I had long hair until 3rd grade, when it was cut & I had short hair ever since. When I got married in my mid-20s I had grown it out again to just past my shoulders, and it has never been that long since. Needless to say, I don't know how to do "girl hair." I can braid, sure, but that's it. Now I have another female in the house who is obsessed with her hair. And other people's hair. And their hair accessories. And the color of their hair.
It goes deeper than that, though. In play therapy she usually identifies the "good" character as a blonde like her mommy. She hates dolls or characters with brown hair (her own). Any hairstyle I would suggest early on was met with a yuck-face or she'd let me try it, followed with - "it looks disgusting" and she'd take it out. So I gave up.
Last week Girl started mentioning doing her hair again, but kept coming up with ideas that can't be done with her length of hair. I suggested we look up YouTube videos of hairstyles and try a couple. She got really dysregulated about this topic, alternately snapping at me, calling her hair disgusting, and insisting she could do it herself. So Doug & I decided it was time to poke at this particular topic because it all goes back to her mommy. Hair, clothes, & makeup (not the play kind - we're talking mascara here) were the way that Girl and her mommy spent time together. Girl loved the compliments and attention she got from mommy, grammy, and others.
So we said a few things to get her feelings boiling up and she *finally* let loose some emotions about mommy (and how I'm definitely not as good as her when it comes to hair, lol). The next day, Girl asked if I would try a reasonable hairstyle on her, and then said it looked good. And she has worn it in a similar style for four days now. Meanwhile, I'm watching YouTube videos to learn how to french braid!
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