My Alter Ego

I have an alter ego that may come as a surprise to you. It's Lara the Hairdresser. Back in the day my Barbies and little sisters had the cutest hair around.

Take this super stylin' early 80's do I created for my sister for picture day one year. I don't know why, since she was the star of the yearbook in 3rd grade, but that was the last year she let me do her hair.

Now I have three girls of my own to exercise my sweet skills on.
Unfortunately one by one, each one of the girls has grown a resistance to my efforts to tame their tresses. My braiding and curling skills are getting sadly underused and it shows. Ellie's hair is much more unkempt than Cami's ever was at the same age.

Unfortunately for me, my own hair has never benefited from my hairdressing alter ego. My efforts to curl, tease, diffuse, part, or straighten my own quickly graying tresses has never been anything short of disastrous. My most common hair do has always been straight down or back in a ponytail.

That's why I've spent most of my life with either really long or medium length hair...it's just the most conducive to my preferred hairstyles.
I guess all this is leading me to why I feel so attached to my girls' hair and why when Emma announced to me that she really, really wanted me to cut her hair, I was sad. I love admiring her strawberry hair glistening red in the sun and I didn't want to see one inch of it cut off.

Alas it was important to her, so a few days ago I held my breath and hacked off about 8-inches of those beautiful locks.

Before:


After:
Guess what? After I finished I wasn't as sad as I thought I would be. She looks totally adorable with shorter hair, it's much easier to brush now, and there's still just enough left to do little tiny piggy tails.

Plus, it'll grow back. There's always that.