Love Your Hair

I am excited to partner with Dove™ Hair and The Motherhood in the Love Your Hair campaign. All opinions are my own!

She was my first baby, and I was thrilled I was having a GIRL! Oh how I loved playing with my dolls when I was little, and now I had a real baby to play with. I would dress her in frilly dresses and fix her hair. She would love it. Uh no! Faith was not the little girl I expected, and she began training me early.

From the time she could speak she would shout, “I don’t want the dress!” Then there was her hair. It was dark and thick and grew straight into her eyes. But do you think she would let me put a bow in her hair? Not my girl. Everywhere I went people would tell me how I should fix my daughter’s hair. Usually I just smiled, but inwardly shouted, “Why don’t you mind your own business?”

One time I finally gave in to family and provided a demonstration. I placed a bow in my two year old’s hair. As soon as I had attached the bow to her hair up went her hand and with a yank out came the bow and a fist full of hair. She absolutely wouldn’t stand for it!

It was in these first couple of years that I had a huge revelation. I felt a strong sense of pressure from those around me to make my daughter’s hair conform to what friends and family deemed acceptable for a little girl. The truth was that she didn’t like it “fixed,” and I really didn’t care if it was either. I was just trying to please the people around me. I decided I wasn’t going to care about what everyone else wanted me to do. I would much rather her be happy and comfortable with her hair the way she wanted it.

And that has been my motto ever since. With the exception of collective events where all the children participating are expected to dress and look a certain way, I let my girls dress how they are comfortable and fix their hair however they want to.

After all it’s what is inside that we always say matters so much more, but how are the children ever going to believe us if all we do is harp on the outside right?

At fifteen Faith is a beautiful girl who does now enjoy clothes, makeup, and hair, but you know what? It’s not what is most important to her, and I love that!

Have you ever noticed that there seems to be this narrow depiction of what “beautiful hair” is that changes with the trends? Earlier this year, Dove Hair found that 8 in 10 women feel pressure to wear their hair a certain way. For so many, these pressures begin at a young age. I can see how this is especially since as a mother I felt that pressure to make my child conform to what was thought to be beautiful at the time. As a mothers, we can make a difference and help ensure our girls grow up feeling confident. Celebrate the beauty of your daughter’s hair today–so she loves her hair tomorrow. In my case my daughter taught me, and I’m so glad she did. I love her natural, long, beautiful hair, and I want her to love it too!

Tell your girl why you love her hair and inspire her to do the same by creating and sharing a custom #LoveYourHair animated message with @Dove: LoveYourHair.Dove.com.