How I Stopped the Hair Combing Fits!

I have a 5 year old girl.  This means I have a 5 year old eardrum-shattering banshee when it comes to hair combing time.  I have tried everything...hair detangler, combing it wet, combing it dry, leave in conditioner, sleeping in braids.  It doesn't seem to matter what I try.  It's wailing, "I hate you", screaming, sobbing torture.

And then came a stroke of genius.  A friend had her daughter's hair done really cute for dance class one day and mentioned that she had these cards with different hair-do's on them and let her daughter pick one that morning  I think they were American Girl cards?  Anyway.  I thought maybe if I let G pick her own hair style, she would agree not to throw a tantrum.  It's worth a try, right?

Rather than buy cards, I decided to make my own hair-do catalog.  So I sat down on the computer and used Pinterest to find some cute dos.  I think I pulled off 18 - anything from a really simple ponytail, to this complicated-looking braided flower thing.  I made 3x5 rectangles in a word processing program.  I put a picture of each hair-do in one.  For the complicated ones, I put instructions in another box.  Then I printed them off.

Now to make a book she can look through.  I gathered up the supplies:

• The pages I printed
• Index cards
• Colored Markers
• Glue stick
• Scissors
• Contact paper (someday I will get a laminator...sigh)
• Paper punch
• Small piece of ribbon

Then I started making the book:

1. I cut out all of the photos and instructions.
2. I wrote the title and colored a pretty cover on one of the index cards
3. I used the glue stick to put a photo on the front and the corresponding instructions on the back of each index card.  The exception was a few really easy dos.  For these, I don't need instructions.  So I put a picture on each side of the card.
4. I laminated the cards with contact paper (Mine is really old and has been crumpled up in the craft cabinet, so the pages aren't as smooth as I would like.  Again, wishing for a laminator...)
5. I punched a hole in the upper left corner of each card and tied them together with a pretty pink ribbon.

This was a really easy project, but so far has had great effects!  We've been using it for 3 days now, and I haven't had a single tantrum.  AND her hair has looked super cute.  Her kindergarten teacher told her yesterday how pretty her hair looked. :)

Here's the finished project: