Locks of Love

Today marked the end of a rough period in our lives - the days of brushing out Kali's hair. It would start with a simple "Kali, time to do your hair," and end in a wailing session that would rival the holiest wailing wall. Saturday I was done. And so was little Kali.

We have been growing her hair out her entire life - she's had exactly 2 trims in her 3 1/2 years. One by me and one professionally done. This spring we talked about growing it until we had 10 inches, then giving it to Locks of Love. I asked her if she wanted to give it to little girls who had no hair, and she nodded her head enthusiastically. So I've been measuring every few weeks, hoping we had enough. I mean really, how great to be able to do something for others without doing any work at all. Just letting the darn stuff grow! We've been looking forward to the big day for a while.

I was also starting to feel very guilty looking at her pictures. As most of you know, my husband is the ultimate photographer - we have thousands and thousands of great pictures. But quite frankly, Kali looked like a little orphan child in a large majority of the pictures. I stopped Steve from taking so many pictures, saying "You can't - just look at her hair!" Unfortunately I am not always around to help him see the big picture.

Point in case: After he took these pictures he says to me, "Aren't these great? Look how beautiful she is!" I just looked at the picture and thought, "Where is this child's mother?"

And we have many, many similar pictures I didn't spend enough time preparing for. I wonder if she will look back with hard feelings towards me, poor little thing. The final straw came when I spent a lot of time doing her hair for Trenton's birthday party (curling, brushing, rubber banding) and it still looked like she just got out of bed. Between that and the wailing, I was DONE. We took one final measurement and headed out to Fantastic Sam's with the whole family along, with Daddy's skills to capture the process.

Before

Kali was very excited that it wouldn't hurt to brush it out anymore, that it'd be short like her friend Bailey's hair (thank goodness for Bailey) and that we were giving it to the girls who had no hair.

Yes, I did get a little nervous at this point. When I told the hairstylist what we wanted, she shook her head and said, "No, that is going to be really short." I thought she was going to refuse to do it! I had to convince her we were fully aware of how short it would be and trust me, we were ready.

After

Happy as a clam and ready to send her donation! She did great. I was so proud of her willingness to do the whole thing. Right after it was cut, she said "I can't do a long braid anymore, can I?" Oh - her favorite hairstyle! "No, but we'll do short braids if you want." And she was completely OK with that.

We are excited to mail off the ponytail and I wasn't scared at all when Steve took pictures of the kids bug hunting today. She loves it, but Trenton is trying to get used to it. After it was cut he said, "I can't wait until it grows long and you look like Kali again." And after covering his eyes, "Oh, it's combing my eyes to look at you with short hair!" (combing...hmmm). He's not a big fan of change.

Helping Blake down the hill today during our bug hunt - and no cringing from mom as the pictures were being snapped :)!

This is a video clip of her getting her new hairdo dried - she really was in heaven during the whole process. Little sweetie.