Hair and Beauty for My Daughters.......

Took the girls to the salon with me on Tuesday. I don't have babysitting so I have to take them a lot of places with me.  My stylist is ok with it luckily.  The girls did ok (BGA had her nintendo so she was occupied the whole time) but LGA gets antsy so the owner, who evidently has grandchildren, sat down and colored with LGA while my color was on.  Then she got up to do something else and LGA instantly got bored.  Ok, part of that was my fault.  I gave her some donut holes as a treat because they got ready early enough for us to stop and get some.  BGA is noticing a bit more what she wants to eat and to eat healthier (even though she's still a picky eater) and didn't want any donut holes........or that could have been that I let her take some bubble gum with her.  Come to think of it, I bet that is what she wanted.  No donut holes but she'll take the bubble gum.

When LGA got bored, the hairstylist asked me if she could do some stuff with the girls' hair.  I said ok, because at that point, my color was being rinsed and I was gonna get a trim so I needed them to stay put. 

This is what they ended up with:

Here is me, growing out my hair

To this maybe??

Or this, strangely enough Dave liked both

The girls would never let me do this to their hair.  Last year, Aunt Kim did this to their hair:

I could never do that to their hair, as I am not really good at doing hair.  My mother always kept my hair shorter and occassionally she would do stuff with it, but not very often.  So I never really learned how to do hair.  My mother came from an era where she rolled her hair and dried it under a portable hair dryer. I found curlers and the portable hair dryer at her house when clearing it out. 

LGA hates having her hair touched as well, must be a sensory thing.  So the last hairstylist who cut it in June, told me to keep taking her so she gets used to someone else touching her hair.  I think she did ok with the stylist who had colored with her as I didn't hear anything from her about not liking her hair touched.  We went shorter this year because now she can brush it herself.  She wanted no bangs as well, so we started growing them out last year.  They are almost chin length now.

I hate having to grow out my hair.  I kept it short as the hot flashes were not fun and last summer I just didn't want to deal with hair in the heat.  However, now I want to grow it out to the two pics below, but that will take most likely till the end of the year.   I hate dealing with my hair and wish I could get a style that would require less effort (it does now, but still there is some blowdrying involved and putting product in it).  I loved having it shorter and would sport the pixie in a heartbeat, but my kids thought I looked like a man and my husband didn't like it at all.  So growing it out a bit to accomodate them.

 I do think it's funny the girls both went shorter this year and after initially not wanting to, they both like their cuts and BGA blow dries hers when after she washes it. She gets the old blowdryer I gave her out and I put a bit of product in it and she goes to town drying it.  She goes through stages where she does not want to dry it and then she just does it on her own. I think it gives her some freedom from her sister, who doesn't ask to do her hair at all yet.  I've also given BGA some lip gloss that is just her own and she uses it almost every day.  Too cute. 

Do any of you style your daughter's hair?  I just don't know how to do french braids and curls like the shots above. I'm just not that into it.  So Kim gave BGA a book last year to show her the different styles she can do with her hair.  I hope that will help her some day, cause I just won't be able to do it.  I always wished I could style my hair better or that it looked like the woman I'd see in a magazine or on the street with the great hair.  But reality is I am not very good at it so I need an easy style I don't have to mess with.

I want the girls to feel comfortable with hair, make up and nails (when it's appropriate, BGA still wants to cake it on) and clothing.  I have some friends who are good in these areas so I have a feeling I will be enlisting them to help the girls when the time comes that they are into clothes, hair and makeup.  They don't have any real desires for shoes or clothes, etc., although they are good now at picking out what they want to wear.  I will need to give up the control over BGA picking her own clothes soon.  I now let her pick from two styles I feel will be appropriate and she will ask me if she can wear something, etc.  When we shop the girls will pick out a t'shirt or dress or skort/skirt/pants that they like, sometimes shoes (BGA does like the high heels but is very bow-legged, so doesn't walk very well in them, poor girl, I'm so afraid she'll fall down. But she always wants to try adult high heels on and keeps asking me when I'm going to get some.  Um..........try the twelfth of never).  I want the girls and I to share doing some of this stuff.  I look forward to seeing their styles develop and what they want to wear.

I missed out on that with my mom as she never really showed me about any of it.  I don't know why.  She did take me to get my very Brooke Shield eyebrows trimmed and I regret that day completely as I could have had some great brows instead of the small, nonexistent ones I have now.   She never taught me how to maintain them, though.  Mom took me to get my hair cut and highlights put in, but she never really showed me how to blow dry and style my hair (I have self taught myself to curl my hair with a flat iron and curling iron) maybe because she didn't feel comfortable with it herself.   I learned to apply makeup by myself, and so therefore do not think I am very good at it.

I guess I never thought about having girls and teaching them about all this stuff, as well as all the things a girl needs to know.  It will be fun discovering what type of women they will grow up to be.

For now, I'll just be happy that people want to give them cute hair-do's when I need a bit of peace and quiet to get my own hair done and to chat with my stylist.  :-)