Somebody take away my scissors!

[dirty ethel rackham]

I've always wanted to be a hairdresser. I used to cut the hair on my Barbies and other dolls. But my dad insisted that all of his kids go to college.  Ok, TBH, so I don't regret that, but I've always loved playing with hair.  For the past several years, I have been trimming dd's hair ... it is long - like past her elbows - and curly.  We have to trim it often because, although she has a lot of hair, the actual texture is very fine and prone to breaking.  When she can't comb it well in the shower with conditioner on it, it is time for a trim.  So, with prom 10 days away, we decided to give it a trim because we couldn't get her into a good stylist that we trust and she wasn't sure what she wanted to do with it anyway.  What was supposed to be a 2 inch trim turned into a 5 inch trim. YIKES! I accidentally cut one side a bit short, so I had to make the other side the same length.  I feel so bad.  I didn't dare work too hard at evening everything out because I was afraid to cut any more off.  Her hair is still plenty long enough to braid and put up and will be much easier to take care of.  But she is still a little shocked.  I'm hoping that she will get over it.  She had been debating cutting it a bit shorter ... well now she has it.  

And I will probably retire from cutting her hair.  I'll just stick to trimming my own weird pieces that stick out between haircuts.  

[Tap]

LOL I did that once.  It ended up being the cutest haircut I ever gave dd.  LOL  I think it was because I to do the repair-cut it to where it made proportional 'visual sense' instead of going by inches.    I cut dd's hair upside down so it layers itself. She lays on the kitchen counter and hangs her head over the side.  She must have moved in the process and it messed up.   

[chocolate-chip chooky]

There's still a running joke in our family to not let my Dad near any scissors.

He was babysitting one of my daughters, then aged 5 (she's now 21). Her hair was falling forward into her food, so he got scissors and cut all those bits off. No thought to pull her hair back with an elastic band, some clips, or even just with his hands. He cut it all off. And all uneven too. Whatever was in her food just got lopped off :)

None of us were, or are, precious about this sort of thing, so it's always just been a funny story.

I hope your daughter can have a good laugh and I hope she has a marvelous time at her prom.

[dirty ethel rackham]

4 hours ago, ThatBookwormMom said:

This has absolutely nothing to do with the haircut, but one thing that stuck out to me is that she's combing her hair in the shower. This may be contributing to her breakage, as hair is at its most fragile when wet. Have her thoroughly and carefully comb her hair while dry, then only (gently!) finger comb conditioner and/or product through her hair until it's thoroughly dry. 

Of course, disregard completely if you already knew that! Hope she has a blast at prom.

She absolutely cannot get a comb through it after it dries.  No way, no how.  No matter how many products we have tried, it tangles within seconds of being combed.  The only way to comb it is while it is slathered in conditioner.  It takes her 15 minutes of starting a half inch from the end and combing that out and moving up a half inch and so on.  She is very gentle with it.  The breakage comes from wearing it in a pony tail or braid ... it breaks from the pressure of the strand being pulled ... even with the no breakage elastics.  For this reason, she only washes it 3 times a week, even though the hair close to her scalp gets oily.  

[mamaraby]

Awe, that must have been traumatic for both of you!

Fwiw, combing curly hair while wet is standard practice. Combing it while dry is a good way to encourage breakage and frizzy hair. Curly hair needs to be wet with enough conditioner to give it slip, but OP probably already knows that. ;)