin and ideally we’d like to see things start to thicken up sooner rather than later. If anything, the more hair she has the more protection she has from the sun, right?
For the longest time, I figured the conventional wisdom as it relates to hair is that if you want long, thick hair, let it grow. But recently, I’ve begun to wonder whether it might be time for a trim and a little hair-do of sorts.
Here are the many thoughts I have rushing through my head on this topic:
Will a hair cut ruin her wavy and curly hair?
- My mother-in-law swears that she had hair just like Pea when she was a little girl, but over time her haircuts robbed her of naturally curly locks.
Does getting her hair cut actually mean it will grow faster?
- By definition, cutting hair means you are making it shorter, not longer. So, if we cut her hair, will it not take her longer to regain the growth she has earned to date?
Should we have shaved her head and given her a fresh start?
- My wife’s background is South American, and she has a ton of family that swear that if you shave a kid’s head while they are still young, the new crop of follicles will grow in thicker and more luxurious. Maybe we should have taken this drastic step?
I’m sure there are more than a few opinions and, if the internet is any indication, a whole bunch of misconceptions and misinformation out there. Let me know what tips, tricks and myths you have regarding kid hair, and how we might be able to help Pea’s follicles flourish.
Thanks gang!
Well, you could just wait until she cuts it herself….should happen around 3.5 if she’s left unattended with her scissors. (that happened to us, must post about it).
My mom swears that I lost my ringlets after my first cut and I have thin hair (but a lot of thin hair). I think the trimming making hair grow faster is BS – it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever – I mean really how does that work?
Her hair looks pretty good in the photo, why mess with it?
I can’t even imagine cutting at this age…my girls didn’t have hair for so long, Isabella is 5 and still hasn’t had her hair cut!
I am having the same dilemma with Eva’s hair. Her hair is just like Pea’s only blonde and quite a bit longer. I love that I can put it in braids and pigtails and do all sorts of fun things with it (when she lets me).
I gave it a little trim last year just to get the newborn whispy’s out that kept getting tatty.
Her bangs are now down to her shoulders and I’d love to give her a bob all the way around, but I think she’ll have weird wavy hair and it wouldn’t look as good as I picture it in my head.
I see some little girls with supercute haircuts, but I figure it took her over 2 years to actually grow any hair that I’ll leave it for now.
I have heard that it’s true shaving a baby’s head will grow back thick hair.
One of the celebs I follow on twitter did that and her daughter has gorgeous hick hair now.
Very interesting….I read your title and thought it was about circumcision. I think it’s really, really hard to know. Everyone is different. I will say that I have curly locks, once cut it all off and it came back thicker and curlier. I’m sort of down with the South American opinion but I think it’s too late – she’d be traumatized likely – I don’t know will she be?? I do know from countless trips to the salon that if you want it to grow faster, you need to keep trimming it. Or maybe they were just trying to milk me for some more cash….
Shawn,
She’s two.
The only thing that will remain the same is the size of her eyes. (which is why babies are so gorgeous)
pats