DD has given herself another haircut!

Anybody a hairdresser with some GREAT ideas? My four year old daughter must want to be a beautician, because she KEEPS cutting her hair. The day after Christmas she cut her bangs to the scalp and a few other pieces here and there. Today while I was getting my son dressed she gave herself another haircut. More bangs on the sides  and the whole top is now about 3 inches long with some of the side and back still past her chin. Terrible...I'm so mad! This makes the fourth haircut she's given herself. I still can't find the scissors. I have all the ones I know about locked up and cannot figure out what's she using. She also gave her dolls and animals haircuts today, all in about 3-5 minutes!!! What do I do? I made her a hair appointment for this afternoon and I'm thinking about cutting it all off into a pixie cut until it can grow out. Maybe that will keep her out of it, any other suggestions.  It makes me cry until I laugh or laugh until I cry, I haven't quite decided yet!!!!!

Oh my god... I did this when I was little too...   the scary thing for me is that my daughter is 3 and I am just waiting for her hair to be "styled" by either her or one of her friends at school....    When I did this to myself I had to get my hair cut really really short, (it was to my butt before I got creative).  It was horrible for me, I know it was bad of rmy mom!  Everyone thought I was a boy, even if I was wearing a dress because little girls don't have short hair....   well I'm sure there are exceptions to this rule, but generally little girls have really long hair in piggy tails or braided....  so when I got the CHOP of all CHOPS I was outcasted from my girlfriends because I looked like a boy!!!   So to get over that my mom got my ears pierced for me, so I could look like a girl again....   Now that I am an adult and I see the pictures of what I looked like, I didn't look like a boy at all!  I looked like a girl with short hair!  I guess it was just a child's mind.... So suggestions?  Go ahead and get it cut so that in a couple of months of growing it won't look awful...  I like the Snip It's place in Briar Creek.  It's a kids salon and I know they see kids who have taken it upon themselves to be a stylist before...  Get their opinion and go from there.  I am sorry this happened, it will grow back!!

I'm not a hair dresser, but I have been a teacher.  The best way (usually) to get an unwanted behavior to stop in children who are otherwise OK is to reward them.  Perhaps, if you said to her "Mommy will take you to the park (or buy you some new crayons...insert her favorite thing to do here) if you give me what you're using to cut your hair." Well, it is a bribe....but, it gets the tool(s) of destruction out of her hands. You might be surprised to find out what she's using. Kids are creative!!   After you have the scissors out of her hand, get a piece of paper and some cool stickers. Make a chart on the paper with labels with each day of the week listed on it.  Tell her she gets a sticker everyday she's good and doesn't try to cut her hair. Tell her when she gets 2-3 stickers in a row, you will do something else super special together.  I would start small 2-3 days at a time at most in the beginning.  That's an eternity for a four year old!!  When she's successful, you can up the number of days between rewards until you've weaned her from this behavior. I'm wondering, did someone else in your family get a haircut recently and got lots of compliments? She could be feeling jealous of that attention.   Remember attention is attention....negative or positive!! Kelly :)

Find her one of those dolls where she can play "beautician" on... hair rollers and such!  Maybe that will help her transfer the desire to do this to her own hair... Or get on eBay and find a mannequin or some cheap wigs or something for her to play with!

Thanks ladies for the good ideas.   We went to the hairdresser and Reilly ended up with a wedge that falls a little bit over the top of her ears. The back is taperered very close to the neck on the bottom. There wasn't much that could be done with the stubby bangs or the new sideburns we discovered, but all in all, pretty cute! I certainly hope this is her last do- it- yourself  wack job!!!!