Beautiful Hair

My grand daughter has turned eight. It does not seem that long ago that one had to chase her around with a brush or a comb--and possibly a tranquilizer dart--in order to tame her hair. Cut her hair? Never! But now she has had it cut to shoulder length for her imminent entry into third grade, where apparently one must be cool, and hair down to the fanny is out of favor at the moment. I noticed just this past weekend that showers are now becoming longer and hair is carefully washed and combed and brushed for an extended period in the mornings.

So on her last visit, after her was washed, towel dried, and combed out, she asked, "Grandma, do you have a curler?" No, I do not. "Grandma, do you have an iron or a straightener or something like that?" Well, no, nothing like that either. I mean at some point in my life I had curlers, but they're gone now. I actually do remember ironing my hair--with a clothes iron--but those does are LO-O-ONG past. And anyway, do you plan to curl one half and straighten out the other? Then I get the look. Oh, they grow up too fast!!!

The next day she asked if I had hair dye. Mike was highly amused by all this. He asked her if we looked like the kind of people who cared about our hair so much we would have an extensive collection of hair care products. Later that day, which was hot and muggy, after I'd been chasing around with kids all day, fixing meals and snacks, feeling a bit dishrag-like, she gave me a thoughtful kind of look and said, " I can see that you really don't care a lot about your hair."

Hmm...but I can't wait to tell Mike her observation about him.