Beca's haircut and a WTF moment

OK - the scene is this - a children's salon that cuts children's hair and has toys for kids to play with and of course purchase. A Sunday afternoon (the day after the birthday parties and ceiling collapse). A couple is finishing watching their little boy get his hair all neat and trimmed. Another couple is waiting to have their son's shaggy mullet shaped up. A young girl sits in a jeep having her hair parted by one of the 2 hairstylsists. An adorable little girl named Beca and her parents show up 5 minutes early for an appointment. But they overhear the hairstylist named Sarah working on the little girl in the jeep. Her father just dropped her off and poor Sarah doesn't know what to do with the girl's haircut - apparently there are crazy parents out there who yell at hairstylists for not giving their little precious the most perfect cut ever! HELLLOOOOOOO - IT'S HAIR - IT WILL GROW BACK! and really, if you went to school to cut hair, why aren't you doing it? I did not go to school to learn to cut hair - that's why I love my hairstylist of 8 or 9 years. She did go to school and still goes to classes as well as teaches color classes and she can pick a style for me that looks good on me. That's what I expect of all hairstylists.
OOh - that was a tangent...

The sweet little girl is just staring at the Dora show on the screen. So Sarah decides to put Beca in another chair - a boat - and starts cutting her hair, understanding clearly from me that I am not the hairstylist and I just want my little girl's hair to not be unruly and I won't be mad at whatever it looks like, especially when I relay that Beca's bangs get trimmed to an almost Scandinavian short style when I do them and they are generally not very well done because I do not understand the oddities of trimming a cowlick, even though I have one.

The receptionist asks the little girl if she knows her mom's number and the girl rattles off all 10 digits without batting an eyelash. She just goes right back to staring at her screen. It was so sad how she just sat there and acted like this happened often. The receptionist's side of the conversation with the mother was additionally sad. She tells the mother that she's new and didn't realize what was going on and she needs to come back over in the next 15 minutes from Target where apparently it was necessary to go shop during this haircut. The mother apparently rattles off instructions to make sure that Sarah understands the kind of haircut but the instructions make little sense to Sarah. Phone call over.

So Sarah is now focusing on Beca's hair. She's mostly finished when in comes the father who almosts blasts the receptionist with the line "If I had known it would be a problem, I wouldn't have left her." UMMMM, WHAT THE????? Are you kidding? Can anyone tell me when it is ok to leave a 6 year old (hell, even a 10 year old) alone in a shop of any kind other than one that is specifically designed as a day care? Steve and I were flabbergasted. Then the mother meets the father outside and there's a slightly heated argument but it seems to be more regarding the inconvenience and embarrasment he imposed upon her. She pops in and kisses her daughter on the head and huffs about a simple little haircut. Now, I'm starting to will Sarah telepathically to hurry up and finish my little birthday girl's haircut and she is just patiently gathering the top knot up and slicking Beca's hair with shimmer glitter hairspray and adding a little blue bow. It was really cute and worth the trip. And we got to remind ourselves that we really are ok as parents because our daughter falls out when we are not around, not nonchalantly watches Dora with 3 clips holding up her wet hair. I still pray that the little girl will learn more out of life than parents don't give a rip and I really hope she doesn't do it to her kids. But, it is a cycle generally. I've seen it get broken - even within my own family but often it just repeats.

Anyway - here's Beca's haircut and the 2 bathtime Disney Princess Barbies that she picked out at Target with birthday funds. Weird thing about them is that they tout they are for bathtime but they are only color changing (meaning a streak of hair changes from blue to purple and Ariel gets tatoos and Cinderella's bodice turns purple) in cold water and go right back to "normal" in warm water. So I have to go get ice cold water to color change - luckily Beca has yet to realize that this is really an option. But she loves bathtime with her princesses and we are excited to possibly empty some of the bath toy bin!