Lately Bridget has been a lot better about letting me curl her hair.

Last summer I purchased a 1/4″ curling iron for her hair. She let me curl it a couple of times then (usually while she sat in front of the TV watching Signing Time), but quickly became frightened one day when I told her that it was hot and it could burn her.

Since then, any time I suggested it she would break out in tears and hold on to me for dear life. I couldn’t even bribe her with suckers or smarties.  About a month ago I finally went out and bought rollers – hoping I could curl her hair without the iron. It worked a couple of times, but I had to leave them in for a long time to get any kind of results. It was a pain.

Then I got this great idea. (Well, maybe not great – but it worked).

After curling my own hair, I let the curling iron sit for about 15 minutes – so it was just warm to the touch. I brought Bridget in and let her feel the curling iron. I asked her if she’d let me curl her hair if I just used a “warm” curling iron, not a “hot” one. She let me! As I began curling her hair I quietly turned the curling iron back on. A few minutes in I told her that it was hot and not to touch, she seemed fine with it.

We talked about how it was safe to touch the handle, but not the barrel. And how its mommy’s job to use the curling iron – she has to wait until she’s bigger. We also talked about never touching a curling iron that is plugged in, even if the indicator light is off.  And why curls that fall down onto her ear or her neck are warm when they fall from the curling iron. Talking through the things we were doing seemed to calm her fears quite a bit. So much in fact, that she tried to curl my hair a few days later (more on that tomorrow).

In any case, I think she looks cute in curls. In fact, when her hair is curled, we tend to call her curly.

What do you think? Cute in curls?

These next two are from her Valentine’s Day portraits. She was goofing off in these ones. More serious ones (and some less serious) to come on V-Day.