My daughter, 6-year-old Vienna, decided to get her hair cut.
Now, maybe that doesn't seem like a big deal. But please believe me when I say it was.
She and I have had a love-hate relationship with her hair for years now. She was born with a lot of hair and it never fell out - just kept growing. I absolutely loved putting cute little ponies on the top of her head...she looked just like Pebbles from the Flinstones when she was a toddler. She had beautiful big curls and it was so friggin adorable.
As it grew out more and got more heavy, of course she lost the curls. We had trimmed it a few times in the past years, but nothing major - just enough to shape it up a bit and be a bit more manageable.
She and I would have fun looking on Pinterest for cute hair-do's for girls. We would pick out special ones for specific events. Like last summer when we headed up to the State Fair we knew that it was going to be ridiculously hot so needed something that was going to keep her hair off her neck. She picked out a cute style and we put it up that way that morning before we left.
She also picked out a cute one for her first day of school.
It was kind of our "thing". She liked me trying out new styles, so I would spend a lot of time putting her hair up. Then, never fail, by mid-afternoon she would have pulled it all out and her hair would be hanging in her face and getting ratty. It drove me crazy!
Like many other little girls, I'm sure, when she first saw "Tangled" she wanted long hair like Rapunzel's. So, you can imagine my surprise when she made her first move toward shorter hair. Last fall she and her cousin were both at my sister's salon and got hair cuts. My niece got a super-cute above-the-shoulders cut, and Vienna wanted hers "much shorter, but not as short as Madaline's". So, my sister cut hers to just a bit below her shoulders. It was cute, but I would have loved it to be "as short as Madaline's" :)
Even though it was shorter, she would still take out any style we put in because "she wanted it to flow". So, I basically just stopped doing anything with her hair at all. I started telling her it was her responsibility to brush it every day and pretty much the only thing I would do was put in a pony. It was just too big a waste of time and my sanity to spend a ton of time doing something she wouldn't keep in anyway.
Fast forward to about a month ago.
I was doing my best to once again gently comb out her ridiculous tangles after a bath and out of the blue she said "Mom, can Auntie cut my hair?" Of course I replied "Absolutely. How do you want it cut?"
To my shock (and admitted excitement) she said "I want it short like Madaline's. Above my shoulders"
Yes, yes, yes!!!
I asked why and she replied simply "I'm just so sick of it". Ha. Girl after my own heart ;)
So, I talked to my sister and we figured out the best time to do it, and the countdown began. My sweet little Vienna was SO excited! She knew it was happening on May 15, so almost every day she would either ask me what day it was or tell me what day it was based on her own deduction from recent questions. She would then figure out how many days until the 15th.
I kind of kept wondering if she would back out. If she would decide that she liked her long hair and didn't want to go short.
Well, to my delight and pride, she didn't back down. She wanted it cut and was extremely excited about it. We had some other activities going on that day and she could hardly wait until they were all done so we could head to the salon.
Finally the time came and we headed out.
My sister is so amazing. She gave her the royal treatment with a lovely hair wash, scalp massage, let her pick her own cape, and did pretty much everything to make her feel special. Vienna wanted to donate her locks, but it was just a tiny bit too short.
Of course I was there snapping pics the whole time and fighting back tears.
My baby girl was growing up before my eyes. When my sister looked at me after she cut the first bit she asked me if I was crying. No, I wasn't. But I was close to it. She had just snipped off years and years of memories, both good and bad, and I wasn't quite prepared for it (even though I'd been wanting this for years and years - ha!).
I guess nothing can really prepare you for something like that. For a seemingly (from the outside looking in) minor event that ends up feeling pretty major when the time actually comes. I had no idea I would feel that way when I saw her hairline being cut away to her neck instead of the lower-middle of her back. I felt the same way when I learned that she had her first loose tooth last fall. It just took me by such surprise that I just wasn't ready for it. She was too young to be loosing teeth already!!
But she wasn't.
And she lost it. Then she lost another, and she currently has three loose teeth all at once.
All these milestones. You think that it's going to be the "big ones" that are the tough ones. You know, first steps, first words, first day of school, first date, graduation, wedding, grandkids. I'm finding, though, that I'm having just as hard a time with the small ones. With all these sweet things that the kids are going through, I am reminded again and again to not take a single day for granted. All I've ever wanted to be was a mommy, and now I am. I all-too-often forget that each day counts - even the awful days that we all wish we could just erase or at least start over when we are in the middle of them.
But we can't start them over.
We just need to savor each and every moment. The messy ones, the crying ones, the disrespectful ones, the teaching ones, the snuggling ones, and the "I love you" ones.
Yep. I got all that from a haircut. Not just any haircut though, but a perfect cut on a super-adorable-extra-cute 6-year-old. Check out this before & after. Can you get any happier with a new style? I think not.
She still bounces around and loves to feel it and look in the mirror. I'm guessing that will likely be happening for awhile yet :)
Also, I just want to give a shout out to my amazing hair-stylist sister, Renee Graf in Watertown. If you are looking for someone who will do whatever you want, and do it very well, go see her at MG Studios - she ROCKS!
~Evie
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