Thursday, January 19, 2012

Hair Today

I fretted over Olivia’s hair for almost three years. I think she was about two years old when she started pulling her hair out. When I realized what she was doing, it stressed me out to no end. I worried, I tried to tell her to stop, I researched the problem.

I think it was after about a year of pulling that I realized the pulling was connected to her thumb-sucking. At that point, I started researching how to stop your child from sucking their thumb. I was sure that if I could get that thumb out of her mouth, we’d get her left hand out of her hair.

But so many of the thumb-sucking ‘remedies’ came across as cruel to me. I wasn’t willing to put hot sauce on her thumb to get her to stop doing it. I couldn’t tie her hand to her waist in an effort to keep her thumb out of her mouth.

After the first couple of years of trying to get her to stop all this, I realized that I needed to stop trying to control this. I realized that it was going to be up to Olivia to stop sucking her thumb and pulling her hair. This came after TWICE cutting her hair down to a quarter of an inch long because I hoped if it was too short to pull, it would get her out of the habit. But each time, as soon as her hair was long enough, the pulling started up again.

I started praying for peace about this. I wanted to let go of the stress over her hair. I wanted to let go of the need to control this aspect of her life. I didn’t want it to be such a big deal.

Around October (or earlier?) this past year, I realized that I hadn’t seen O suck her thumb or pull her hair in months. It just hadn’t been happening. This was such a big deal because it had been so much on our minds for so long that for it to just stop was huge.

Here is a picture of Olivia on her first day of school back in August.


Here are a couple of pictures of her taken this morning.




Look at that hair. Beautiful, huh? I’m so proud of her for giving up the thumb and letting all that beautiful hair grow back. I know that she probably didn’t make a conscious decision to stop sucking her thumb and pulling her hair out but she still did stop those things and I think that’s pretty amazing. I know, it’s just hair but it’s her hair and I’m so glad she’s letting it grow back. She’s always wanted long hair and I’m so happy for her that she can have it. I’d worried there for a bit that she might not ever really be able to have the long hair she envied. But for now it’s growing and I’m enjoying every single day of growth right along with her.

3 comments:

Stacy said...

She's gorgeous both with short and long hair! So glad she's been able to stop so she can get that long hair she wants!
Stacy

Just another mom said...

That is wonderful!

Should Not Operate Heavy Machinery said...

Congrats!!! Beautiful both ways though :)