My Little Bald Baby {Looking Back #8}

Even before Eva was actually born, before the time recorded on her birth certificate of 3.46pm we knew she had lots of hair. Two hours of pushing and the midwives would comment that ‘baby’ had so much hair, keep pushing we’ll get to see what he/she looks like. The moment she was finally born and we were so surprised at just how much there was, a full head of dark hair, it was all matted to her head of course but there was just so much of it. Eddy and I looked at each other, echoes of “ooh she has alot of hair” whirred around the room which at the time was filled with more people than I can remember.

Within those first few precious hours it started to dry out and stick up a little beneath my fingers as I instinctively stroked it. The next few days and nights merged into one as she lost the protective layer of ‘stuff’ that their skin is still covered in. She had her first ever bath and suddenly this dark hair took on a life of its own. It stuck up, like really stuck up to the point where it looked slightly like she had been electrocuted, we just couldn’t get it to go down at all and each morning it seemed like we had styled it ourselves! It was so thick and dark for such a tiny baby and it became a really big part of her little character, we would get comments everywhere we went and it fast became the topic guaranteed to make us smile.

I falsely assumed that she was destined therefore to have alot of hair right from the start and had inherited this lush dark hair from her Daddy. It did however prove not to be true as the weeks and months went by and she started to lose it. It might sounds silly but it isn’t something I had really considered before, that she would in fact lose every single last one of those ‘baby hairs’. It started with the back of her head which I think is typical for most babies when they lie on their backs and rub it off, she looked like someone had taken a razor to that one patch!

Then it seemed to get lighter but actually I think it was just getting thinner, and thinner, or maybe her head was growing and her hair was not. Who knows. But at about 4 months old she had lost so much, yet the top bit still stuck up in the air like a mohican – just without the body of the rest of it to carry it off!

By the time she was 6 months old she was pretty much bald except for some wispy bits, like a comic comb-over. I can tell you taking nice photos of her at that stage was a tough ask, bless her heart of course my daughter was beautiful she had the most beautiful smile, the brightest of eyes, but the biggest and flattest of heads and lets just say the bald baby stage wasn’t her finest moment. She was pretty much either constantly in a summer hat or cleverly disguised by an arm, the angle, or the grass. I actually became a bit of an expert at disguising the lack of hair I have to say!

Other than the memories captured though I know that I was so sad to see it go, to lose a part of the character that we had known and loved, the only thing we had known, just as her real personality was starting to shine through.

I will be honest, it isn’t a phase I long to go back to like I do so many others, but it also never ever fails to make me smile and laugh when I see the photos of this time, where her head is obscured and only we know why, or I remember the wafting in the wind of that stubborn last hair that hung on tight. These are the little memories that I know I never want to forget. Eventually at about 9 months old her baby hair was all gone, her bald baby look disappeared, and her real hair came through, for good, it was brown and soft and as beautiful as ever, just not sticking up this time.

xx

I was tempted not to include this photo, but this was the reality, and you will know why she didn’t suit the bald look!

I love this picture because it makes me smile so wide, you can see her hair growing through like a mat covering her entire head, and then the stubborn mohawk that hangs on until the bitter end!