The Hair Issue

One of Amber's teachers told me a funny story about her after school today. According to her, while they were all seated listening to one of their teachers, Amber who was seated behind one of her classmates was doing something amusing. They noticed her seriously looking at the head of her boy classmate who recently shaved his hair leaving him almost hairless or in Amber's term "bald." This boy happens to be one of Amber's favorite classmates and they found it really funny when they saw her pointing at his head as if wanting to touch what was left of his hair. Amber is known to be a shy girl in school so something like this is totally unexpected of her.

Amber's fascination of bald people is something not new to us. Whenever she sees a man without hair or what's left of it, she calls it "bald." The funny "incident" above wasn't her first time too. One time when we went to the mall, we saw a middle-aged man walking a few meters ahead of us when she noticed him then she turned to me in her normal voice and said, " Nanay, why is the man bald?" Of course, I was surprised and a little embarrased because the man might have heard her but if he did, he didn't show it and just walked normally as if not hearing anything. Funny or not, I still had to tell her that it's not right to embarass or tell something like that out loud because she might hurt someone's feelings.

My daughters' curiosity with hair might have started from seeing their Tatay having hair in his chin or between his nose and lips. It must have also started when they saw him taking pictures of his "vanishing" hair one day to check how serious the depletion was. Or, from my waxing session at Laybare where I take them (Yes, my two little girls!) with me. It's one of those starting-it-early bonding time to a waxing salon and mind you, they enjoy it. They join me inside the cubicle while the waxing lady does her job of yanking my underarm hair which they're getting used to seeing. The first time they joined me, Amber asked me why there's hair in my armpit and when I told her all grown-ups have it she tells me she doesn't want to have hair in her armpit,too. Ina, on the other hand is still scared of the waxing lady that she thinks she's scarier than the waxing itself. Their closest personal encounter with the hair issue started when they had their first haircut and those were pleasant ones with Dora and Barney entertaining them while sitting on a spaceship and a car with no pain involved.

What's with the hair anyway? We adults take our hair seriously. Please note that when I talk of hair, I'm talking of the ones on our head, armpit, face and legs only. We groom it, we make it grow "gracefully," we get rid of the unwanted, the unruly and the unpleasant. For those with the lack of it, we try to salvage whatever's left of it. Kids, on the other hand, ask questions on the lack of it, the places where they "sprout" unwantedly and the things we do to take care of it. They also blurt remarks that are too frank or sometimes insulting but can get away with it just because they are too cute or too young. For now, I'll just leave these hair issues behind.