Hair wars

A few days ago, my friend Melissa posted an update on Facebook expressing frustration at her daughter’s choice of clothing. She’s 6 and has a definite idea about what she wants to wear and it isn’t always appropriate — think Easter dress to the playground or tank tops in winter.

As I told her, we’re pretty lucky with Emma. She likes to dress herself, but she’s pretty reliable when it comes to clothes. She usually matches things really well. Hell, she even wants her panties to match her outfit. She’s pretty good about picking temperature-appropriate things, and when a tank top is the only thing that will do, I can talk her into wearing it over a long-sleeved T-shirt.

Yep, we’re pretty lucky as far as clothes go.

But the more I thought about it, I realized we have our own battles. Over hair.

Oh, my lord THE HAIR.

Emma has naturally curly hair. She wakes up in the morning to an unruly rats nest of epic proportions, but she’s determined to fix it herself. She just learned how to put a ponytail in by herself, so that’s usually what she does. But that one piece of hair that won’t go back in the ponytail hangs out, down in her face. It’s not a problem for Emma, though, she just puts it back witha giant hair bow and calls it good.

Other days, she decides to add some spray conditioner and comb it into submission.  Sounds like a good plan, right? Well, her little 5-year-old fingers aren’t strong enough to successfully press the button on the pump spray bottle while holding it at arm’s length, so she ends up pressing the bottle against her head when she sprays. So what should be a fine mist all over her head comes out in big soaking patches.

I realize this is just the beginning. It’s good mom training. She’s clean, fed, clothed (matching, even) and healthy. Soon it will be wild-colored hair dye, piercings and tattoos. Relax, mom.

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