What would you do if your daughter wanted to shave her head? Well, one mum from Ohio was faced with that dilemma when her 6-year-old asked to have the same buzz cut as her dad and brother.
Paige Lucas-Stannard admits at first she wanted to talk her daughter out of it. “I really, really, REALLY wanted to talk her out of it," she wrote on her blog, Baby Dust Diaries. "I wanted to fawn over how beautiful her hair is. In fact, I knew I had that power over my daughter. What I think – as her primary caregiver and friend – has a huge impact on her. I could have used just the right words to talk her out of it.”
But her daughter Aellyn persisted and eventually Paige gave in – agreeing to shave her head. "This wasn’t a hard decision or even a big deal to her. She’s never been told how ‘girls are supposed to look/act’ because we parent outside of sexist stereotypes whenever we can* (I wrote the book Gender Neutral Parenting if you are new here). We talk about sexism a lot and I told her the morning before we cut it that some people think girls shouldn’t have shaved heads. She said, ‘no way. Girls can have their hair anyway they want.’ I said I know but some people might say something about it or call her a boy. She said, 'That’s ok mom, I’ll just tell them I’m a girl'."
Still not convinced? Well Paige says she'd rather see her daughter without hair than let her think "she should allow someone to manipulate her or dictate her appearance."
But what do you think? Would you let your little girl shave her head if she wanted? Let us know in the comments below.
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