Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Many Uses Of Vegetable Oil

Mallory's fine baby hair causes a lot of crazy bed-head. So one day when it was looking particularly ratty, I assumed she had slept wildly. Well, combine that with the fact that we don't get up and moving quickly on summer mornings, so it doesn't get combed until noon or after. I used my fingers to try to smooth her hair and realized she had a big hard clump stuck in it. Great. Gum. Now, this chunk of hardened gum was right on the top of her head, and I started thinking, "How am I going to get this out without...
...ripping out handfuls of hair and leaving a bald spot that rivals Dr. Phil's?!"
Let me tell you, ice does not work. Neither does peanut butter. I hopped online, desperate for ideas that would leave my three-year-old with enough hair that people wouldn't think she had Alopecia.
Apparently other mothers have experienced the same episodes with their toddlers and suggested using vegetable oil. We gave it a try, and it was the cure! It felt nasty in my hands and in her hair, but it was definitely better than having her walk around with one big dread lock-looking strip of gum-covered hair. In just a few minutes the oil and comb got the wad of gum out with minimal damage. A quick wash of the hair and we were good to go.
Yesterday at the grocery store I threw three packs of gum in my cart while simultaneously screaming in my head, "NO! NO! NO! What are you thinking?!" Mallory is banished from gum for a while.