I know that it’s Thanksgiving in the States which means that instead of being on the Internet (or so they say), my American friends are watching football and stuffing their pie-holes with (Well, pie and) turkey with all of the trimmings. I, on the other hand, am serving up chicken chow mein. At least it’s poultry, right? Regardless of the holiday, something momentous happened yesterday that needs to be documented (Since I never got a baby book for Emily). Besides, about half of my readers are Canadian. (Hi!)
Yesterday morning I had an appointment with my hair stylist for a color and cut. My stylist is also a good friend who runs her salon out of her house. My kids and her kids get along famously and do a smashing job of pulling out every single toy while we get caught up on each others lives. This friend of mine has been asking me if she could please give Emily’s hair the teeniest tiniest trim because the ends needed to be cleaned up at it was driving her crazy. My response has always been hell to the no. I’ve only just been able to get her hair into pigtails. Cutting her hair is a preposterous idea.
However.
In the past few weeks her hair has been a wild and frizzy mess. It has resembled a ‘do that Albert Einstein, rather than an aspiring princess would sport. The ends were definitely frayed, which makes sense as they have not been cut in the entire three years they’ve been on Earth. I don’t even want to imagine what my hair would look like if I went three years without a trim. It would probably just look like this all of the time. I conceded that my friend was probably right. We put Emily into the chair and covered her in a cape.
She was a little bit skeptical.
Then she got downright surly.
She looks the most like me when she scowls. My husband is a lucky, lucky man.
We promised her a sucker if she bucked up. She contemplated her options.
The sight of the big scissors made her leery of getting hurt.
My friend made the top of her hair into a big surf wave and Emily thought it was pretty funny.
Not as funny as she found my brushed-out hair (She pointed, laughed, then said, “Your hair is wacky and kind of curly funny”) but she was still quite amused.
Before she knew it we were all done and she was pleased with the results.
See?
Emily had also worried that she’d lose her curls, but no! It’s actually curlier than it was before her haircut. Just like mine gets. Fancy that.
My friends honestly took off so little hair that we didn’t think we’d end up with any of it to keep as a memento. We ended up with a lock that’s about one-inch long, consisting of about ten strands. It’s wee, but it’s at least something to remember her first haircut by. You know, in addition to this post.
22 Comments
Aw, look at those cheeks in that last picture! She did better than my 3yo, who is known to flip the heck out when getting a haircut. Which is why we try to limit his haircuts to once every 6 months or so.
C @ Kid Things´s last blog ..Maybe We Should Just Order Pizza Instead 
What a doll! It’s pretty amazing the range of facial expressions and you capture them so well with the photos and the captions! This was inside, and it looks like you didn’t use a flash at all. If you wish to share the details, which lens were you using? You seemed to be able to stop the movement and get crystal clear photos so was it a combo of high iso and low f-stop? I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d be interested to know your secret if you care to share! 
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angella Reply:
November 26th, 2009 at 8:04 am
I have a Canon 40D, which makes photos taken with a higher ISO not as grainy as when I had the Canon Rebel. My main lens is the 24-70mm f/2.8, which is what I used yesterday. I also have a 50mm f/1.8 that I use a lot for indoor shots, especially in the winter. I had contemplated using it yesterday, but my friend’s salon is brightly lit.
I used an f/stop of 2.8 and took some shots at an ISO of 500 and some at an ISO of 640. I took a bunch, and while some were blurry, I did managed to get some clear ones.
I honestly think that every person I know who has a girl can’t cut their hair till they are just about 3 because there just isn’t any hair to cut! All boys on the other hand have had 18 buzz cuts by the time they are 2. How does that work???
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angella Reply:
November 26th, 2009 at 10:56 am
I have NO IDEA. But it has pretty much been the same with my kids.
So cute! I love her expression in the photo where she’s leery of getting hurt – priceless!
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angella Reply:
November 26th, 2009 at 11:14 am
I had a good laugh as I went back through these.
Great photos! What a fun way to document her first cut.
I find cutting their hair makes it grow faster! And getting rid of the fuzzies is always a good thing:) Makes them even cuter, if that’s at all possible.
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angella Reply:
November 26th, 2009 at 11:15 am
It’s amazing how such a tiny amount of hair cut off made such a HUGE difference in her hair. It’s so cute and curly!
What a great haircut! I love Emily’s curls.
(and your brushed out hair is totally hair band circa 1986…awesome!)
Regarding the Thanksgiving thing, I have to say that your post is the last entry in my RSS reader and now I don’t have a clue what to do with the rest of my day. Work? Housecleaning? When you’re Canadian, blog posts are more scarce on Thanksgiving than they are during Blogher.
angella Reply:
November 26th, 2009 at 10:58 am
I know, right?
Definitely DON’T opt for housecleaning (Says the crappy housekeeper). I have to work (BOO) but if you don’t have to, do something FUN.
Awww, so cute!! Love that you took so many photos DURING the cut, as opposed just the normal “before” and “after”. You captured her emotions so well!!
I remember cutting Tyler’s hair for the first time, and worrying about him losing his curls. He actually DID lose them after cut #2 or #3, which was sad … but hey, he had them for a few years and I’ve got plenty of pics!
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angella Reply:
November 26th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
One of my younger sisters had curls like Emily when she was little, but lost them too. I *really* hope she keeps them, or her hair goes curly when she hits puberty.
(Matthew and I both had straight hair until the teenage hormones kicked in.)
Emily is such a cutie. I love that you had your camera with you so you could document her first haircut.
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angella Reply:
November 26th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
They turned out even better than I thought they would. Yay!
I read your reply about the camera you use with interest. I’ve been saving up to buy a better camera and your shots are always great. I might copy your camera purchase.
I love that you took so many pictures. It’s like a flip-book where you get to see Emily’s subtle face changes. Cute. I just took one shot of my son’s first hair cut. Now I wish I’d taken more. I’m still waiting for my daughter’s hair to get long enough to cut. (Actually I’m still waiting for her hair to get long enough to put up so it doesn’t look so fly-away crazy.)
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angella Reply:
November 26th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I totally hear you on the girl hair. Emily very rarely lets me put pigtails in because she says it hurts.
As for the camera – I’m looking at moving up to the 7D, so my 40D will be going on the market here soon if you’re interested…
Not wanting to sound like a crazy ex hair stylist, however I have a very important fact for you. Most people want to cherish their wee ones hair and let it grow grow grow, worrying that cutting it will just make it shorter. However, when people have split ends, their hair will continue to break off and not grow out the way we want it to. So kudos to you for finally getting Em’s hair trimmed. It will be healthier and grow more (hopefully). I used to have long hair clients that hated to get their hair trimmed and would talk about how their hair was at a standstill and wouldn’t grow any longer. They always fretted but their main problem was the fact that they had split ends, and their hair wasn’t actually physically able to grow as it would just continue to split…..got it? Know where I’m going with this. Anyhoooo, I’ll stop rambling but I will finish with this. Emily looks absolutely adorable!! Glad she got a trim. She’ll be rapunzel before you know it.
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so adorable!
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I remember Bethany’s first cut. We were desperate to get rid of her 2 year old mullet and fuzzy ends. I was more nervous than she was and while it went well, I had to reward her (read: bribe with all my candy buy might) with smarties. Leaving her post cut photo complete with rainbow smeared cheeks! Gold, pure gold
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WOW. She really is your daughter. It is like a ‘mini me’ right there.
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angella Reply:
November 26th, 2009 at 11:13 am
The dudes freak out too, but only if WE buzz them. When my friend does it, they’re perfectly fine. Stinkers.