Inspiring mum Paige Lucas-Stannard is a well-known blogger and the author of Gender Neutral Parenting, so, when her daughter asked if she could shave her head like her brother and her dad, Paige said ok.
But that doesn't mean she found it an easy decision.
Opening up about the experience on her blog, The Baby Dust Diaries, she said: “I really, really, REALLY wanted to talk her out of it. I wanted to fawn over how beautiful her hair is.
“In fact, I knew I had that power over my daughter.
“[But if I had done this] I would have told her that her appearance is important TO ME and that she exists for the consumption of others.
“That how others view her is more important than her internal voice, sense of adventure, and inherent value.
“That her decisions should be made based on external “rules” and not her own sense of what is right or wrong for her.”
So, realising that she didn’t have the right to talk six-year-old Aellyn out of her choice, the mother-of-three decided to help her daughter realise her super-short hair dreams.
And, speaking about Aellyn’s own perspective when it came to losing her hair, Paige explained that her daughter wasn’t afraid - she was excited.
She said: “This wasn’t a hard decision or even a big deal to her. She’s never been told how ‘girls are supposed to look/act’ because we parent outside of sexist stereotypes whenever we can.
“We talk about sexism a lot and I told her the morning before we cut it that some people think girls shouldn’t have shaved heads. She said, ‘no way. Girls can have their hair anyway they want.’
“I said I know but some people might say something about it or call her a boy. She said, ‘That’s ok mom, I’ll just tell them I’m a girl’”
“I said I know but some people might say something about it or call her a boy. She said, ‘That’s ok mom, I’ll just tell them I’m a girl’.”
Fair enough; we love that this little girl knew exactly what she wants from life.
And, as her mum points out firmly, Aellyn looks beautiful with a shaved head.
“[She’s] beautiful in her complete purity of self. She knows herself without the layers of rules, expectations, and worries that most of us carry around every day.
She added:“We should encourage people to be true to themselves and who they feel they are authentically."
“Then no energy would be spend crying over cut hair in a beautician’s chair. Energy that can be spent making the world a better place for all.”
You can read the blog in full over at Baby Dust Diaries now.
Would you ever be able to follow suit and let your little girl shave her head, if that was what she wanted?
Let us know via the comments box below now.