It was time.  Sophia's never had her hair cut (except for me trimming her bangs enough so that she can see), but she's started asking for it lately.  I think this is because her BFFs Olivia and Emma both get their haircut.  Anyway, both Esen and I got haircuts on Friday (hey, it was a furlough day for us) and our beloved coiffeur James offered to make Sophia's first haircut a positive experience even though he generally doesn't cut kids' hair.  So, Saturday morning during Ella's nap, Sophia and went to the salon and got the job done.

Stage 1: Uncertainty (which meant that she insisted on sitting on my lap throughout the event)

Stage 2: Regret... at requesting haircut at all because it was not shaping up to be quite as fun as she'd been led to believe by the Asian posse.

Stage 3: Action... she actually sat incredibly still the entire time and James proclaimed her the best customer of all time (in the under-10 category anyway).

Stage 4: Displeasure... the "Esen frown" came out about half-way through and did not retreat.  She wanted to hold my hand under the smock for reassurance.

Stage 5: Relief!  After she hopped down off my lap, Sophia began her gradual movement toward "Haircuts are awesome!" view of the morning.


I had packed a small treat in case I had to lure her into the chair.  Because I didn't actually need to do any luring, we went to the cafe around the corner to enjoy some chocolate chips and celebrate her bravery.  She didn't cry, she didn't even whine or whimper... for a fairly shy kid like Sophia, this was a big successful step!

All smiles back at home...

Below you can get some sense of the length change... basically a few inches shorter just in the back where her mullet had begun about a year ago.


I must admit that I don't love the cut.  Almost immediately, I missed the soft waves of hair on her little shoulders and the way it flipped up around her face.  James wanted to give her a little graduated bob that would have definitely been too short for my taste, so I'm glad that he just cleaned it up a bit instead.  Mostly I'm grateful that it was such a good experience so that future haircuts will good and fun rather than torturous and filled with tears.  Maybe next time I'll let him put some pink stripes in... now *THAT* is something she'd go for!