No mom wants to hear..

that tone in their husbands voice when she gets home.."Willow, tell mommy what happened"..
Even in the dark tent(they're camping out in the backyard), I could see her silhouette didn't look quite right..
"I cut my hair.", she said quietly.
I took her in the house and tried to hide my reaction when I saw how bad it was: her soft blonde hair hung normally on one side down to her shoulders, while the other side stuck out at odd angles and various lengths..or no length in several spots. My stomach felt sick as I realized there was no way to fix it. It would just have to grow out, & it will be months before it looks alright.. I watched her closely for signs that she felt shamed, realized what she had done & how it looked. I was so relieved when she said "I like it this way." Because, to me, it wasn't the cut hair that was so upsetting. It was the chance that this could be the first moment in her little-girl life that she looked in the mirror and felt ashamed of what she saw; that she's not 'good enough'. All of us women have had that wounding moment sometime, and I want my daughters to be the first women in history to go through life with their vision of how beautiful God made them intact!
I got out the scissors and tried to fix willow's hair as best as I could, and we decided it will be nice to accessorise. Bandanas, scarves, hats..
A final thought:
To those of you who will interact with Willow in person, please help us protect her precious heart and don't mention anything about her hair.. this is an age where she will develop a view of herself that she's likely to carry all her life, and we want it to be a positive one!