Strollerderby : hair

Kid's Hair Chewing Almost Kills Her

JeanneSager — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:01:00 GMT

That's it. I'm scheduling a haircut for my daughter.

After years of pulling it out of her mouth and saying "don't chew on your hair," I read this: a five-year-old in England swallowed so much of her own hair that it formed a rope that was constricting her organs.

Yes, her hair almost killed her.

Yum. Is it bad to say I chuckled a little at the fact that they called this Rapunzel syndrome (Rapunzel, Rapunzel, poop out your hair)? Come on, she survived! The tot, Millie Wallis, was suffereing from stomach aches for months, and visits to the doctor and hospital turned up nothing for half a year. Finally an "internal scan" revealed a large foreign object in her stomach. They thought it was a tumor until they went in and found the rope of hair, stretching from the stomach down farther in the digestive tract, cutting through her bowel.

It's a worst case scenario, I know. But it's none too pleasant pulling hairs out of your kid's butt because they've swallowed them and they're just sort of hanging out there (sorry for the TMI), so my warning still stands - let them eat cake . . . not hair.

Image: Daily Mail

via Jezebel

Ten of the Best Lines from Kiddie Lit

Ben Affleck Suffers Same Fate As Dads of Daughters Everywhere

JeanneSager — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:07:00 GMT

Jennifer Garner says she can always tell when husband Ben Affleck was left to his own devices with daughter Violet's hair. It comes out looking like a rat's nest.

Hey dads, sound familiar?

“You can always tell when he has been at it, just two random barrettes hanging in there. It’s so sweet," Garner told InStyle.

She could have been talking about my husband. He was over the moon when I gave birth to a little girl (which - despite us not finding out prior to delivery - he just "knew" was going to happen), but when she started sprouting enough hair to require clippies and ponytail holders, he was lost.

"It doesn't ever do what I want it to do," he tells me. "I just don't have the patience for it." This coming from a guy who once had hair past his shoulders. But his was super fine, super straight hair, hair that never needed to be brushed out with no more tangles spray after a night of rolling around on a crib mattress, hair that never needed to be secured in two little braids hanging down his back.

Some guys get hair and are perfectly adept at handling their daughter's locks. More are like my husband - facing a major learning curve after years of just not caring what their head looks like (because after years of long hair, his is now shaved in a Marine-like buzz - he does nothing more than shampoo daily). In our house it's particularly funny because it's the bald mother who has been showing Dad the ropes, teaching him about where on the head to place a ponytail (Not too high, this isn't the eighties. Not too low - she isn't an aging hippie) and how to brush out tangles without yanking on the scalp.

I'll give credit where credit is due. He tries. If he's the parent getting her ready for the day, her hair is at least brushed, albeit with a clip stuck at a random angle - kind of like Violet Affleck's.

Dads, did you jump over the curve after your daughters were born or do you turn out girls who sport the ragamuffin look in the morning?

Image: TheInsider

When a Mother Goes Bald

JeanneSager — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:01:00 GMT

I've spent the last month and a half knocking down doors trying to convince a lot of broke people to give me money so I could shave my head.

Even in a bad economy, I hit my small goal of $1,000 raised for the St. Baldrick's Foundation - so you can all laugh at my very bald head.

Ready for it?

Yes, that's me, bald. My head got stuck on my pillow Saturday night, and I can officially clean out from under my nails just by rubbing my fingers across my scalp, but it was worth it.

I'm a hero for kids with cancer. Everyone who shaved their heads during this St. Baldrick's season is a hero. So is everyone who pulled out their wallets and gave - whether it was $1 or $1,00.

In many ways, the smaller amounts meant all that much more - because they came from people I knew were struggling this year. As one fellow shavee told me at a firehouse last week where twenty firemen came together like a true band of brothers and shaved their heads - "people still believe in a good cause."

