American Girl Goes Curly

Michelle Breyer, curl expert and founder of naturallycurly.com, discusses what really makes her daughter happy.

Sometimes you get the best curly tips in the strangest places. In this case, it was at the new American Girl store in Dallas - a two-story fantasyland for young girls.
In addition to looking for a new doll, my curly 7-year-old wanted to rejuvenate the look of her disheveled curly "Just Like Me" doll. And with an in-store beauty parlor for dolls, there was no better place to do it.
For those who know nothing about American Girl dolls, the vast majority of them have straight hair. So dealing with a curly doll - just like a curly human - requires special skills. The women - some who sported natural texture themselves - weren't intimidated at all. They spritzed her hair and twisted small sections of hair into ringlets. This was no easy task because this doll has a lot of hair.
Forty-five minutes later, Elizabeth looked like a brand-new doll. Her shiny ringlets bounced, and my daughter had a huge smile on her face.

There was a Little Girl

There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead
When she was good
She was very good indeed
And when she was bad she was horrid
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Michelle Breyer, Curl expert and co-founder of NaturallyCurly.com, talks about her own biases when dealing with her daughter's curly locks.

My 7-year-old daughter, Emma, woke up the other morning and asks me if she looks any different. I don't know quite how to react to that, so I say no. She then asks if her hair looks messy. Since she was blessed with curls -- although not quite as curly as my own tight ringlets -- her hair does indeed look a little crazy. Then I notice that the front of her hair is a good six inches shorter than the rest of it. Yes, she says, she cut her own hair. A huge chunk.
I grew up with a straight-haired mother who had no idea what to do with her curly daughter's hair. She thought it looked cute an inch long, so I had a pixie until I was in 8th grade and old enough to say no. Even then, it took years to grow it long. So the thought that my daughter had voluntarily cut her beautiful, long, Giselle curls short was hard to fathom. Then she told me she wanted a short haircut. At first, I was horrified. Then, it hit me that it's her hair to do with just as she pleases. Just as I was angry that my mother subjected me to involuntary pixies, my daughter longed to have a short bob like her friends. She wanted to make a decision for herself.
So off we went to the hair salon, and she told the stylist how much we wanted cut off. It was painful to watch the long, golden ringlets fall to the ground. I would have died for long hair like that when I was her age, with my short helmet of curls. But Emma was thrilled with her new look. She bragged to her friends, "My hair is shorter than yours!"