Sunday

A few weeks ago my 6 year old daughter, Jane, decided to cut of her bangs -- all of them. I literally shrieked when she showed me what she had done. It looked AWFUL. Jane is a beautiful child. Really! I'm not just saying that because I am her mama. She has very striking features for such a little girl. Huge brown eyes and Angelina Jolie's lips, plus olive skin and black hair. Obviously, she doesn't look one whit like me. But anyway, her self-inflicted haircut looked especially awful in combination with her dramatic features. And the rest of her hair didn't help either. She is constantly wanting to grow it long -- and it had gotten pretty long -- but she refuses to take care of ot or let me mess with it much. So it often hangs there, stringy and unkempt.

Yesterday I told her that we really had to do something with her hair. She began to wail and gnash her teeth and holler that she didn't want to cut it. I begged and begged and finally we came to a compromise. She agreed to let me get her hair cut and I agreed to let her get her ears pierced, which she has been begging to do. So off we went to West Hills Barber Shop to get her hair cut and Henry's trimmed up. I showed the stylist a picture of an Ashley Judd haircut and she started cutting.

The finished product is absolutely adorable. She looks like a cross between Audrey Hepburn and Edie Sedgwick (both at age six, of course). Within the first few hours after having it cut, several people actually stopped us while we were out and about to tell her how cute her haircut is.

Well, she hates it. Hates it. She has complained about it non-stop since we did it and periodically bursts into a yelling fit and insists that she is not returning to first grade on Monday unless we buy her a wig. She went to sleep last night crying for a wig and then woke up this morning talking about her need for a wig. I hate to be unsympathetic, but I can only tell her so many times in succession that her hair will grow. Secretly I plan to lobby her hard to stick with her adorable Mia Farrow-circa-Rosemary's-baby look because it's just great on her and we won't have to battle over hair care.

If you have any suggestions for convincing a kid to like a new haircut and stop her from rolling around on the floor and insisting at the top of her lungs that she needs a wig, please let me know.