ingrid leafblad's house of curl

I gave Ingrid her first hair cut tonight ... an inch off the bottom to give her more of a 'bob' cut. Actually I probably didn't even cut off enough for an inch, but being that I have zero hair cutting skills I thought I'd better play it safe.

It, however, got me reminiscing about when her siblings had their first hair cuts and I couldn't help but notice the vast differences between parenting a first ... or a second ... or a third child ....

Take the first hair cut for example:

Child #1: was taken to a *real* barber. In fact, the one that cut Lars' hair all growing up. It was a big to-do and so exciting. Every second was documented. Heck, we probably took him out for ice cream afterwards.

Child #2: quite a bit less pomp and circumstance. To our defense, she really didn't have much hair at the time so it didn't seem necessary to pay someone to cut her hair. Nonetheless, her first hair cut was thought out and planned for. Had both parents there to document and experience the first hair cut. It was a family event ... and photos were taken.

Child #3: I made a rash decision after bath tonight that it might look kind of cute to cut her hair in the back. Only AFTER cutting did I realize that not one single picture was taken to document this first hair cut. And NO, it wasn't a *huge* hair cut by any means, but cutting those first locks of hair is a big deal. A milestone. And I felt, and feel, horrible. Not so much about the hair cutting itself, but more about the vast differences of being child number three compared to child number one (perhaps a blog post in the future?!) .... At least I remembered to keep a few locks to put into her baby book. *sigh*

So, back to her hair cut.... I started to panic a bit while cutting her hair wondering if I was going to be cutting the curl out. (Like I said, it was a rash decision and not well thought out.) I continue to be shocked and amazed that we have a child with curly hair. I wondered if her curls were merely the curly hair that babies can have that eventually straighten out as they age ... or it gets cut out. But based on the amount of curl she has I am banking she will continue to have curly hair no matter how many hair cuts I give her ... right??

And my other panic tonight about Ingrid's hair is her "bald spot". Remember how we had to give up the pacifier because she was developing a bald spot due to wrapping her hair around the pacifier and YANKING it out? Well, her hair is still noticeably thinner on top and I can still see the hair follicles of where hair should be growing, but isn't.

Not a pure bald spot, but definitely thin hair. She was pulling her hair out for just a few months so I can't imagine that would have caused permanent hair damage, but I am no expert. However if you are reading this and are in fact an expert, I'd love to hear you say, "don't worry about it. Her hair will grow back".

But only if you really mean it.

xoxo, the blad pad