Our hair dilemma saga journey started long before we ever met Little Six. It probably started on the day she was born. Her original family was neglectful, to say the least. I think we can safely assume that there was zero hair care happening. That would be a bad thing for anyone. Sadly it didn't change once she was in state custody. I think maybe there was an attempt - on occasion, to "do something" with her hair. It apparently was never the right something.
Remember (or go back in the archives) she lived at the Deaf school for several years. At that point she was pretty much in charge of her own self. Okay, reality check - she was always in charge of her own self!! Anyway, there was no mom, grandmom, aunt, older sister, whatever to teach her how to tend her hair. Her hair is VERY course, thick, dense etc. There is no way she could have done anything with it herself as a small child (nor can she now.)
Someone got the bright idea to GLUE extensions to her scalp. GLUED.IT.TO.HER.HEAD. MMMMHHHMM! Normally these would be braided in -except that by this time she had lost most of her hair to neglect. There was no hair to braid it to. So hence THE GLUE!! The extensions were also waaaaaay to long. They pulled on her scalp and what little hair she did have.
By the time we met Six, these extensions had been in there for some time. They were barely hanging onto her head and her poor scalp itched like crazy.
What to do?
It seems like an easy answer -take them out/off. Weeeellllll, not so fast. She HATED her "no hair head"! Naturally. The school teacher told us that she was extremely sensitive and very embarrassed about the hair when the loooooooong extensions were not in. So, here we are - her new family. Are we going to just rip those things off and start off on the wrong foot. NO! I wanted to do that. However, I knew we need to bond a little and gain some trust first.
I thought I would lose my mind watching her continuous clawing scratching. Then Divine providence, they started just coming out one by one - on their own.
Yeeehaw - except now what?
I will tell ya next time!!
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