Yesterday, when my ex picked up the girls he informed me that he had made a hair stylist appointment for Nova to have her hair cut.I nearly choked. EVERYONE loves her long beautiful blonde waves of silk cascading over her shoulders almost to her waistline already. It has been growing since she was born with only trims along the way to keep the ends healthy.
"You mean a trim, right? Like half an inch or so, right?" I said.
"Yeah, just enough to get the ends evened up," he said.
This morning begins for me with a 9 a.m. wakeup call from my ex. He knows that I was working late, that I am sick with a cold and am not due to pick Dana up until 10 a.m. but still he calls anyway, just to irritate me. It works. I am very irritated. He just loves to play these stupid games. "We're ready to go," he says. "What time are you picking Dana up to take her to the walk in clinic and have her shoulder checked by a REAL doctor?"
From the background I hear Dana say, "Dad, it's my COLLARBONE and the guy in Mexico was a REAL doctor, and a cute one, too. Just ask mom." I end up picking Dana up about 20 minutes late and they are all in the driveway waiting to go. My ex's boss is not happy that I am late. (That would be his girlfriend, the woman I suspect is behind the idea of cutting Nova's hair).
Dana's time at the walk in clinic is short so I take her to the hair stylist's where I know Jerry and Nova will soon be. I check with my stylist and he says he can fit me in for a trim in about 45 minutes so I go make myself busy and come back.
When I walk in the shop my jaw hits the floor. Nova's hair is about six or eight inches shorter and the stylist is STRAIGHTENING it. Nova catches sight of me in the mirror and gives me her best see-what-a-good-girl-I-am smile and says, "See mommy, aren't I pretty?" I make my best quick recovery and try to find something positive to say that isn't a lie.
"Yes, sweetie, you are beautiful." I say as gracefully as I can as I look at the pile of hair on the floor. "Very short but very glamorous."
Meanwhile I'm thinking, 'Oh my Lord! What the hell have they done to my beautiful child! Can we stick some of that back on!?'
Just then my stylist Franco touches my arm startling me. "Are you ready for your shampoo?" he asks. "Uh, yeah, oh yeah sure," I stammer as I follow him to the chair.
Then my ex hits me with the big one. "You're going to cover for this, right?" he says as he slips out of the shop with the girls.
So I paid for Nova's hair to be cut short and ugly so she can look just like every other five-year-old girl -- rather non-descript and much like my ex's girlfriend's five-year-old daughter.
Yes, I know it's only hair and it will eventually grow back. That four or so years of hair growth that they hacked off will grow back just about the time Nova outgrows cute and gets into pretty and well groomed instead of the wild mane of exploding hair she was so admired for.
So much for her getting off for being cute. Now she will have to aim for good little ordinary girl.
I guess the ex's girlfriend was tired of people saying how cute Nova is and forgetting about her ordinary child whining for attention. Now the two of them will be on evenly ordinary ground. I can also see where spending a lot of time with her dad, his girlfriend and their kids is going to be bad for Nova's self esteem.