Before and After

Before

My younger daughter has always had short hair. Her hair is thin and fine, so any untrimmed growth appears scraggly. At least, that is what my mother-in-law says. Any time my daughter's hair has grown out just a little bit, there my MIL was with the scissors.

We would drop my daughter off to be babysat, and when we picked her up, her hair would be hacked off. It got to the point where the husband would warn his mother not to cut our girl's hair while we were gone. The problem was, after a few months, we would naively think that my MIL actually didn't need this warning anymore. Big mistake.

Notice her bangs, courtesy of her grandmother.
That's okay, it's just hair, right? And hair grows back. It grows and grows and...
Bam! It gets chopped off again.
Uh-oh, she's starting to look like a girl.

This week, my mother-in-law did it again.

I wouldn't have minded the haircut so much, except that it was very crooked. Did I say crooked? Actually, I meant TOTALLY, UTTERLY BUTCHERED. One side was about 2 inches shorter than the other side, and long strands that were missed by my MIL dangled everywhere.

It was so bad that I couldn't bring myself to take a picture. I didn't want to traumatize my poor girl when she grows up. I didn't want her to say, what in the world did you guys do to me?

It was so bad that I didn't dare fix her hair out myself. I paid for a professional to do it. Not just any professional, but the most expensive one that specializes in children's hair. It was the first time any of our kids have ever been to a children's barber. That's how hacked off my daughter's hair was.

The hairstylist was worth it, though. She took a complete monstrosity and turned it into something cute.

After
Plus, the hairstylist gave my girl a luxurious shampoo. Luxurious in this case to mean in which no water or shampoo ends up in one's eyes. She also put flowers all over my girl's hair. And allowed everyone to play with their vast collection of toys.

So now my other kids are begging their grandmother to cut their hair.

In the case that a certain someone reads this and gets the wrong idea, let me just say that I absolutely love and adore my mother-in-law. She may cut the children's hair badly horrifically, but she takes excellent care of the rest of their bodies.

Still, the husband will be removing all scissors from her house and inscribing a plaque for her birthday that says Do Not Touch the Children's Hair.