March 14, 2021 Hair!

Since Lisa started getting gray several years ago, she has wanted her hair colored. Although she has worn her hair at different lengths over her lifetime, she has worn it very short for several years now. It’s been a relief that for the last year, she hasn’t cared that her hair is gray. For some odd reason, the staff at the nursing home initially combed her hair straight back but after talking to staff and putting sticky notes above her bed and in her bathroom, they are finally remembering to comb it forward.  On one of her first days of school in Noonan, she took the child scissors and stood over the garbage and cut her bangs. As I came to pick her up, the teacher was horrified that all of the other students rushed to tell me about the haircut before the teacher could. Lisa was mainstreamed into the regular first grade classroom and most of the other students were boys so maybe she was just trying to fit in! Mrs. Lukach was a wonderful teacher and we had a wonderful experience with our oldest child starting school. Then, when Lisa was about 11 and Kirsten was 3, one of them cut both of their bangs. Lisa got the blame for many years until Kirsten confessed to it. I didn’t think that Kirsten could handle scissors at that age.  Anyway, Lisa has always admired different hairstyles and colors so I agreed that she could get her hair colored purple and green a few years ago. Neither one of us realized what a long process it was and it infringed on the supper hour so she got impatient. She also didn’t understand the importance of the right shampoo to preserve the color so it didn’t last long but was sure fun while it lasted.  Isn’t it wonderful that boys can have long hair and girls can have very short hair?  There can be dreadlocks or different colors or styles to express unique personalities and it’s all good. It’s not like the 60’s where school officials sent boys home if their hair touched their collars or where boys were kicked out of their homes for too long hair. I love the different styles and so does Lisa. I often visit Lisa after I’ve been to water aerobics so I don’t usually curl my hair or put on makeup before I visit but one day I visited her on my way to a lunch date and she looked at me and said “you look nice”. It made my day! We can all be like Lisa and give compliments to make someone’s day!