Splitting Hairs

There are two weeks left before school starts and my soon-to-be 6th grade daughter now has bangs. Those angled, swinging, stay-in-your-eyes bangs. The kind that tickle your face but won't quite stay behind your ear. The kind that will more than likely drive me crazy. She looks cute and stylish and likes her new "do"...for now. I am mentally and emotionally trying to prepare myself for the moment (which, to be more precise, is any moment from now) that her opinion changes. I venture to say that every woman on the other side of her teens has battled with her bangs. We all know the turmoil of growing them out, wearing them too short, trying to curl them without having them look curled...
But I had to let her do it; all the while knowing that I would be paying the price in those early morning rush hour minutes.

But let me back up a bit and say that I applaud her for wanting to try new things. I hope that she always feels comfortable and confident enough to change her hair style. I ended up being a slave to other people's opinions about my hair and never experienced different looks. Now that I am not taking every single opinion to heart I am at a point where my hair "style" is the LAST thing I have time or energy for. My daughter, at least, has a mind of her own (don't I know it!).

She has been doing her own hair in the mornings ever since she was itty bitty. For one I am always rushing around trying to get myself ready, get breakfast ready, clean up breakfast, get lunches ready, let the dog out, let the dog in, start the washer and dryer...you get the picture. Another reason she does her own hair is that she is such a perfectionist she and I don't mesh well before 7:00 a.m....especially when she insists there is still a hair (did you catch that...a hair...as in a SINGLE hair) on the wrong side of the part. WHATEVER!!?? Keep in mind, dear readers, that my hair is almost always pulled back in a hairball atop my head.

She and I never had the bonding-in-the-mornings-while-I-tied-ribbons-in-her-freshly-curled-hair kind of moments. Our morning hair experiences are more likely to have me screaming, "I've got a brush in the car-you can fix it on the way-now get your butt out of here we're late AGAIN!!!" Followed by lots of "it looks fine" and "no one will even notice" remarks.

Eventually the tears dry up and the eyes come out from beneath the eyebrows and the brush gets put back in the glove compartment. The winds blow and the rain falls and at the end of the day it's time to wash our hair and start all over again...wash, rinse, repeat...