The Androgynous Look

(My primary school friend Shimian commented that she wished I could blog more often so I'm going to try and accede to that request especially since I spend so much time reading her blog and empathizing with it quite substantially.)

In terms of hair thickness, Alicia unfortunately was not one of those babies blessed with a full head of hair. In spite of the Chinese tradition that shaving the head would stimulate an abundance in hair growth, I could not bring myself to do it, largely due to the fear that it might not work and then I'd be stuck with a bald baby instead of one with just the thinning hairline.

So for the first ten months of her life, I kept getting comments like "Aww...what a cute baby (big grin on my face)....how old is HE? (grrr....)" or the perpetual "Is it a girl or boy?" even though I had painstakingly picked out pink clothes or dresses to accentuate Alicia's gender. And on the rare occasion where I decide to retort with "She's a girl, that's why she's in pink", I get the inane comment of "boys can wear pink too..especially Indians". Err...excuse me but in what way does Alicia even look like she has Indian blood in her?

I could have tried little bandannas or hats as other mothers do but my highly opinionated child would have nothing to do with it. She was an au naturel baby and chose to remove any foreign objects placed on her that were detachable (ie. hats, socks, bibs etc). She even tried removing clothes at one point but soon realized she was fighting a losing battle.

Fortunately, her hair finally starting growing out and having inherited her Daddy's hair colour and texture, she also inherited the little curls at the ends which helped perpetuate her femininity. She got vain as she got older as well and loves checking herself out in the mirror and getting her hair brushed.

One day, my cousin brought a bag of 'hand me down' clothes over to my place and lo and behold, there was a little red cap in it. They were all keen to put it on her but I thought, no way, that would last less than a second on her head. Seems like her vanity got the better of her and once she saw her reflection in the mirror, she was thrilled to strut around the house with the cap on.



It was a cute look, I must admit but I figured if I took her out wearing that, it would be "Is it a boy or girl?" all over again. So for now, the cap's only for home wear.