“You can tell which girls lack mothers by the look of their hair…”
~The Secret Life of Bees
I gasped as I read this quote from The Secret Life of Bees, a novel about a motherless girl. I was horrified at the tremendous absence that would fill a motherless girl’s life. So many motherly details just gone. The thought sent me running to my daughters, interrupting their usual afternoon Play Doh tea party for a hug and kiss session.
And then I went to work. One at a time, I pinned my daughters down and began my obsessive grooming. French twists, braids, ponytails, buns, and fancy knots. Our mornings became filled with Goody clips, barrettes, stretched out hair bands, bobby pins, head bands, glittery, no slippy hair clippies…..My one year old is off the hook with a couple brush strokes and one simple clip....for now. Not so with the three year old.
“Ouch!”
“Quit pulling!”
“You’re hurting me!”
I growl under my breath and make a mental note to remind myself to assign my daughters the task of reading The Secret Life of Bees when they are teenagers. In the meantime, Mommy Hair Nazi cackles each morning over a bottle of detangler and a drawer full of hair doo-dads. Or is hair thingy the proper term?.
10 years ago
11 comments:
Oh no!!! Oh well, I always knew I wasn't going to get any Mother of the Year Award. My girls do not want thing a ma bobs in their hair. So I just comb it and sprits a little hairspray, so it doesn't look so flyaway. But, on holidays, they have no choice. People are taking pictures.
A silver lining to a house full of boys - a little hair gel and a spritz of spray, and he's ready to go melt the girl's hears!!
Though some days, barrettes and french braids sound like a lot of fun :-).
Em
Oh my mom would put me through such pain doing my hair. It would take her 30 minutes just to brush the tangles out!
LOL...they are gonna be hairless and wish their mommy couldn't read!!!
Great take on the quote.
It is so obvious when normally well groomed kids come to school looking a little out of sorts that Mom must be out of town!!!
Dad's don't always notice these things unless they have been well trained.
Now I have to read that book. You had me gasping too. While I always make sure my daughter's hair is washed and brushed, I'm suddenly feeling like I need to be sticking more hair thingies on her head. :-)
Doing my oldest daughter's hair is a nightmare. We fight about it every morning. I spray it with detangler, use all sort of different brushes, but no mattter what I do, she ends up screaming. When she comes home in the afternoon, her hair looks pretty close to bedhead and I wonder...does anyone know that I actually DO her hair? Great post.
omg! my daughter is the same way when I comb her hair! It's always an "OUCH! you're hurting me" type of argument each time. I'd rather have that than people staring me down for having a little girl with gnarly hair when we're out :)
Caitlin would scream and cry. I always felt inferior to the mothers who had perfectly coiffed daughters. But there was always a part of me that wondered if they drugged the moppets to gain cooperation.
I think it's actually gee-gaws.
Funny that this should be so universal. Juniper is not motherless, but she's been largely raised by her father. Consequently, she cannot abide having her hair brushed. At all. Ever. And he didn't fight her on it.
In her defense, it's terribly thick (like I've never seen, and I come from thick haired stock). But the fact that it's never really seen a brush is part and parcel of this.
How awful that it's universal.
That said, Rosebud gets a topknot every day. That's the sum total of my fripperying. Gee-gawing. Futzing.
I have had the book on my shelf for a year now and could not get past the first few pages but I will have to go on. I am struggling with keeping one solitary top knot in Ella's hair. But on most days her hair at best resembles really good bed head. :0
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