hair today, a jumbled mess tomorrow !







i can't believe the ratio of hair accessories : girl children in this house.
or better yet, the ratio of hair accessories : actual girl child *hair* in this house.
she's got enough accessories for a small nation of girls and only enough hair for one very small dog. and a patchy one, at that.

but hair things and dreaming of the day that she will have long princess hair like her kindergarten classmates makes her happy. and finally being able to buy pink frilly things for one child out of 5 makes *me* happy, so i buy them. and they end up taking up a much coveted drawer - or 2 or 3. you know the ones - they are such a jumbled, tangled mess everyone dreads opening them to look for an elastic hair band or barrette. i tie my hair up in a knot and stick a pencil in it rather than dig through that drawer!

i stood contemplating that drawer for the millionth time this morning, yearning for a hair tie, yet frustrated and annoyed at the mess i knew i'd have to dig through. my eyes went from the dreaded vanity drawer to the vanity mirror, where i had draped a frilly lacy scarf i like but never wore. inspiration suddenly struck and a lightbulb clicked my head. in a flash, i saw all the things from the jumbled drawer flying to a neat and orderly position around the vanity and down the scarf.

i could tie big knots all the way down the scarf to section it off.
put the headwraps/elastic headbands over the pointy top of the vanity frame.
keep the knotted scarf where it is, clip a bunch of the clippy barrettes to the section above the 1st knot.
push the scrunchy-style hair ties above the second knot.
put the gumball style, old fashioned rubber band/ hair ties above the next knot - just wrap them loosely enough to hang above the knot and stay there.
more barrettes below those! the fabric of the scarf (less than $15 from target) would allow for me to clip any style of barrette onto it.
even better, the ends of it have sort of frayed/stray pieces of cloth - perfect for those super teeny tiny, eensy weensy barrettes for baby fine hair.

the plastic/hard head bands could finally have a home on the vanity top itself, once i freed them from the tangle of the drawer. i've tried everything else with them - hanging them on hangers, stacking them around a paper-towel dispenser, i finally realized there's just no good way to store them except for very small piles on a flat surface.

i'm very pleased with the end result! we can see everything now! i finally matched up missing pieces we haven't been able to find in months. i was able to throw away broken and ruined items. i put all the elastic and rubber bands into a mesh wire box by themselves on the vanity top - no more tangling everything up!

i imagine if you don't have a vanity, you could still hang a scarf on a wall and do this. or even a row of 3 or 4 scarves if you have enough hair stuff to organize. it could be done over a dresser top, on a closet wall...etc... if i didn't have a pointy vanity top for all the soft headwraps, i'd hang one of those decorative coathooks for them and then put the scarf under it.

now that cursed vanity drawer is free for all of her her epi-pen purses to go into.
jovie is thrilled with the project - i'm happy to report that is highly 6 year old girl approved! she raved and crowed to see old treasures found and prominently displayed. she thinks it looks like rapunzel's hair, hanging down and all done up with hair accessories! :-)
next i want to get a tussock-style stool to scoot up to the vanity so she can sit and decide what she's going to wear in her hair.

i'm also thinking about a shelf she has in her "someday" room. (the room she will have to herself someday). it is filled with her purses right now, but it could easily hold 4 or 5 scarves for organizing hair accessories. the shelf could hold the hard head bands.

here's hoping this new organization lasts and her 4 brothers don't think the rubberband basket is a handy arsenal for a rubberband war!

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