Hair and There

There was no way Blake was going to do it. I already knew that, so there was no point in trying. Garrett, on the other hand, is the "funny one" and at least seems open-minded about things that are wacky or out of the ordinary. This was Red Ribbon Week at the boys' school (or "say no to drugs" week) and the theme today was crazy hair. But then I remembered...Garrett is a little self-conscious about his hair (think LOTS of thick, very straight hair with numerous cowlicks). He's even tried taking showers in the morning in an effort to make his hair "flat". But I tried anyway to get him excited about making his hair crazy just for one day and reminded him that lots of his friends would have funny hair too. He surprisingly agreed and announced he wanted "spiky green hair".

So, just before leaving the house this morning we spiked his hair with gel and sprayed on some color. Before long he was overwhelmed by the fumes (note to self: best to spray OUTSIDE) and after taking one look said, "I don't like it! I want to wash it off!" Great. No time to wash it off and now he's going to school even more insecure than before. NOW I feel like a bad mom. What could I do but promise him that other kids would have crazy hair too (hopefully) and that he could shower first thing when he gets home. Here's my not-so-excited-crazy-haired Garrett.

I wasn't sure what to expect at pick-up time (tears or smiles...) and I was relieved to see that Garrett was neither scarred nor traumatized by his crazy hair, and that, in fact, in the end he was happy with being one of those wacky kids with spiky colored hair. Not only did he decide not to shower immediately when he got home, he wanted to wear his crazy hair to karate (even the green sweat didn't bother him...). And so, I think we will have many more years of crazy hair ahead of us...hopefully in the form of school/parent encouraged- and not rebellion- with TEMPORARY color.