A New 'Do

So I have to admit, I'm surprised this is the first experience we've had with self-administered haircuts in the Cairns home. We made it through those unstable and explosive toddler years without a single split hair. But now, at age 5, Olivia took it upon herself to trim. Not a lot, not anything super obvious, but enough.

Yesterday Olivia announced that she had a new game for us to play, pin the horn on the unicorn. She asked for paper, scissors, tape and a pen and headed upstairs to do some serious craftin'. She came down a short while later with a tiny unicorn head, a "corn" to pin on this head, and an Olivia-sized eye mask she had cut out herself. Apparently she left all the supplies upstairs, including my scissors. Guess they were just too tempting...

As I threw scraps of paper from the game away tonight, I see a fairly large organized clump of hair in her trash can. I say organized because it wasn't just a few random hairs. This was an obviously cut chunk of hair - hair that was held together during the cutting and then disposed of.

"Olivia, what is all this hair in your trash can?"
"I don't know."
"Whose hair is this?"
"I DON'T KNOW!" (yelling at me, like I'm at fault somehow)
"Olivia, I need you to tell me the truth...did you cut your hair?"
"NO!!"
"Olivia?"
"It was an accident!"

Of course, the fact that a large section of hair is missing right next to her face shows her guilt. She starts crying, repeating that it was an accident. As I question her further, she gets more upset. She throws herself into bed and pulls the covers over her head, trying to hide the evidence. I tell her to relax and I'll come back when she's ready to talk. (Of course I grab the scissors as I leave.) So when I come back, we have a talk about what happened. She admits she didn't want to tell me what happened because she thought I'd be mad. I explain that I wasn't mad she cut her hair, but I got upset that she lied about it. I mean, really, how did she think she'd get away with that? An accident? But what made her decide to cut it? She knows how scissors work and that you can't tape hair back on your head. Was it just one of those things she had to try? The urge was just too great I suppose.

And to be honest, the hair isn't really all that bad. It could have been so much worse. I gave her a hug and told her I still love her bunches, even if her hair looks silly.