I walked down the line among men who get out of bed in the middle of the night to rush out in their turnout gear and run into burning buildings, men who are used to ragging on the reporter just because they can, and they were shy, quiet. "Anything for the kids," they admitted. I nodded. "No, anything," one man said, looking me straight in the eye.

Most of us will do anything for their kids. But kids overall? I have to shave my head every year - not because my daughter has cancer (thank goodness) - but because I can't look a sick child in the eyes and not see my daughter standing there. I can't hear the story of a child stricken with a leptomenengial tumor at three and not think, Oh my God, my daughter is only three. I can't turn off the mother in me when I hear about children's cancer.

There are hundreds of other charities - worthy charities - but I'm a parent. So I pick this one. And every year, for as long as I'm still growing hair, I'll give it up, hoping that some day, one day, that $2, $25, $100 I talked out of someone, will change another parent's world.

Want to donate on someone's head? Check out the St. Baldrick's Foundation website and see if anyone you know shaved their head this year.

Save Your Baby Girl From Humiliating Baldness!

Kate Tuttle — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Do you have a bald baby girl? Do you cringe when anyone asks your baby's sex, or assumes she's a boy? No? Well, honestly, neither did I, when my daughter was small and (briefly) bald. But apparently some parents really worry about this stuff, or at least the makers of Baby Bangs! are hoping they do.

Baby Bangs! (the exclamation mark appears to be a necessary part of the name) are little wigs attached to stretchy headbands, so that parents of infant girls can pretend they have more hair than they do. According to the product's web site:

Our patent pending HAIR+band accessory combination allows baby girl's (with little or no hair at all) the opportunity to have a beautifully realistic HAIR style in a SNAP!! It's quick, easy and baby barely knows it's there. Each Baby Bangs! HAIR+band has been made using only the finest ribbons and fabrics, PLUS our Baby Bangs! come to you pre-customized & size appropriate, cut, styled and ready for immediate wear. The wispy hair strands have been arranged in the cutest most adorable elfish coiffure!

Created by a "hair replacement artist" and her daughter -- and using her infant granddaughter as guinea pi -- I mean, model -- Baby Bangs! are made of synthetic fibers attached to elastic headbands. Instructions on the site detail the procedure for properly pulling them onto your baby's head and arranging the little hairs for "the cutest most adorable elfish coiffure!" One hardly knows where to begin.

My kids had a hard time coping with being forced to wear hats -- you know, to protect them from the cold and the damaging UV rays, not to make them look more gender-stereotypical -- so it's hard for me to believe it would be all that easy to get your baby to go along with your need to control their hair quantity. Beyond that, is it really such a huge problem if someone mistakes your girl baby for a boy? Or is the real problem that our society is so strange about gender that anyone would think it's an insult? And who really thinks "long hair = girl, short hair = boy" anymore, anyway? That kind of thinking is not much in evidence where I live. It's hard to escape the feeling that Baby Bangs! come just at a time when their very raison d'etre is starting to feel a bit laughable. That said, as Saturday Night Live has shown, laughing at wacky baby products is always in style.

Photo courtesy of Baby Bangs (and yes, the little girl is adorable -- but she's even cuter without her wig!)

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10 Things You May Not Know About Pregnancy (and might shock you)

Cole Gamble — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:00:00 GMT

I’m gonna take a leap and assume many of your readers out there have been pregnant, or at least has a pregnant partner. In your pregnancy, was there anything that surprised you, that you didn’t see coming. We have a list here of the top ten things that may surprise you about your pregnancy. If you’re one who hasn’t been with kiddo yet, you’ll especially want to read.

Your hair is going to grow faster (around your nipples)

Many women experience changes in hair texture and growth during pregnancy. The hormones secreted by your body will cause your hair to grow faster and fall out less. But these hair changes usually aren't permanent; most women lose a significant amount of hair in the postpartum period or after they stop breastfeeding.

Some women find that they grow hair in unwanted places, such as on the face or belly or around the nipples. Others experience changes in hair texture that make hair drier or oilier. Some women even find their hair changing color.

