My 2 year old uses "STYLING PRODUCT"

How the times have changed.

I purchase a $20 hair product called "Bedhead Manipulator" that I use to texturize my hair...to give it a "piecey" look. I used to use it religiously everyday after blowing my hair out every morning. Sometimes I used it more than once a day to freshen up my hair after work if going out in the evening. Now, well, ha ha, I'm lucky if it gets used on the weekend because most definitely during the week my hair is pulled up. Who am I kidding?...it's usually up on the weekend, too. This may be an unusual month, or two, because there are Christmas parties, so my hair and face (WHAT? Jen? Your're breaking out the makeup, too??) may be in for a shock because of the fancy styling, but for the most part, in the last year especially, keeping it simple, has been the 'do of choice. I still have to see Steve the Hair Stylist regularly for Highlights. I'm not giving that up.

Anyway, as luck would have it. Ian, my personable, lovable two year old son, hates hair cuts. He is the sweetest two year old child, doesn't complain about anything and people love him to bits because of his personality but when you get scissors near his giant skull he screams bloody murder. It's horrible. We've gotten kicked out of salons/hair shops because the women there refuse to cut his hair because he thrashes and cries and one woman once cut her hand trying to cut his hair...so we have given up.

This summer when it was warm we "did it our self" and bought a hair cut kit at Target. I'm sure on TV you have seen footage of a man (or very rugged woman..not to be gender biased) shearing sheep, and that essentially is what it is like "shearing" our son's head. One person has to "hold" on to him while he squirms like a sheep squirms and the other shears as friggin' fast as possible. Every month we got out the shears. Then we gathered the cuts, and made a nice warm blanket for his new baby sister. No, not really. I am not that talented. However, now that it's fall, I don't want my son to have a butch hair cut, so I am growing it out. It's a bit on the straggly side...so every morning, before he goes to preschool, guess what? I get out the Manipulator, and he gets a dollop of product put into his hair. It works really well, and my small son looks well groomed and like he actually has had a haircut by a professional in the last year. I think Steve the Stylist would be quite proud.

At the end of the month, I'm going to visit my parents in Ohio with Ian and my daughter, and I may venture into a hairdresser with him and my mother to try it out again to see if we can trim up the edges. I am taking my mom with me for protection.

In the meantime, my expensive hair product has now become my sons and sits downstairs beside the sippy cups. It no longer represents sophistication and glamour. It's just another thing in my life that has changed. And I make light of it. And I wouldn't want things any other way, but sometimes I miss the part of me that once was and no longer is...Funny how one little hair product would make me think about that, but I guess we have to change to let children into our lives. Four years ago, you may have been sexy and sophisticated and on a career fast track. Maybe we're still all of those those things now, but when we're wearing jogging suits instead of business suits, smell of old formula instead of perfume, and constantly having to remember kid's and husband's schedules and needs instead of our own schedules and needs....it becomes easy to forget that we are beautiful woman..that our spouses love us...that we are appreciated....that we still are sophisticated and intelligent..

Maybe I should get a little "fancy" this weekend, wear my hair down, throw some product in, remember that I am still the same "girl" I used to be and even more blessed, now that I have my family.