Oh mothers, or "I think I can dress myself, Mom"

[Nikko-chan]

Reading through all of your stories... I am so glad I never had to go through that growing up! My outfits going to school consisted of a pair of jeans, a tshirt, and a sweatshirt, worn with tennis shoes. All of it-- even the sweatshirt-- year round (it tended to be cold in the schools). Even now my wardrobe is the same. Mom had no problems with it

[Piratelvr1121]

Not so much a wardrobe issue but the August right before I started the 7th grade, my mother and an aunt talked me into getting the very short pixie like haircut that was very popular in the early 90's...amongst middle aged women. I cannot remember a single girl in my school who had that hairstyle.

They convinced me by saying "Oh it'll be so nice and cool and easy to take care of!" Well that was a colossal LIE because the way my hair was cut, the hairdo looked awful if all I did was wash it and let it airdry.  No, I had to use a round brush and hair dryer every morning to get it to look even half decent.  And I hated high maintenance haircuts then and do now.  Not that I don't care how my hair looks, cause I do but really, most often my daily style is a ponytail.  A bun if I feel like getting fancy.

The extra fun bonus was that it gave the other kids more reason to bully me.  "Hey pirate, are you gay?" No you morons, I changed my hair length, not my sexual preference. "Hey pirate, who's your girlfriend?"  I came home after a week and announced I wanted to grow it out. Nope, give it a month I was told. 

Well a month later one of my aunts calls to announce she's getting married and would I be a bridesmaid?" Excited I said yes and was told my my mother I had to keep my hair as it was because she didn't want it in the awkward growing out stage when the date of the wedding came around, which was in April and this was in October.   I still am convinced she knew that her baby sister was going to do that and that's why she put me off in letting me grow it out.

I have heard so many people tell me "Oh but you looked so cute with that hairstyle!" GAH!!  My bff, bless her said "It is a cute hairstyle but it's not really you so I can see why you didn't like it."

[Venus193]

My mother had a "friend" who was a hairdresser and I had to suffer a similar haircut when I was 11.  I cried all weekend and wouldn't take off my scarf in class on Monday.  I was made to remove it.

I burned all photos taken of me that year.

[Nikko-chan]

Now that we are all adding horrible haircut stories... I have two...

Number one: I was two years old and mom decided that her darling daughters bangs had grown too long, and surely I would run into something if it were not taken care of. Mistake number one? Not waiting until a very good friend of the family (who was a professional hairdresser and cut all of us kids' hair) could trim my bangs. Mistake number two? Thinking she could set a squirmy toddler on the edge of the sink and take the scissors to her bangs without consequences... my bangs were not even remotely straight. Uncle (the hairdresser friend I mentioned previously) had to fix them sometime later... my bangs were only about half an inch long or so for awhile there...

Number two: When I was young mom usually controlled my hair, how it was styled, etc. When I was a tiny little thing I had the loveliest long hair. I am guessing it was unmanageable and she wanted something more manageable... guess what style the hairdresser gave me? A bowl cut. Yes... yours truly looked like a boy for the entirety of first grade... or at least, I would have if it weren't for some of the girly clothes I wore.

[ladyknight1]

I used to get my hair permed on a usual basis by my mom. She used to be a hairdresser before I was born and took care of our hair. I haven't had a perm since I convinced her that wasn't my style, about age 12.

[Piratelvr1121]

I had the opposite problem. I wanted curly hair in the worst kind of way and finally when I was in 5th grade my mother relented and let a friend's daughter who was going to beauty school come over to our house and perm my hair.  Oh it smelled so bad but I kept telling myself that having curly hair and being so cute would be so worth the smell!!

Well it was done, I loved it and the girl told me I was NOT to wash my hair for 3 days so I didn't.   Washed it on the fourth day and all the curl came out.  My hair went back to being stick straight.  I don't know what went wrong but I was so upset and my mom wasn't going to let me get another perm.  Even when I was old enough to have it done on my own I just didn't feel like going through the trouble, especially when I learned it was one of those things I'd have to get done every so often.

Again, NOT into high maintenance styles.

[mmswm]

Now that we are all adding horrible haircut stories... I have two...

Number one: I was two years old and mom decided that her darling daughters bangs had grown too long, and surely I would run into something if it were not taken care of. Mistake number one? Not waiting until a very good friend of the family (who was a professional hairdresser and cut all of us kids' hair) could trim my bangs. Mistake number two? Thinking she could set a squirmy toddler on the edge of the sink and take the scissors to her bangs without consequences... my bangs were not even remotely straight. Uncle (the hairdresser friend I mentioned previously) had to fix them sometime later... my bangs were only about half an inch long or so for awhile there...

Number two: When I was young mom usually controlled my hair, how it was styled, etc. When I was a tiny little thing I had the loveliest long hair. I am guessing it was unmanageable and she wanted something more manageable... guess what style the hairdresser gave me? A bowl cut. Yes... yours truly looked like a boy for the entirety of first grade... or at least, I would have if it weren't for some of the girly clothes I wore.

My father was the source of the fights over the hair.  He insisted it stay long.  I hated it long.  I accidentally-on-purpose set it on fire (mom had gotten good at getting gum out...tried that a few times), figuring they *had* to let me cut it after that.  Ironically, as an adult, I now keep it waist/hip length.

[TurtleDove]

My hair went back to being stick straight. 

Ditto. To this day I rock the long straight hair thing. Can't do anything else!

