My Gilly Bean was one of those nearly bald babies . She had just that little tuft of brown fuzz on top of her round little head and it just seemed to take forever to grow.

But grow it did! And once it started it had no intention of stopping! It seems hard to think back to a time when she didn't have a long flowing mess of dark brown hair upon her little head.

But brushing that hair was something that no one looked forward to. It was WELL beyond the usual annoyance for a small child, Gill would cry and sob whenshe was having her hair brushed and it was getting to the point where it seemed more like torture for my little lady.

Her little spirit was happiest when her locks were wild and free!

In May of 2011, at 3 years old, we started talking about Dreadlocks. We looked at lots of pictures and talked a lot about it. Gill is in a very awesome day care and a lot of her teachers and the people who care for (and about) her at her school were all for the idea. We decided to do up some "temp dreads" that she rocked for a few days before we washed them out to see what she thought about them. We watched "Horton Hears a Who" and, in true big sister fashion, Ell helped put a few in.

Gilly loved them... she did not love washing those temps out. Her father boycotted the idea of dreadlocks at the advice of his sister (and everyone else under the sun) who pressed that she was too young to make a decision like that. And so the hair brushing torture continued and an appointment was set to chop off all of Gills long brown hair into a bob.

That appointment was canceled! Because deep down Gill's Dad and I both knew it was not what we or she wanted and it wasnt the answer. So glad we listened to our hearts in the long run.

The months went on, the brushings went on amidst the sobs and crying and begging for dreadlocks....In December of 2011 something changed. Gilly's Dad called me up and told me he'd decided that yes, she can have dreads.

The idea was met with plenty of protest from plenty of people.Gill and I discussed that not everyone was going to like her dreads, but that that didn't matter so long as SHE liked her dreads. We talked about the fact that once they are in, they are in and that she would have to cut them out if she decides she no longer wants them. When we were sure she understood what would go into having them, and she still wanted them, we went for it!

There was NO way her Dad would allow her to go totally natural and grow some neglect dreads, so we put them in with a combo of back combing and twist and rip (bummer I really understood twist and rip after the fact, so only 10 of her dreads are done like this... I actually combed out the others and put these in after a week).

While her dad sometimes has trouble with the idea of how frizzy her dreads are, he's getting used to it and really is understanding that for them to be natural, we just have to let them do their thing. I'm so in love with this process... just like parenting, we'll learn as we go!