The hair drama continues, as we learn to live with Kina’s mysterious curls. Today, when I was “giving her a haircut” in the living room, Kina protested as I combed out her tangles. Who wouldn’t? Straight-haired people often muse wistfully about curls, but combing through tangles is the worst, and I wasn’t even using a proper comb. (Playtime blowouts call for toy pasta forks.)

As Kina told me that she wanted to be a “straight-hair mommy”, her actual straight-haired Mommy was standing in the bedroom doorway, in awkward silence; this was delicate. “Mommies have all kinds of beautiful hair,” we told Kina. As I used a toy ladle to spritz her with some fake leave-in conditioner, I squeezed her shoulder in reassurance. We’ll come to terms with the curls.

On Instagram this morning, our friends were unusually vocal in their support. She’s not alone in her curliness, as it turns out. Lots of people have beautiful, frustrating curly hair, as it turns out—and not all of them are mommies. She’ll be in great company, knowing that all these people who love her are setting their hair in pincurls and sleeping on satin pillowcases every night. Maybe that’ll be her, too, but she can leave it all in tangles if she’d rather. Tangly mommies are perfect, too.

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