Nothing warms my heart more than someone wanting to shave their head to support people with medical hairloss. I was thinking of a simple enough event I could hold in honour of alopecia awareness month. Needless to say my time is running short for planning an event but if not in September, it will be done at least in time for me to fundraise for my missionary venture to Guatemala in February. My issue comes not from planning an event but from an extraordinary request from my 9 year old daughter. She is desperately begging me to shave her head. Why????

She understands the implications of being laughed at and singled out. She knows that people will stare at her wherever she goes and that people will mistake her for a boy as they've done previously with very short haircuts. Her reply was simple and sincere: "Because YOU look pretty bald!" I've obviously done a good job at teaching her that beauty comes in many different forms and as much as I inspire her I have a hard time accepting that she wants to get rid of her beautiful blond hair. Her hair isn't long enough to donate, not to mention it's been dyed once and is quite thin (but curly) so they'd never use it for a wig. She's willing to talk about why she wants to shave her head at school and tell them about alopecia and that she's supporting the idea that bald is beautiful and I think that she's awefully sweet for this gesture.

As a child I did not have the option to keep my hair but my daughter is choosing to get rid of hers. I support my children in being free to make certain decisions, especially regarding what they do with their hair - its theirs, why would I tell them what to do with it? So why do I have an issue with my daughter wanting to get rid of it? Is this my own selfish want for her, knowing the pain and suffering I went through with my own hairloss? Torn between sides I told her to talk to her father about it, I was sure he'd convince her otherwise but he didn't. From his side of the story he doesn't want her to but fears losing her acceptance right now as he's having problems of his own that prevent him from spending much time with them (something she's bitter about).

I told her to wait until I have my event, asked her to wait until after picture day. She replied in tears "I wanna do it before then". I just cut her bangs, she looks like a cute little china doll and I'm sure she'd be just as beautiful without hair I don't want to deal with any drama that may follow in lieu of her decision. We all make mistakes, do I shave her head and let her learn a lesson? There may not even be any lesson to learn if her explanation is accepted. Do I let her make her statement, rebel if in fact this is rebellion?

I turn to my fellow alopecians and parents of, what is your opinion on this manner? Am I being selfish? Is her request foolish? If your 9 year old desperately wanted to shave their hair (and not suddenly, she's been asking for awhile), how would you handle the situation?