NORDSTROM Children’s Shoes

Visit Children’s Shoes Friday & Saturday, February 18th and 19th.

Come get your toenails painted. Piggy Polish “Peticures” on Friday, February 18th

Paul Mitchell will be on hand from 12-4 PM doing updos on Saturday, February 19th.

Man, just say the words “Piggy Polish” and “updos” and I am there! So, the girls and I headed down to Nordstrom on Friday for “Peticures” and Saturday for a taste of the hair glamour that is conspicuously absent from their lives when they’re with me.

You see, while I am pretty good at most of the girly stuff associated with…well, girls…I can’t do hair. I not only lack a basic knowledge of hairstyling techniques, I’m completely unfamiliar with the tools. I’ve only used a blow dryer once in my life (during an ill-conceived, junior high, pre-dance grooming session that is still referred to as “The Dandelion Incident”) and the thought of using a curling iron leaves me clammy.

I know women who have used curling irons for decades who still manage to char their flesh on a regular basis, so, as a rank amateur, I’m a little reticent to brandish a wand of white-hot death near my daughters’ faces. Perhaps if my morning grooming ritual growing up had carried with it the ever-present possibility of grotesque, disfiguring burns or self-immolation (like applying my contact lenses with a soldering gun, or trimming my sideburns with an acetylene torch) I wouldn’t be so squeamish. But, as it stands, when they’re with me they usually have to settle for a few spritzes with a squirt bottle, a thorough brushing…and, if I’m feeling especially bold, perhaps a few barrettes.

So I went to this thing hoping to pick up a few “idées de coiffure” that I could use at home, but this probably wasn’t the place to go for practical hairstyling tips.

When it was over, Emma ended up with a remarkable recreation of the fountains of Versaille:

And Zoë’s hair was like an Escher woodcut. It seemed to turn in on itself and circle around and turn in on itself and circle around and turn in on itself and circle around…:

But even though I didn’t learn much in the way practical techniques, I studied the process carefully enough that I’m pretty confident that I could recreate the hairstyles if the girls ever get invited to a cotillion…or the Westminster Dog Show.