10/11/2011 Nothing really too mindboggling has gone on with my kid in recent weeks (could be months). No police calls, no catching her with dope, no arguments, no new piercings or tattoos.

Her appearance is what’s baffling me. My daughter is beautiful, exotic, you could even say sexy and voluptuous (G-d help me). Why is she uglifying herself?

One thing I wonder about is why she changed her gorgeous, thick, black mane to a freaky red/auburn/violet muddle. She’s done it herself and it’s not nice. I don’t like it. It’s not flattering. I tried to bribe her to change it back, I tried saying it directly, I tried coming in the side door . . . but she says, “It’s my hair and I’m not changing it.” Well, she’s right, and my philosophy has always been that hair is an easy fix. If it’s too short, you let it grow; if it’s the wrong color, change it to a new one; if it’s too long; cut. Not the same as tattoos and other disfigurements (which are permanent-ish).

The other thing is her eyebrows. She has to draw them in each day. She claims her real eyebrows just fell out and never grew back in. That’s a little hard to believe when I see little razors on her dressing table and stencils for eyebrow shapes. It looks like she grooms a little too much. Sometimes, they’re entirely too dark and she looks mean. Other times, she’s spot on. I guess you can decide what you want the world to see each day—a surprised look, happiness, anger. She’s planning on getting permanent makeup done to fill in the area—a sneaky way of getting an acceptable tattoo, I guess.