All Your Private Bits Are Gonna Turn Black

Some women develop brownish or yellowish patches called chloasma, or the "mask of pregnancy," on their faces. And some will notice a dark line on the midline of the lower abdomen, known as the linea nigra (or linea negra), as well as hyperpigmentation (darkening of the skin) of the nipples, external genitalia, and anal region. These are the result of pregnancy hormones, which cause the body to produce more pigment. The body may not produce this increased pigment evenly, however, so the darkened skin may appear as splotches of color. Unfortunately, chloasma can't be prevented, but wearing sunscreen and avoiding UV light can minimize its effects.

For more of the list, check here.

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blah

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In Hard Economic Times, Bonnie Fuller Knows What Women Want

Kelly Mills — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:36:00 GMT

Lots of people have been saying that in this election, women finally matter. At last our concerns and issues are being heard and addressed as though we, you know, made up half the population or something. And clearly one of the issues that matters to women is the economy, what with how it affects all our lives and all. So it makes sense that Bonnie Fuller, in her NY Times blog post, would want to examine what matters to women in these troubled and uncertain financial times. Is it health care costs? Job security? The high price of food and gas? Planning for our retirements (ha!) or trying to save in case the kids want to go to college?

Uh, no. According to Fuller, what matters to us is... our looks.

Yes, while we may feel the wolf at the door, we apparently still shell out money for our pricey hair stylists and our Botox. Oh, but let's clarify: By "women" she means women who live in New York. And she knows what they all want, because she "canvassed" some stylists, plastic surgeons, cosmetic companies, and "even" body waxers. (What's up with that, Bonnie? Don't minimize the importance of the waxers.) Do my frequent quotation marks indicate that I think her ideas are about as helpful as an untreatable rash? Here's her closer: "Time will tell, I guess, but the anecdotal evidence suggests that New York women may end up living in a box on the West Side Highway, but we’ll still have fabulous highlights and perfectly shaped eyebrows!"

Cough.

So we could debate the ideas that spring to mind here, whether women are vain or held to a higher aesthetic standard that relates to their employment prospects, but this piece proves the trend of women clinging to Botox as much as it proves fairies exist, so it ain't worth it. Maybe I'll canvas some women and ask if during a time when people are worried about being able to provide for their children, if Fuller actually makes women look bad or if she's just more like a really annoying gnat, and we'd be better off ignoring her and hoping she finds an open window somewhere.

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Explaining financial troubles to the kids

Students Suspended for Hair Dyed Pink in Honor of School Nurse's Battle with Breast Cancer

JeanneSager — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:27:00 GMT

It was a rare show of selflessness for a bunch of middle school students, but showing up with strips of pink in their hair last week earned a dozen Indiana pre-teens suspension. The kids said they were doing it in honor of the school nurse who recently passed away after a battle with breast cancer.

Their parents are refusing to make the kids wash the pink out of their hair, but the school is firm. Dyed hair, says the principal, is distracting.

No doubt the kids went about their impromptu remembrance - which for some kids was also a tribute to moms who've fought the battle and won - the wrong way. If you know hair dye is against the rules, why not slip on pink armbands or wear pink ribbons in your hair? Maybe approaching administration with the plan to begin with would have enabled a school-wide dispensation for the day to honor a faculty member who teachers must be mourning as well. Interviewed on camera, the principal expressed his regret for having to stick to the rules - he thinks it's a good idea. But the rules are the rules - no dyed hair.

You can't fault a principal for requiring every kid follow the same rules. But you can fault the rule.

It's just hair. Is it distracting in the morning when a kid shows up with blue hair? Yes. But show me something that won't get a bunch of hormonal pre-teens riled up. Exactly. Do we have to worry about kids flashing gang colors in schools today? Unfortunately, yes. But tell me how it's any different to have it in a hair streak than a barrette. It's just hair, which I'd rather kids were talking about then picking on the fat kid or spreading rumors that turn a girl into the class slut. It's just hair, which I'd rather my kid were playing with than drugs, booze or guns to get my attention.

