Saturday, May 4, 2013

A Hairy Situation

Betsy, Tacy, and Tib's Lopsided Haircuts
The other morning, as I was cutting my daughter's hair to remove it from a comb she had tangled it in in a misguided attempt to curl her straight hair, I started thinking about children, real and fictional, and hair.  Almost every kid has cut her own hair, or cut a sibling's or a doll's hair, or had her hair cut by a sibling.  Not to mention the chewing-gum-in-the-hair-type incidents.
Ella and Her Hair

In the delightful, rhyming Ella Kazoo Will Not Brush Her Hair, Ella lets her hair reach extreme proportions before succumbing to a haircut.

Betsy, Tacy, and Tib, in the second book in the series go overboard when they cut their hair to put in lockets to remember each other by (in case they die) and end up with very lopsided 'dos (see photo above).

In Russell and Elisa, the children take their pretend game of haircut to a new level when they actually cut first Elisa's doll Airmail's hair and then Elisa's friend's hair.

Ramona and Her Crown of Burrs
And of course, in Ramona and Her Father, Ramona makes herself a crown out of burrs, which, predictably to us, but apparently surprisingly to Ramona, gets stuck in her hair, forcing her father to cut it.  This is the scene to which my mind immediately flashed as I dealt with my own daughter's hairtastrophe (yes, I just made that word up) that morning.

Can you think of other fictional characters who get themselves into such hairy situations or do you have a story about yourself or your own child's hairtastrpohe?

3 comments:

  1. I remember the first time my sons played happily together. They were three and one, and were sitting at the art table working on a craft. The older one had taken a while to learn how to be gentle with his brother, but now the younger one was old enough to be a companion. It was beautiful to see how all my dreams of the gift of a sibling were working out; I left them in the living room and went into the kitchen to stir dinner. Peace and quiet ruled through out the home...

    And I came back out to see about 70% of the youngest's hair scattered about the floor as he giggled while the oldest wielded his safety scissors. The next day I took P in for his first haircut -- which was, perforce, a "buzz." I still thank my parental stars that his ears were intact.

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  2. Oh, we like hair books :) Awhile back we checked out The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher goes to School by Laurie Halse Anderson. (That is some serious hair with a mind of it's own!) Stephanie's Ponytail by Robert Munsch is another funny one. And my older daughter enjoys the the description given in Super-Completely and Totally the Messiest (Judith Voirst) of what gets combed out of Sphie's hair (I think it involves a sandwich and maybe even a birds nest.)

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  3. How could I have forgotten Stephanie's Ponytail?!? I love that one! The Judith Viorst one we read a while ago and I don't remember that part and I don't know the Laurie Halse Anderson one - I'll have to check it out.

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