Hair story repeats itself

Maybe it's because I had two boys first, or maybe it's just that she has the cutest California blond curls, but scissors have never come into contact with my daughter's hair, and she's nearly 3 years old.

For a brief period, she couldn't see past the golden locks falling in front of her eyes, and she refused to keep a hair clip in. I had both grandmas dropping heavy hints about maybe possibly considering cutting some bangs.

The grandmas were being so short-sighted. I figured, whatever short term harm came from missing a few months of vision would be well worth it once her hair was long enough to tuck behind her ears or pull back in a ponytail.

I was right, her hair is SO cute. And I'm still not planning to cut the bangs, but I do think it's time for that inaugural haircut. Because she is just not crazy about putting a comb to that adorable mop of wavy hair. Doesn't love ponytails too much either. She does like to wear about 40 mismatched hair clips, but that does not help much in the detangling department. And that's the problem. She inherited my rat's nest.

"Rat's nest" is what we used to call the thing that happened to my hair back when I was a kid with really long hair who didn't like ponytails or combs. Every so often my mom and I would decide it was time to cut my hair short. First, though, we had to sit down with a bottle of Johnson & Johnson's No More Tangles and spend hours eliminating the rat's nest.

Let's just say that some of my happiest childhood memories were NOT the detangling sessions with Mom. But each time when we were finished and my hair was finally all combed out, we would decide it was just too darn pretty to cut after all. Instead we would just do a better job of remembering to comb it so we would never have to go through this again.

The rat's nest always came back. This went on until sometime around middle school when I finally started caring enough to consistently comb my hair.

So I have always sworn that if I had a daughter, I would NEVER let her hair grow out so much that she could get a rat's nest. And of course, like so many things I swore I would never do as a parent, I did it anyway.

But seriously. I'm making an appointment for a haircut. I mean it.

First, though, it's off to the store for a bottle of No More Tangles.