Your One Beauty.

From the day Bianca was born, I’ve consistently heard one comment. (aside from “Wow, you really have your hands full there”) And that comment is- “What a head of hair that baby has!” And it’s true. The kid came out with what can only be described as a shock of dark hair. Over the past 18 (gosh, almost 19 now) months, it has gradually lightened, but she managed to escape the cradle-cap-induced baldness that plagued her older sister, and has always had some luscious locks.

Until recently. It started with just a little hair-twirling while she’d nurse. Then I’d find her twirling it in her crib at bedtime. From there it quickly became less hair twirling than it was just straight up ripping out handfuls of hair. Literal handfuls. And not just at bedtime. She handed me a handful of hair yesterday in Ikea, and I just didn’t even know what to do with it. She’s got a new bald spot from that one. A few weeks ago I gave her a kiss on the head and was shocked to feel stubble. No lie. The kid’s got a stubbly head. Well, a half-stubbly head. For some reason she prefers to twirl/pull on only the right side, which leaves her looking normal from the left. From the right? Gah. It’s like this weird skrillex mullet.

The internet says to put mittens on her when I put her to bed. The internet says to put olive oil in her hair at bedtime. The internet says to cut her hair short, but have you seen how cute her hair is in braids??!?!? How can I lose those?

The long and the short of it is- I have no idea how to handle it. She’d pull mittens off in about 1.7 seconds, oil would just ruin all her sheets and pajamas, and I’ve already addressed my short hair qualms. I know she’ll eventually outgrow it, I know it’s just a comfort mechanism, I know it isn’t a huge deal. I know she’s still cute as all get-out. I just wish she’d quit balding herself.