Dad's Life 3D: A 'tween picture day disaster and "How to" make things right!

I pride myself on being "that" dad who is involved to the point that there are not many things I can't do when it comes to raising my kids. But let's face it, there are some things that dads just can't do. Finding stuff that is lost is one of those things. Another is curling your 'tween daughter's hair for picture day. I repeat. Picture day.

But, before get into our picture day disaster, let's take a step back. Over the years, I have been able to save the day, when it comes to my daughter's hair, on numerous occasions. I suppose my hair skills come from my experiences in dealing with my own hair... My mom once said that my sister should have had my hair, and I should have had hers. Basically, what she was saying is that I have wavy hair and my sister has straight hair. Mine has all the curls that people with straight hair want, and that people with curly hair don't.

But my hair thing is much deeper than this. Some of you reading this may have known me long enough to remember all of the hair styles I've had over the years. There was the standard 70s boy bowl cut. I had this cut until one day my mom snipped my ear with the scissors. From that point on, she took me to the barber... Then it was the 70s Val Surfer cut. Parted in the middle and feathered back, complimented by a stylish comb with teardrop handle in back pocket. By the way, the feathered back thing never worked well for me because of my wavy hair... After that it was the BMX/Hesher scruffy long hair look. At this point in my life, I was comfortable enough to rock any style, so I went Metal, Punk, Goth, Super Goth, Sensitive Pony Tail Guy and eventually, normal spiky-ish Eric mind of it's own hair. Sometimes it's up, and sometimes it's crooked. At this point, I give up...

Side note: I ran into my current barber the other day on my way to get some coffee with a friend. He explained to my friend that he has been cutting my hair for 15 years. Then he joked, "I have been doing the same haircut for Eric for 15 years!" And, it's fair to say, he's probably right! Yes, Tommy, lets go with the #3 again...

Truth is, I flew many colors in my hair over the years as well, but my favorites were burgundy, auburn, black and even blacker. I once had fuchsia hair for a few weeks, but that was only because a friend of mine, who was going to beauty school, messed up the mix. I had a crush on her, so rather than have her "fix" it, I rocked it. After all, it was the Valley in the 80s, so I was good!

Now back to Mazzy. One fine morning when she was about four, we were on our way to pre-school at Little Village when the unthinkable happened. Her braid came out. She immediately started to cry, and as we got closer to school, it turned into a full on tantrum. I said, "Don't worry kiddo, teacher Nancy can fix it when we get to school. She screamed, "Nooooo." Teacher Jessica? "Nooooo." Mazzy did not want to go into school with her hair not did right. So, I had only one option. I had to re-braid her hair.

Luckily, my mom taught me how to braid many years ago. But that was with yarn. This was a much different situation. I had a four-year-old that was in a full tantrum mode. I was a dad that knew how to braid yarn at one point in my life, but that was certainly not now. I needed a refresher course, and I needed it asap.

So, I pulled out the iPhone 3 and I searched for "how to braid hair. " Viola! I found a great picture that had just what I was looking for and within minutes, her beautiful braid was tight! The tears stopped. The sun came out, and into the school we went, as if nothing had ever happened!

If I could have bottled that moment up and then re-applied it on the morning of picture day 2017, I certainly would have. But it didn't work that way. The night before, it was suggested that we put soft curlers in Mazzy's damp hair so that it would be curly in the morning. It sounded reasonable to me, so off to CVS we went to get soft curlers.

While at CVS, I thought, what if this doesn't work? I considered a backup plan. But, before I made an irrational impulse buy of women's hair accessories, I did what any single dad with a 'tween daughter should do. Ask a professional. Or in this case, the beautiful model-like woman who happened to be standing in the same isle as us...! Clearly there is a God!

After listening contently to every last word our new friend had to say, a few additional items were added to the mix... Then off we went, to get busy. With hair curlers. And other hair products. We had 20 curlers, ranging in different sizes. Large, medium and small. Not certain which should go where, I just went with what seemed rational. Small in the front, Medium on the side and big in the back. Yup, rational...

We had done well. The curlers were in and it was time for bed. But, now Mazzy's head hurt. She could not find a position on the pillow that didn't send a curler smashing into her head. They were all over her head, so I had to come up with a pillow solution that would take the pressure off. I created a small horseshoe of pillows. It was kinda' like one of those airplane horseshoe neck pillows, but bigger! Finally, she went to sleep.

I woke Mazzy up early so that we could address any issues. But there were way too many. First off, when we took the curlers out, her hair shrunk up into tight curls that bunched up around her head. She looked like Shirley Temple, which would have been fine if that was the look she was going for. It wasn't. Far from it in fact... She looked in the mirror, started to cry and said, "Why can't I ever have a good picture day?" My heart sunk. We had so much fun putting the curlers in the night before. The result couldn't have been worse.

So now we went to plan B. I took out the curling iron I had bought at CVS, just in case, and plugged it in. "Don't worry kiddo," I said. "We're going to get this right." She had already brushed her hair out and no longer looked like Shirley Temple. At this point, I was still convinced that I could fix it. So I pulled out the iPhone 6 and searched for a how to curl hair with a curling iron. I attempted to do what the hair stylist did in the youtube video, but instead I almost burned her face. Luckily there is a rubber bit at the end of the iron... Nevertheless, just like that time my mom clipped my ear, I was now officially dismissed from ever using a curling iron on my daughter's hair again. And, we were now just shy of a full on tantrum.

But, rather than go into full panic mode myself, I thought, what can I do to make this right? Really, I had only one choice considering I could already hear the tardy bell ringing in my head... I had to phone a mom, because only, and I mean only a mom could fix this situation. Luckily, Mazzy's "Auntie Coreen" lives about 5 blocks from us, on the way to school. It was a desperate call, but a call that saved the day!

Within minutes, we were at the Peralta's house. This is when the magic happened! Not only did Coreen curl Mazzy's hair properly, but she styled her hair in a way that it put a smile on her face that I will never forget. Mazzy walked into school that day proud, and even though those curls fell out before her picture was taken, she exuded a confidence that made me realize, no matter what I do, I can never replace some of those skills that only a mom has!