Old Spice Hair Gel

Paul entered the kitchen the other night; his hair drenched in the unmistakable odor of Old Spice.  At first he tried to deny  getting into Adam’s stash of toiletries.  Then a crooked smile formed on the corner of Paul’s lip as he fessed up, “well, there was a little spill.”  I took that to mean Paul had wiped up drips of cologne and rubbed them into his hair.  Later I walked into the bathroom and discovered Old Spice deodorant smeared over the counter.  That’s right, Paul had rubbed deodorant (not cologne) into his hair.

As I was telling the story to Adam, he suggested that I buy Paul his own supply of hair gel.  (After we explain that deodorant is not hair gel!)  Adam was right about his hunch that Paul is concerned about his hair.  This morning I shared the idea with Paul. He got excited and even had an “aha” moment.  It turns out that a boy in Paul’s class has been labeled (by the other children) as having the coolest hair.  What makes it cool is that this boy’s hair sticks up.  Paul has been trying to figure out what makes the hair stand up so that he can have cool hair too.