When kids want to get attention, I'd like to see them doing it in positive ways - like joining up to dye their hair pink for breast cancer awareness. So maybe we could stop telling kids what they can't do and start telling them what they can do?

Image: WSBT

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Whit Honea — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:00:00 GMT

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Creepiest Story of the Day: Bikini Waxes for Eight-Year-Olds

Kelly Mills — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:33:00 GMT

Some of this is so extreme you just can't imagine it: There's a story in Philadelphia Magazine (via Jezebel) about moms who take their kids to spas for treatments. As in, bikini waxes, and we're talking about an eight-year-old. (And yes, they discuss the fact that an eight-year-old probably has no pubic hair to wax.) And teens getting botoxed. Ten-year-olds with aesthetician-created, perfectly arched brows. Six-year-olds getting weekly blowouts. Yeeeugh. Clearly something has gone horribly awry here.

The author says it's a slippery slope though. How many moms start off with the mani-pedi bonding experience with their girls? And if your ten-year-old gets teased about acne, is it so wrong to take her for weekly facials? As a mom who has been fairly permissive on the nail polish front, I thought hard about this one. Here's where I draw lines: When my kid and I lounge at home and do the nail painting thing, it's about being goofy, like playing dress-up. I let her coat my toes in blue lacquer. But when the goal is to present some bizarre idealized image of perfection to the outside world, when spa treatments become simply necessary upkeep because heaven forbid the world sees you with stray brow hairs, and that's something girls as young as ten need a mommy lesson in, then I think it has moved over into yikes.

There's some discussion of the necessity of going through the "ugly" phase of youth as crucial for learning self-acceptance. I think we have such a narrow vision of beauty if it doesn't allow full brows and necessitates some freaky pre-emptive strike against frown lines. It's not just about stealing your daughter's childhood, it's also about the imposing the most bizarre of standards--Don't get wrinkles, don't have body hair, look at all times like the boring celebrities you see in magazines. Clearly many of the moms in the story see their girls as extensions of themselves, and that's a far cry from aiding your pre-teen with a few pimples.

Suave Isn't Hawking Hair Products, They Just Wanna Help a Martyr Mom Out

Kelly Mills — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:00:00 GMT

First, thank you to Mom2Two for pointing me towards this ad campaign by Suave (I have Tivo, so I see nary a commercial these days.) It goes like this: Rapid shots of lady looking pretty, lady then in wedding dress, pregnant lady, harried lady-mom in assorted outfits, mom-lady looking a little haggard, mom-lady fixed up purty by Suave styling products. The campaign line is: "Motherhood Isn't Always Pretty" and the ad says "89 % of moms admit they let themselves go... 100% can get themselves back." Wow, and 100% of moms in my house got crabby when they saw this.

Can you imagine if this campaign was aimed at dads? Dads, did you let yourselves go? Would a styling product help you get "yourself" back? Because this is a theme we've seen like, a billion times: Moms are martyrs who sacrifice even their looks for their families. And so making yourself beautiful again through the latest cream or shampoo or surgery isn't a question of feeling the external pressure on women to be beautiful, or even swallowing what advertisers want us to buy, oh no--it's an act of self-love. It's getting in touch with yourself, the real you, the pre-family you, the you who can only be uncovered when you look hot.

Yeah, 100% of moms can get themselves back, just by using styling products. You tired from all that sacrifice? Well, there's this hairspray that will do what a living wage and quality childcare and affordable housing and a good educational system and real healthcare won't do. It will totally take the place of a community that raises children, saving families from the isolation that hits us hard. And on a personal level, being pretty will give you that sense of personhood and satisfaction you'd never get from a society that values motherhood and parenting in general and encourages moms to be people, not endless fountains of sacrifice. Yippee for my friggin' Suave shampoo. Now, could we get a new way of selling crap to moms? Because I can only be so strident for so long.

