Joely's "makeover"

I cut off eleven inches of Joely's hair last night, which she is donating to Locks of Love.

The whole idea started a couple days ago when I was talking to an acquaintance who mentioned her six-year-old had just donated her ponytail to Locks of Love. This wasn't the first time I've heard of Locks of Love, but it hadn't crossed my mind in a long time.

I asked Jerah (my eight-year-old) if she'd ever heard of Locks of Love, and she informed me quickly that, yes, she's heard of it, and she and her friend Becky had even talked about donating their hair. She also informed me that the ponytail had to be at least 10 inches long in order to donate it. (She knew a lot more about it that I did, apparently).

I asked if Jerah really wanted to donate her hair; she thought for a moment and then said, "Yes, but in the spring, when it's warmer." By then, Jerah will be able to done 15+ inches.

That brings us to last night.

I was struggling again to brush through Joely's tangled hair when the thought occurred to me that maybe her hair was long enough to donate. We whipped out the ruler and, sure enough, it was long enough! Joely was excited about the prospect of cutting her hair, so it wasn't 15 minutes later when we had the scissors out and cut off the ponytail.

Now Joely's hair is much more manageable, and she absolutely loves it! I loved the long hair on her, but it could never stay tame for more than a minute or two, and she was always near tears whenever I tried to comb her hair to get out the tangles.

Of course, because I had cut off the pony tail straight across, I had to take her to get her hair trimmed properly this afternoon. I usually cut the girls' hair, but as short as Joely's was after we hacked off the ponytail, I didn't think there was enough margin for error if I attempted to trim it up myself.

The pictures of Joely in the blue shirt were taken after the professional trimmed it up.

To demonstrate how (un)observant boys can be, after Joely's haircut, I took her with me to pick up my son at his friend's house this afternoon (Jaden had no idea we cut her hair). I wanted to see how long it would take for Jaden to notice Joely's hair.

Let's just say that Joely walked up to Jaden, he said, "Hi, Joely," and then turned to pick up his stuff.

I said, "Don't you notice anything, Jaden?"

He looked back at Joely, then at me, and said (almost exasperated), "I said 'hi'."

Jaden's friend then looked at Joely for the first time and said matter-of-factly, "Oh, you cut your hair, Joely."

Jaden glanced at Joely again, like it was the first time he'd noticed her, then shrugged and said, "Oh."

Just like a guy!