Yes, She IS A Girl

The other day, while my wife was at work and I was home for the day, I decided to take my daughter out on the town for a daddy/daughter day. Before leaving the house I did what I thought was an acceptable job of dressing her in "girl clothes" with a pink and purple owl on her shirt, jeans, pink socks, and her flower headband.

Now, it should be noted that my daughter is about as bald as they come, and for the last six months she has had the same amount of blonde peach fuzz on her head as she did the day she was born. One of her cousins on the other hand was born with a full mop of brown hair, and at my daughter's age could already pull off the quintessential "whale spout" hairdo for babies.

My little baldie was not as lucky.

So, as the parents of most follicly-challenged baby girls will do, we won't let our daughter leave the house without some sort of headband or Velcro bow on her head.

After trying every headband on the market, and finding most of them to leave indentations on our daughter's head, we were happy to find a local mom-run business called Violets in Bloom that sells a mesh headband that doesn't leave any imprints on our daughter's skull and can be customized with interchangeable silk flowers and bows, to match any outfit.

(Note: This is not a paid review for Violets in Bloom, we were just so happy with their product that I wanted to give them some free publicity)

So, with a big pink flower on her headband, my daughter and I left the house for a story time at a local bookstore, and after a vehicular mishap that is the basis for another story entirely, we found ourselves waiting in the service center of the local auto dealership.

While I was standing in the waiting area of the service center, holding my daughter and fuming about my car, a woman walked up to me with her 14-month old granddaughter, looks at my daughter (who is still wearing a big pink flower on her head)and says, "Oh how cute! Is it a he or a she?"

Seriously?!

Maybe I was being overly sensitive because I was mad about my car, but I couldn't believe that someone had just questioned the gender of my daughter while she was wearing pink socks and bright pink flower on her head!

I know that the gender of bald babies can sometimes be ambiguous at best, especially before eyebrows and eyelashes start to grow, but that is why the parents of bald baby girls put bows and flowers on their heads and buy every pink accessory know to man, and our daughter was no different.

Sadly, that wasn't the first time that someone had questioned my daughter's gender.

On another occasion, while my wife was at the mall with our daughter, who was in her HOT PINK stroller and wearing a PINK DRESS with a FLOWER on her headband, a woman said to my wife, "It's a good thing she has all that pink, or people would think she was a boy."

Really?

I'm not sure what it is about a bald baby that makes everyone assume that they are a boy. As adults, are women the only gender with hair? It seems to be the same disposition that causes people to assume that other people's pets are boys without knowing.

At least with pets, a cursory glance can answer that question.

Whatever the root cause for people's gender confusion of bald babies is, it's probably a question that is better suited for someone with a more advanced degree than I have, and is well above my head.

For me, the short term answer is to stock up on pink baby accessories, clothes, and as many flowery headbands as I can get my hands on.

Does anybody know if they make Rogaine for babies?