LIGHTS, camera, l’action! The annual International Film Festival has rolled into Albury and not a moment too soon. The world’s best offerings in all their original and bizarre glory are timely respite to the bittersweet drama of life.
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It took me 12 hours to realise our four-year-old had cut her own fringe. Having never been trimmed at all, her fringe was the same length as the rest of her long hair.
Tucking her into bed that night, I saw a tidy pile of fair hair on the floor and a strategically placed pair of sewing scissors.
“I did not want to tell you in case you got angry,” she explained.
“But I can see much-much-much better now.”
It’s hard to argue with that kind of logic and she had done a very neat job, hence my failure to notice. She agreed she would not chop it again without first asking a grown-up. The dog did not count!
True to her word she hasn’t touched her fringe again but the same cannot be said for Fairy Barbie, My Little Pony and a unicorn hobby horse. Piles of hair are everywhere! She had a field day – or should that be fringe festival – with her big sister’s few Barbies. Luckily her sister had not bonded with Barbie and I admired Barbie’s new blonde bob, but it got out of hand when the sustainable forest timber Plan Toys doll-house family took a collective trim.
“They did not need a HAIRCUT,” I fumed.
“Well, actually, they did,” she replied. “They couldn’t see and now they can see everything; they’re looking at you now, SEE!”
“It will NEVER grow back,” I explained.
“Well, I really, actually, did not know that!" she offered by way of a peace plan.
We agreed Barbies and the wooden doll-house family were off limits; the same as her fringe.
During a weekend visit to my sister’s place at Tocumwal, I relayed the Hair stage show playing out in our house. My sister sympathised, safe in the knowledge that her own preschoolers hadn’t discovered the “good scissors”. Besides the short-short fringe suited our daughter, she assured me.
On Monday I logged on to Facebook to see my Tocumwal niece had also cut her never-cut-before fringe.
“C has been hanging out with her cousin M too long!” was the FB status. I “liked” it quickly and logged off even faster.
Our preschooler’s fringe started to grow back, but not without her ballerina buddy noticing during class one weekend. The next weekend we arrived to see ballerina buddy had also lopped off her fringe. This was now threatening to become a movement among preschoolers!
But with hair being so last month and all, our preschooler applied a tattoo out of a birthday party favour bag to her bicep. Luckily it was a tasteful heart worn under her sleeve.
Come the next ballet lesson, I saw our preschooler lifting up her leotard sleeve to reveal her tattoo to her partner in hairdressing crimes. I felt compelled to warn the little girl’s mum: "I hate to break it to you but our girl is showing your little one her tatt!"
No subtitles can translate the glare!