From Mohawk to Wild Mass of Curls: Elvie's Hair in Pictures

Freshly off the plane and now a United States citizen, Elvie’s mohawk stood proud, even though she was so sick and exhausted. If you can’t feel well, at least your hair can look fabulous, right?

You can see how little hair there was on the sides, but the mohawk was there in all its curly glory. Her ‘hawk actually looks longer here than in future photos because she was just so tiny.

Once Elvie was on the mend, everything about her started to grow. Here you can see that the sides of her hair filled in at the same time her cheeks did.

You can see here how her curls get tighter when they get wet; even the sides are curling up here, though they were straight when her hair dried.

Her mohawk wasn’t standing up straight all the time; sometimes the front would creep down her forehead a little bit.

Home from the hospital, we started to see good overall growth, and the day after washing, it would be super fluffy.

You can see the hair above her ears starting to curl just a little bit.

Elvie had virtually no hair on the back of her head when we took custody of her in Ethiopia; she had moved her head back and forth to soothe herself to sleep, and it all wore off. Seeing good growth in the back made me so happy; we knew that she was growing and thriving in many ways.

Zinashi declared one day that Elvie’s hair was long enough to style, and she set to work immediately.

When we first started putting hats on Elvie, no hair was visible. But then, suddenly, there was enough for a curl to peek out the front of the hat.

Big, bold bows can look a little silly when there’s no hair to balance things out. I was so excited when Elvie’s head was big enough that the headbands wouldn’t fall off and her hair was long enough to look like the headband belonged there.

This is when we first started seeing crazy curl potential. I love a lot of wild curls, so this was a welcome development.

You know hair is getting longer when it starts trying to wrap around the headband.

Freshly awake from a nap, those curls were looking fabulously unruly.

It’s getting longer and thicker, and the sides are starting to curl just like the top.

You can see here how the sides are really starting to fill in and curl up.

As part of the Orthodox Christian baptism service, locks of hair are cut from the top and sides of the baby’s head. You can’t tell any difference, of course, but there are locks of hair to prove that it happened.

Elvie’s hair does something different every day now, but mostly it’s just wild, and I love it. There will be a time for taming and styling it, just like we do for her big sister, but for now I am loving her wild curls.