[Yvaine]

Now that we are all adding horrible haircut stories... I have two...

Number one: I was two years old and mom decided that her darling daughters bangs had grown too long, and surely I would run into something if it were not taken care of. Mistake number one? Not waiting until a very good friend of the family (who was a professional hairdresser and cut all of us kids' hair) could trim my bangs. Mistake number two? Thinking she could set a squirmy toddler on the edge of the sink and take the scissors to her bangs without consequences... my bangs were not even remotely straight. Uncle (the hairdresser friend I mentioned previously) had to fix them sometime later... my bangs were only about half an inch long or so for awhile there...

Number two: When I was young mom usually controlled my hair, how it was styled, etc. When I was a tiny little thing I had the loveliest long hair. I am guessing it was unmanageable and she wanted something more manageable... guess what style the hairdresser gave me? A bowl cut. Yes... yours truly looked like a boy for the entirety of first grade... or at least, I would have if it weren't for some of the girly clothes I wore.

My father was the source of the fights over the hair.  He insisted it stay long.  I hated it long.  I accidentally-on-purpose set it on fire (mom had gotten good at getting gum out...tried that a few times), figuring they *had* to let me cut it after that.  Ironically, as an adult, I now keep it waist/hip length.

My dad was also obsessed with girls having long hair, but he was one of those men who didn't understand that women put maintenance into keeping long hair looking good. He thought it just grew that way and voila! Trims were verboten because that's "cutting your hair." Ditto if I wanted bangs. The few times I did get trims and/or bangs, there was sneakiness involved. And no, there was no religious reason we were supposed to keep our hair long, just aesthetics. Adding to this, my dad obviously had no idea how to maintain hair and all my mom's tips leaned toward how to treat fine, straight, oily hair like she has. But I inherited thick, coarse, dry hair instead. I looked like Cousin Itt all through high school. I have long hair as an adult, though, and I finally figured out how to make it semi-behave.

[mmswm]

I have thick, course, and curly hair, but it's oily.  It used to get the most horrible rats' nests right at the nape of my neck.  It's thinned out by more than half as I've gotten older (and it's still at least twice as thick as most people I know).  Like you, Yvaine, I finally figured out how to take care of it, and realized it's actually a lot easier to care for long.  Also like you, my mother had thin, straight, dry hair, so she was no help when I was younger.  This is part of the reason that with my kids, the only rule is "as long as it's not against the school dress code, you can do anything you want with it."

[Yvaine]

I have thick, course, and curly hair, but it's oily.  It used to get the most horrible rats' nests right at the nape of my neck.  It's thinned out by more than half as I've gotten older (and it's still at least twice as thick as most people I know).  Like you, Yvaine, I finally figured out how to take care of it, and realized it's actually a lot easier to care for long.

Ha, me too, because then gravity gets involved and keeps it at a manageable level of waviness. When it's short, it tries to go every direction at once and needs a lot more styling and product.

[violinp]

I have thick, course, and curly hair, but it's oily.  It used to get the most horrible rats' nests right at the nape of my neck.  It's thinned out by more than half as I've gotten older (and it's still at least twice as thick as most people I know).  Like you, Yvaine, I finally figured out how to take care of it, and realized it's actually a lot easier to care for long.  Also like you, my mother had thin, straight, dry hair, so she was no help when I was younger.  This is part of the reason that with my kids, the only rule is "as long as it's not against the school dress code, you can do anything you want with it."

My hair's like that too, except I was also cursed with a sensitive scalp. My parents never understood why I wanted to bob my hair, because "it looks so pretty long!" Yeah, and you have to spend twice as much on shampoo and conditioner for me, because I have to clean it in stages. Every time I go to the stylist, I have to get it cut and twice thin it. By the end, what's come off could keep a small animal warm in winter.

[JeseC]

It doesn't help that mothers (at least mine!) have a spine-sucking effect going.  I can be perfectly great at standing up to people in all sorts of situations, but the minute it comes to my mother I go right into trying to keep her happy. 

[Gyburc]

I had the hairstyle battle with my Mum too... When she was a girl, her mother insisted that she wear her hair long, and she hated it, so when I was about 13, she got me to get my hair cut short, really short. Looking at pictures of me now I can see (like Piratelvr) that it was quite a stylish cut, but way too old for me.

In addition, I was massively self-conscious at the time about the size of my head - at the time I was quite thin with narrow sloping shoulders, so my head did look large in comparison, and the hairstyle made it look even bigger. (Kids at school used to call me E.T.  )

I managed to grow it out eventually when I went away to University, thank heavens.

[SeptGurl]

I'm another with long, straight hair. My mother is unable to accept that long, straight hair can be a chosen hairstyle. To her, a hairstyle is something that requires curling, teasing, and spraying. For more than 30 years she asked me, "What are you going to do with your hair?" 

When I was 12, she decided that my long, straight hair was unattractive and she wanted to perm some curl into it. She went to the drugstore and bought a home perm kit and a set of rods. Her goal: Put curl in the ends of my hair. Just the ends, she said, so they'd be permanently curled. She rolled about three inches of the length of my hair onto the rods and soaked it with perm solution.

When it was finished, I had about 18 inches of long straight hair and three inches of frizz at the ends. "Oh!" my mother said. "That didn't turn out the way I wanted." No kidding. But I was the one who had wear it. Yes, my hair was "done." Fried is more like it!