Evie's new do

When I was a girl, I used to cut the hair of my Barbies.  With their homemade, stapled together dresses and their unfortunate haircuts, they ended up looking somewhat like scarecrows who had been attacked by birds and had most of their hair pulled out or chewed off. Later in life, my sister asked me to even her hair out...and then had to go to the hairdresser to get it fixed.  With all of this history, you would think that I would know better than to attempt a haircut on my children.  The problem is that I had experienced some luck, having twice cut Millie's hair into a bob and having trimmed Evie's hair and bangs with success.  But last night I went too far.  It was supposed to be a bangs trim followed by a tiny tidying of her straggly and tangled hair, but she kept moving and Millie kept trying to get the scissors and then Evie started crying and I just hacked her beautiful hair off in a desperate attempt to get it over with.  Horrified, I immediately burst into tears, which obviously didn't help the situation.  Poor Evie was crying that she wanted her hair long. I was crying because I didn't mean to do it and MIllie was crying because I still wouldn't give her the scissors.  

This morning I briefly contemplated trying to even Evie's hair out, but then I came to my senses (plus, she firmly told me "NO MOMMY. I DON'T WANT YOU TO CUT MY HAIR ANYMORE.") and made her an appointment at Yuhei (http://www.yuhei.co.uk/), a Japanese hair salon in Hampstead, which had been recommended by one of my friends.  Yuhei, had some very cool shoes on and settled Millie down with some paper and crayons (which she proceeded to dump on the floor and scatter all over the salon).

                          

Then he set Evie up with Kay, who was very sweet and worked her magic on Evie's hair.  Evie was thrilled to get to sit in a special chair (pictured here with her butchered hair and Kay):

She got a very nice shampoo with special Japanese hair products and giggled through the whole wash (unlike when I wash her hair. You would think I was torturing her.):

Then she sat quietly and happily in the chair, while Kay clipped her hair up and started to cut:

Millie was fascinated by the Japanese hair straightening that was going on in another chair.  All of the stylists were very patient and sweet with her and I did my best to minimize the destruction she was causing. Mostly she was VERY good...especially if I kept feeding her.

Meanwhile, Evie was getting the finishing touches before having her hair blown dry with a pink hairdryer. 

Here she is with her bob (and a mouth full of rice cakes), doing some coloring before leaving the salon (because if Millie gets to color then Evie does, too).  Kay straightened her hair, but Evie, who is proud of her curls, went straight to the bathroom sink at home and put some water on her hair to make it curly.  And now that I'm over the shock of her short hair (but not quite over the guilt that I caused the short hair), I can say that she still looks as adorable as ever.  Maybe even cuter!  I solemnly swear that I won't be attempting any more hair cuts during my lifetime.  Not even on Barbies.