From the moment I learned I was having a baby girl almost nine years ago I imagined mornings of fixing her pigtails and braiding her hair. What I didn’t know is that it would take years for her hair to grow. And when she finally had enough hair for me to try out all those cute hairstyles for little girls, my sweet daughter wanted nothing to do with mommy fixing her hair. Now, at eight years old, she fixes her own hair with so much confidence and doesn’t look back in the mirror as she bounces off to school each morning. A confident role model is so important for girls to be confident themselves. It doesn’t matter if it’s a messy ponytail, an uneven braid or bedhead covered in a hat, every single day I tell my daughter her hair is beautiful. With the help of this post sponsored by LoveYourHair.Dove.com, I’m teaching my daughter how to grow up confidently and love her hair.
Last year’s holiday card showed off our pretty long hair in a beautiful family portrait with baby sister sticking her tongue out. Shortly after we took these pictures my daughter came home from first grade wanting to cut and donate her hair because a classmate with cancer had passed over holiday break. She was devastated when the following day friends at school were unkind to her about the new haircut. I too, was saddened by her little broken heart so I cut my long hair that very same day to match her short haircut. This year has been one of building hair confidence together and although I loved our long hair, everyday we look in the mirror together and smile at our beautiful hair.
Dove Hair found that 8 in 10 women feel pressure to wear their hair a certain way. For me, I always felt my long hair was part of my identity. For all of my adult life I’ve had long hair and losing the length was not something I ever considered until I saw how broken my sweet daughter felt after making such a courageous decision to cut her hair this year. We both donated our hair and felt amazing knowing we did something to help others love their hair too.
Cutting our hair created such an amazing bond and although we are both looking forward to our long hair growing back, we feel beautiful together.
This year’s holiday cards represent an entire year of learning our hair is not what defines us but rather, a personalization that adds to our beauty. It doesn’t matter if your hair is short or long, straight or curly, brown or blonde, thin or thick – what matters is that you feel beautiful everyday and your children have a confident role model to love their hair too.
Celebrate the beauty of your daughter’s hair today–so she loves her hair tomorrow. Go to LoveYourHair.Dove.com and share with your daughter why you love her hair. Have fun personalizing your mother/daughter photo with creative text and images for sharing on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Join the #LoveYourHair Twitter party December 20th 1-2 ET to learn how a positive role model can greatly impact a girl’s confidence.
Have you told your daughter you love her hair today?
I read this story when you first posted and it was a reminder on how mean kids can be to each other. I use the Dove Body Confidence curriculum to help the young girls I work with. Thanks for resharing 🙂