Annie freaks out when she gets her hair brushed. It's long and curly and in the morning filled with snarls and tangles and is pretty nasty business to get brushed out. The problem is Annie's reaction to our daily hairstyling has gone from sobs and tears to something that would make more sense if someone was taking out her appendix without anesthesia. It's obnoxious. She's screaming and thrashing and sobbing before I even touch her head now. I get that it's not pleasant, I try hard to be understanding and I use water and 'No More Tears' and patience, and yet she's busy screaming bloody murder from the first mist from the spray bottle. I've told her for a little while now that if the dramatics didn't cut down a bit (since she can apparently have her hair brushed by Grandma and others without more than an occasional whimper) that we were going to take her to get her hair cut. Nothing has improved, and this morning's freak out was particularly Oscar worthy, so I left her thrashing in the bathtub (where we'd been attempting to comb through some conditioner), grabbed a pair of random scissors, gave her one last warning, she started screaming about how I was the meanest Mom in the world, and I took her hair and cut off the bottom two inches.
We finished the haircut in the tub, she remained surprisingly calm throughout it. (Probably shock.) :-) The haircut (while I'll have checked out and cleaned up by my friend Emily) is surprisingly good, and the most ironic part is she spent the next hour admiring herself in the mirror. She loves it.
I'm hoping this makes our lives a bit easier for awhile. She's been told that if the theatrical antics keep up, we will go even shorter though . . .
10 comments:
Awesome! I can't believe you cut it!
You'll remember we have had this same problem. Here was our wonderful solution: I dug into my pile of inexpensive things that I keep to randomly reward the kids for being good. I placed the reward on a shelf. I put a sticker chart under the shelf. For every time she didn't yell, hit, or generally throw a fit, she got a sticker. And just like that we had 25 days of scream-free hair brushing. So, so, so worth the $3.50 I paid for the reward. AND she was good even without the chart for a while. Now it's about time to start a new one.
Annie's smart, and I bet she's goal-oriented just like Claire. I bet it works for you too.
HAHAHAHAHA. It's really unfortunate that you can't just shave her head (or at least realistically threaten to) without major societal consequences. :)
I want to see pics!
Good for you! That's one of the best parts about having a boy is that you don't have to deal with "styling" hair .. only frequent haircuts!
Ha! I love this story so much! Creative consequence and hilarious that she was too in shock to really protest.
I recall my mother solving a similar morning bed head problem by putting my hair in two braids at night. It seemed to keep the snarls and melodrama at bay when brushing hair. Ever tried braids?
We've done braids -- and it helps to a point. The problem is we end up with a complete and total meltdown in the evening when we're brushing her hair out to put into braids; plus, in the morning, when we take them out and have to brush it out, even though it's WAY easier, there's still the tangles in the fly-aways and escaped chunks of hair from the braids, that she still freaks out royally (at this point, she reacts so over the top no matter how hard or easy her hair is to brush out that day) . . . so we end up with two medium sized fights and tantrums rather than just the big meltdown in the morning, and it just left me thinking, "Screw it, I'll just fight her on this once a day." :-)
Lauren is queen of the hair do melt downs! I have threatened her with the same thing, but once the sisors are out, she stops (thank goodness. I would cut-but I wouldn't be happy about it. I am so glad that she loves her hair more then her pride.) Good for you for cutting though.
I'm just anticipating seeing Annie with a bob by Sunday. :)
I am trying to remember what we did for Savannah and now Joshua. braids do not cut it. Although my kids are not quite so dramatic when it comes to hair time. I think cutting hair regularly helps the most. Just wait until you get lice and the you really do consider shaving all their hair off.
I am trying to remember what we did for Savannah and now Joshua. braids do not cut it. Although my kids are not quite so dramatic when it comes to hair time. I think cutting hair regularly helps the most. Just wait until you get lice and the you really do consider shaving all their hair off.
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