Dreading It

True Story.  I don't think Jane's hair has been brushed out since before Christmas.  Instead, the top layer has occasionally been "smoothed" over the ever-growing rat's nest at the back of her head as the weeks have rolled by.  It started innocuously enough with a skipped day or two of working out the tangles before bedtime, but as time went on, and the tangles grew tougher, Jane became less and less inclined to take to the brush and things REALLY got out of hand.  

 {Taking her time picking out which fake nails she wants the most.}

Sometimes we'd throw it in a ponytail to hide the whole mess, and occasional attempts were made to brush the top layer out -- with the hope of giving the appearance of a well-groomed child -- but more often than not over the last several weeks, her hair has been wild and free and subject to lots of comments from lots of people.  I'm not exactly sure how dreadlocks are created, but I think if we had waited any longer, we would be finding out very soon.  Hahaha.

Seriously though.  Part of the reason it took so long to getting around to combing out the knots was because I knew it would take SO very long and would be so very difficult.  Clearly, Jane can't even handle brushing out minor tangles.  Brushing out the matted, frizzled, interwoven nest of hair that was taking over the whole back of her head was going to be pretty much more than she could handle.

 Pictures don't even do it justice.

 Like for real.

Nevertheless, I finally reached the "enough is enough" point over the weekend and committed to doing something about it.  And since I'm not above bribery, I convinced Jane once she was home from school yesterday that I would let her pick out a prize at Walgreens for letting me work on her hair.  Once we were at the store -- where we also purchased some combs and brushes and other styling accouterments -- she skillfully and successfully negotiated a couple more prize items, and we all left happy and excited.

 Watching cookie decorating videos and playing on a phone helped to keep her somewhat distracted from the torture.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get right to the task at hand due to such hindrances as dinner making and toddler watching, so it was bedtime before I could sit down and focus on my Herculean quest.  We started at 7:30 and after two hours, many tears, and a LOT of shed hair, the work was finally finished.  Poor Jane.  She kept saying over and over that she never wanted to do this ever again!  She was so tired and it was really hurting and it took SOOO long.  But she was a trooper and we got it done!  I kid you not, though, that when I started I was seriously concerned that her hair was past the point of no return and we would have to do something drastic like take a razor to it.  Thankfully that was not the case and I was able to work some actual magic in getting rid of her rat's nest while staying patient and calm.

  Poor little red eyes.

{I had her sleep in braids to keep her hair from getting matted all over again.}

My work was still not done, however, as I'm sure you can imagine the state of her hair after it had taken such a beating.  It was too late to tackle last night, but this morning we kicked it into overdrive when I threw her in the tub before school and shampooed and 3-minute-miracled her hair, then blow-dried it so she wouldn't freeze, all after hitting the snooze button twice this morning and getting myself and everyone else up late for the day.  Perhaps my biggest accomplishment of all was that she didn't even miss the bus!  She made it out the door in the nick of time, with a hastily thrown together lunch of crackers and granola bars, and a half-eaten protein bar for breakfast.  It was all good, though, because Jane's hair was silky and smooth for the first time in months.  ;)

Now, if only she'll stick to her resolution to brush her hair every night before bed and every morning when she wakes up!  Hopefully, this experience was traumatic enough to prevent her from walking this same path ever again.  Hahahaha.  :)

 The prize -- fake nails.  (Along with an emoji lip balm and some gum.)