Hair Dryer Aerobics!

I am sure we are not alone in this nightmare of hair drying a toddler's hair? Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve is less stressful!

When our daughter was smaller, my partner would hold her, because I am a bit of a wimp (she was as slippery and as an eel) and I would dry her hair with the dryer, however, it was like doing ten rounds with Mike Tyson: head buts, biting, screaming and crying. As she grew bigger, this routine became impossible to manage safely, she was just too strong, too big and it was only a matter of time before the neighbours reported us to the police for being serial killers, a trip to the dentist for an extraction without anaesthetic would have been more peaceful than the noise emanating from our house that can only be described as sounding like a scene from "The Exorcist."

Next, we tried to dry her hair while she stood, but this was just as traumatic.

So, we needed to think outside the box, how were we going to dry her hair and remain sane?

Thus, Hair Dryer Aerobics was born, this method involves chasing her from room to room trying to brush her hair. Then the chase continues with the hair dryer in tow which blasts her at every opportunity it gets! I am a ninja, as I duck and dive to try and dry a strand of hair!

In between running from room to room, she likes to hide to evade the hair dryer, so she hides down the side of her cot, burrows under the pillows on our bed and more recently burrows inside my other half's t-shirt, while she is still wearing it!

The air is full of laughter, heaven! I get a full workout! Who needs a gym membership...My Fitbit is in overdrive! However, sometimes this fun workout descends into World War 3 and what essentially should take five minutes turns into a 15-minute battle. The words "I've finished now" ring out, sometimes before I have even switched the hair dryer on, sometimes mid-way through. I'm a negotiator for a 2-year-old! "Just one more dry," I bargain, and the chase is on. Oh, how I can't wait for the teenage years...

Then this week, out of the blue, she is suddenly transfixed, and I manage to dry more than one strand of hair! What is this magic? I hear you ask. "Cotton Wool," and I shall buy shares in it! Why did no one tell me of its powers? She is mesmerised by it dancing across the bed as it's caught in a blast of air from the dryer, even when the spell is broken, and she chases it like a cat chases a butterfly, laughter tinkling in the air, I can still finish drying her hair standing in one spot, although my Fitbit mourns the absence of exercise, I however, toast an earlier bedtime! At one point we nearly had a heart attack when it blew off the bed and she dived headfirst to try and catch it, caught just in the nick of time by us.

So far it is not a one trick pony, fingers crossed it remains the saviour of our sanity. Long live Cotton Wool! This and the hair dryer aerobics work well together, currently. Feel free to share any of your hair-drying nightmares and tips. We may need them...