Kindergartener Suspended From School For Sporting a Mohawk

Kelly Mills — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:35:00 GMT

Ah, in a day and age when many schools are instituting programs to combat children teasing other children about their appearance, one school has decided to put the bullies out of a job by doing their work for them. Six-year-old Bryan Ruda was suspended from charter school Parma Community School in Ohio. Um, because he has a "mohawk," which in this case does not mean liberty spikes but that he has the sides of his head shaved and his hair is longer on top. The school has a dress code that does not prohibit mohawks specifically, but says students have to be properly groomed. Whatever that means.

Oh, but the rationale for the suspension is classic: Administrators say the hair was "disrupting the educational program" and that other students commented on it, making them disruptive and more difficult to control. I guess that's powerful hair. And this was a "third offense," meaning that Bryan's mom was warned about the problem hair before when it had product in it, and while it was growing out things were sort of okay. However, a re-shaving threw the class into chaos, I suppose. The school board decided over the weekend to suspend the kid, which makes me think they must have zero educational issues at all, since they have time to debate the merits of a kindergartener's style. Nice.

Photo: Peggy Turbett/The Plain Dealer

The First Haircut: When, Where, Why, and How?

Karen Murphy — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:28:00 GMT

My son Nathaniel's first haircut occurred when he was 2 and a half. I figured it was finally time to chop off those white-blond curls and turn him into a boy; after all, he was finally speaking full sentences. In English. It was time. The event was held in a local barbershop where his dad got his own hair cut. Nathaniel held himself ramrod straight and very very still as he sat perched way up atop the tall barber's chair, a striped smock draped around him. I think he even held his breath the whole time. I don't know, because I was tasked with wielding the video camera for the event, but when it was all over there were masses of white-blond curls to take home and save forever (I wonder where those are now?) and there was my little boy, all grown up. Shorn.

So I was reminded of all this by this article about cutting kid's hair. Nathaniel's sister Serena, at 7 and a half, actually just had her first haircut a few weeks ago (not counting the unofficial job her brother did on her when she was about 2), but plenty of kids have their hair cut from an early age. For one thing, it's a whole lot easier to care for. And it can look better, or neater anyway. I started snipping little Eric's sparse locks when he was about two. You have to move fast when they're at that grabby age.

So here's my question: I know lots of parents who let their kids grow their hair when they're little until the kids get sick of it and ask to have it cut. Others routinely start snipping when they're pretty little. Either way, the first time is like a rite of passage. I'm wondering what your haircut thoughts are and what you can offer about your kid's first time in the chair. Oh, and something else: coloring? Perm? (please say no, please!)

Strollerderby : hair

Kid's Hair Chewing Almost Kills Her

Mom Uses Breastfeeding as Weapon in Custody Battle

Girl has Five Spleens, Two Left Lungs and Huge Grin

8-Year-Old Has Ovarian Cancer

Ben Affleck Suffers Same Fate As Dads of Daughters Everywhere

Amy Winehouse Writing a Children's Book

When a Mother Goes Bald

When a Sitcom Actress Gets Pregnant

Don't Call Her a Tomboy

When a Mother Goes Bald

Spurred to Action by Natasha Richardson's Death, Parents Save Girl

Update: Little Boy Dies of Untreated Cancer

Motherless Baby Breastfed By Six Women Each Day

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10 Things You May Not Know About Pregnancy (and might shock you)

10 WORST. BABY. PRODUCTS. EVER! (Part 1)

Men with Baby Heads

In Hard Economic Times, Bonnie Fuller Knows What Women Want

Students Suspended for Hair Dyed Pink in Honor of School Nurse's Battle with Breast Cancer

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Kindergartener Suspended From School For Sporting a Mohawk

The First Haircut: When, Where, Why, and How?