The Tates: Hair Cut

Okay I have an announcement to make...I was brave. Not just any kind of brave, the brave that mom's fear, the day their child becomes independent and knows what she wants and how she wants it. Madison wanted to get her hair cut short like mine. There was absolutely no way! I have NOT cut her hair since she was born (other than the occasional trim of the split ends). She has been pestering me and pestering me about cutting her hair. And I must admit that brushing the tangles and snarls out of her hair and having her cry HUGE crocodile tears was not pleasant for either party involved. So then having Daniel home and having him hear the morning routine, he started pestering me about it. Saying "it's just hair"...and for any mother who has any child born with no hair knows that... it is NOT JUST HAIR! This hair symbolizes alot ...like when she was a baby and people asked you what your baby is, you can now plainly see that she is a girl! with beautiful golden straight hair that comes down almost to her butt. I love her hair. You can do so many things with long hair... piggy tails, pony tails, all sorts of braids, you can have it curly, flat, kinky, twisted. However I slowly came to a conclusion that long hair for her wasn't fun, she would like it flat with nothing in it, but she's still an active girl and being outside running, playing, riding scooters and bikes her hair would come in a complete mess, and that's when we would brush her hair again and the tears would inevitably come. It would break my heart, a mom doesn't enjoy her kids crying, especially over hair. I bawled when Madison cut her own hair and she was then given bangs...that was a year and a half ago.

So now Daniel is pestering me, and Madison. Then Daniel pulled out the stops by saying "you know she could donate it." How sweet and tender to be able to give to someone in need, and who am I to deny my child that gift of giving. Dang it all Daniel! So I resigned to the fact that we were going to let Madison cut her hair, as long as she donated it. So we hopped on the Locks of Love website and explained to Madison all about cancer, and how this illness and the medicine made the little girls hair fall out and how sad she would be without any hair. We showed her pictures of patients, and pictures of how they donate it to make wigs. She was ecstatic about it. That was what she wanted to do. So now we have the task of setting an appointment and actually going through with it. So last week we called and set the appointment with Penny. (She does my hair and nails, Lindsay's hair and nails, and Karen's hair.)

So today is the day at 1:00 we head to Penny's with a car full of mostly excited people. I'm still not sure about this.
Here's our before pictures:

getting ready in the chair.

Penny gets her in the booster and puts her hair in a pony tail and measures it. Then she gets the scissors. There's only a split second left to turn back. I'm screaming STOP! NO! DON'T DO IT! oh wait that's all in my head...however I am holding my breath and might pass out. Breath Jennifer remember it's only hair and it will grow back.

There's no going back now.