Hair Day

Hair is a pretty big deal around here. Bereket's hair in particular is a super big deal. She has gorgeous hair. However, she has always had a hard time having her hair done. It is so painful for her to have her hair touched--and the biggest bang for our time is to do a long-term hairstyle like twists (I need to expand my repertoire of long-term hairstyles). It requires 1.5-2 hours, but lasts 2-3 weeks--so that averages out to less than 10 minutes/day. If I leave her hair free, it easily tangles and requires me to manipulate it (rinse, detangle, etc) daily, which is painful for both of us. However, it seems that the pain has intensified as she has gotten older and/or she has bad associations with having her hair done. It was getting to the point where we were both dreading hair time. Ugh. I was at my wits end, feeling awful for making my daughter suffer, and also totally wiped out by her crying during hair time. It felt like a lose-lose situation.

As hair time approached this week, I remembered an old post on the adoption forum I used to read all.the.time. (Shout out, forum friends!). I remembered a woman who had a 3 year old daughter who had similar sensitivities with her scalp. She doped her up with tylenol and ibuprofun a couple hours before hair time. I tried it. It works!!!! My darling daughter sat for 2 hours, watching Angelina Ballerina, eating snacks and was SILENT!! I periodically asked her how her head felt and she said, "good" and I pinched myself and screamed cries of joy silently behind her. Hallelujah! She LOVES her twists and finds herself shaking her head to see them twirl around her. It is a beautiful thing--the medicinal remedy and her hair.

p.s. Two posts in one day?! Yeah!