Locks of Love

My niece Abby has the hair of a typical nearly 7-year-old girl. It is fine, not thick, but she has a lot of it. Up until last year, Maria always kept her hair in check - never below the shoulders. A couple of months ago, Abby decided that she wanted to grow her hair out so that she could later donate it all to Locks of Love. While her desire to do this melts my heart and only confirms my belief that she is one of the sweetest, most compassionate children alive, I am severely dreading the "growing out" process. You see, Abby is reluctant to any brushing of her hair. The result of her aversion is most often an impossible rat's nest, haphazard tangles and knots dominating where smooth silky locks should be.

As a child, the length of my hair was not due to such an honorable cause, but nevertheless my hair was very long, and the process of washing, combing and drying was never anything I eagerly anticipated. Much to my embarrassment, I recall my response to my dad's forceful detangling and drying to be me rewetting my hair, as if to say, "Ha! I'll show you, now my hair is wet again!" This action on my part was always met with an encore of the dreaded process I so cleverly thought I had reversed. I was not so clever...

I suppose Abby benefited most from my lack of cleverness, since my own pain led to my skillful perfection of the art of detangling hair. In fact, Grammy and I are Abby's preferred hair stylists, as we are the only two she deems sufficiently gentle. Too bad Grammy and I are not available on a daily basis to tame Abby's tresses.

As Abby is a ridiculously active child, I am open to suggestions to offer my sister-in-law for keeping her hair from becoming a hive of dreadlocks. I am hesitant (almost to the point of refusal) to discourage her from such a generous act; so please, please, please, anyone who may have suggestions pass them on to me!