Long beautiful hair

Tuesday 22 September

'It's time for you to get a haircut,' I told Lisa as I brushed out her hair last night.

'But I like it long!' she protested.

I brushed it all down straight along her bare back. 'It's beautiful long,' I told her. 'But we always have to trim it just a little. You don't want it getting frizzy. If it's going to be long it's got to be nice and strong and thick.'

She squirmed, sitting on top of my bed wrapt in a towel and still a little damp from her bath. 'Is it as long as yours?' she asked me.

I turned my back to her and lifted my chin so my hair fell down my back. 'I think it's longer. You have a smaller back, but for someone as tall as you, it's longer than anyone else's.'

She mimicked the pose, letting me look at it. When it's still wet, her intensely-wavy, thick, lush curly blonde hair reached the middle of her back. She is six now and has never had short hair. Mother has trimmed her ends a few times, but we are all sure there's still baby hair in there somewhere. 'Is it longer than Mummy's?'

I smiled at her, arranging her part again and brushing it out to either side. 'Might be,' I said. Mother has gorgeous blonde hair, long, thick and curly like a Pre-Raphaelite goddess-- that's where Lisa gets it, although Daddy's hair is somewhat famous for being long and thick. In the long-hair '70s he joked that he had 'Farrah hair'. Some music magazine caught hold of that concept and more than one fan magazine said he belonged on a Vogue or Cosmopolitan cover. So I guess it's something in the genes, for all four of his offspring have good hair. Even little J.J. who has never had more than half an inch trimmed off has beautiful almost-blonde hair. Strangers who have met him have sometimes assumed he's a girl. Daddy takes an amused sort of pride in that. Fortunately J.J. doesn't get the reference... yet.

I conducted Lisa into the common bathroom and got out the scissors and comb and sorted out what I would cut off whilst she stood on the little stool beside the basin and tossed her head round at the mirror. I often say that Jessy is a pampered princess but Lisa's not far behind. Already she seems to enjoy her own femininity, revelling in her lush, beautiful hair and big blue eyes and perfect complexion. 'When can I wear makeup?' she asked once.

'When you need to,' Jessy told her then.

At the time Lisa only smiled smugly at herself in the mirror and then pursed her lips, to be cute.

She stood very still and watched as I combed off a bit here and there and clipped it very close to the end. Each time she turned her head from side to side as though to admire the change. I doubt she really noticed. 'That's good, like that,' she said, like any of us would to the hair stylist.

'Are you sure?' I asked, placating her. 'We could take a little off here.' I lifted a bit on the very top.

Lisa sighed, theatrically. 'Oh, well! I guess, if you must.'

I clipped it, batted it away with the comb, and then leaned down and kissed her head. 'Perfect,' I said.

She glowed, smiling at herself in the mirror.

That was when J.J. came in, in his pyjama shorts and his bushy hair mussed from crawling on the carpet. 'Oh, no!' he announced loudly. 'What's going on here?'

Lisa turned and smirked at him from the stool. 'I'm having my hair done!' she said. 'Don't tell Mummy.'

'Why not?' he asked.

Lisa turned back and looked at herself in the mirror whilst I brushed out her newly-coiffed hair. 'It's a surprise,' she said.

'And you have no clothes on!' J.J. complained, and started to go out.

He gets like this when we're naked in the house. At this point it's kind of offensive to him. 'Wait,' I said, and turned to him with the scissors and comb in my hand. 'Do you want me to trim yours?'

'Ew,' he said. 'I like it long!' And he stomped off.

'Hmph!' Lisa said, shrugging, and lifted her chin at the mirror. 'I like it,' she decided.

I'm not sure she can tell, but I can. Her ends are firm and golden now. It'll grow another two inches by Christmas and be gorgeous then too.

Lisa is no good for surprises and went down stairs directly-- still naked, I might add-- to show off her coif for Mother. Mother came up with her a few minutes later. 'Janine,' she said softly to me, guiding Lisa into her room, 'how did you get her to let you?'

I shrugged. 'I didn't think she wouldn't want me to.' Then I smiled at her. 'Do you mind?'

'Mind? No. I've been trying to get her to let me cut it for weeks. Now if only I could get the other guy to....'

I laughed. 'You'd better asked Daddy to do that one,' I said.

She laughed too.

Lisa called me in after her prayers and I went into her dark room and knelt beside her bed. 'Thank you,' she said to me. 'I really like it.'

I kissed her. 'You're welcome, princess,' I said.

'Do you want me to cut yours for you, tomorrow?'

I laughed. 'No, sweetie. Jessy will get it.'

'I think Jessy's is longer than yours.'

I nodded. It is, a little. I had mine cut when I was in 4th grade because of a stupid 'experiment' in which I cut my own bangs. Mother performed an 'emergency coiffure' on me that evening before supper, and it's taken this long for it to grow back to what you could call 'long'. Meanwhile Jessy, like Lisa, has never had her hair cut shorter than her shoulders and it's all the way down her back. There might still be baby hair in there somewhere too. 'I'm just going to leave it go for a while,' I told her. 'I like it long too.'

She lifted a hand and took a piece of it, feeling it as though she knew anything of hair texture. 'It's very pretty. Will I be as pretty as you?'

I smiled and leaned in and kissed her again. 'You already are,' I said, because it seemed like the best thing to say. 'Now go to sleep.'

'I love you, Janine.'

'I love you too, princess.'

When Jessy came in to trim mine later I kept her to just the very ends. I don't think she took a quarter-inch off the bottom. Don't blame me if I'm envious of the two of them.

...