The other afternoon, as I looked over at my daughter’s pixie cut, I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself as I recalled the events that lead to her current hairstyle…
I don’t know how many times my own mother asked me what was wrong with my daughter’s hair. “Why wasn’t it growing? Why was it so thin? Why didn’t she have more of it?” She insisted time and time again that I should shave all her hair off so that it would grow faster. The idea that thin hair can be made thicker by shaving is a wives tale of epic proportions.
I hate to admit that I gave into parental pressure, but I did. I decided I would shave my daughter’s hair before the summer was over and before I got cold feet. I knew that if I didn’t do it, my mother would never let me hear the end of it. I could just imagine grandma standing up at her granddaughter’s wedding, pointing her finger and blaming her thin tresses on me.
After I cut her hair my heart sank. My daughter not only looked like a little boy, but an unhealthy one at that. Her eyes protruded from her little head and her cheeks seemed so hollow! What had I done? I consoled myself with the knowledge that her hair would grow … eventually. And that she’s only 2-years-old. She wouldn’t be scarred for life – likely she wouldn’t even remember the whole fiasco. When she’s a teenager, she will hide the photo album and this will be our little family secret.
When I got home, I called my mom and happily informed her that we had done the deed. We had a little G.I. Jane in the house. To my surprise, she replied, “It’s probably too late anyway. You should’ve done it when she was a baby.” Gulp.
Didn’t I learn how to say no to parental-pressure in high school? Oh no – wait a second – that was peer pressure. In any case, my husband and I had a good laugh about it later. Hopefully, someday, so will she.
Dr. Melissa Rodriguez is a Naturopathic doctor who lives with her family in Beijing.
