I'm talking about baby hair. How much were they born with? How much did they then almost immediately lose? How much grew back? Is it blond? Curly? Long? Thick? Is your child basically Shirley Temple at 6 months old?
I mean, obviously, babies themselves don't care about this crap. It's their parents that lose or gain pride based on baby hair.
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| Rockin' the Donald Trump 'do. |
Nobody would ever say that babies with more, longer, curlier, thicker hair are cuter (at least, not in front of moms of little baldies), but the amount of hair one's baby has seems to be a badge of honor. Whenever a picture is posted on social media of a newborn with thick locks, everyone oohs and aahs over how much hair this kid has. As though it's a real achievement. "Good job, Mom, you made a child with hair! Everyone else should probably stop reproducing because you have clearly created a perfect human!"
I guess this is the time to admit that my daughter doesn't have a lot of hair. It's thin and wispy and somewhere between brown and blond (in other words, neither angelically blond or exotically dark), and it sticks straight up. My niece told me she looks like a boy. (My niece is only 7, but still.)
Maybe I'm just jealous. Maybe I wish my daughter had longer hair.
But I have a little confession to make. When she was younger, yes--I did secretly wish she had more hair. But now, when I see babies her age with gorgeous Rapunzel hair, I kind of think that they look a little too old and austere. I far prefer my baby's little wispy hairs that stick straight up.
Hey, why not embrace this? I will rebel against a culture that thinks more hair is more beautiful than no hair! I will defy a society that spends outrageous amounts of money on products that claim to make hair longer, thicker, and silkier! Less is more! We are all beautiful!
Or maybe I just think my baby is the cutest of all the babies.
Well, whatever.
I actually think babies with tons of hair look a little weird myself. Plus, it's hard as a mom to have to fix it every day. Rhonda could never, ever be cuter than she is now! I adore her hair! (Sorry about Nellie's comment, by the way. She has no sense of tact.)
ReplyDeleteI think so too! And don't worry about Nellie. She's not the first person to think Rhonda looks like a boy! And I don't care as much as most moms do. :)
DeleteNellie also thinks that characters drawn with eyelashes are girls and without are boys. Her gender differentiation techniques are a little bit . . . immature. It kind of makes me giggle. :)
DeleteRhonda has way more hair than Summer had at that age! Summer was practically bald until she was about 2. Even now, her hair is thinner than that of other kids her age, and she has never had a haircut (although we'll probably cut it soon). Everyone thought Summer was a boy. Never once in her first year of life did someone guess that she was a girl, even when she was wearing pink!
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