Lol @ LisaP -- about hacking Barbie doll hair -- I think it's something we all do at some point! My daughter succumbed to the irresistible urge when she was about nine. I let her do five or six, then stopped her, in case any other little girls wanted to come over and play with Barbies that actually still had some hair. I only ever had one Barbie myself (I didn't care for dolls as a child), the "Pretty in Pink" model, and when I was twelve I turned her into "Pretty in Punk". I chopped off her hair to create a pixie 'do with long gravity-defying 1980s bangs, painted black lipstick and eyeliner on, made her face goth white, and turned all her clothes black using a fat sharpie pen. Her long elegant tube skirt became a raw-edged mini, and I painted her legs black to look like stockings. I even jammed a "cigarette" (made from a tiny piece of toothpick) into that little hole in her hand where the diamond ring is supposed to go.
I gave the dog more than one inept haircut in her lifetime. By the time our kids came along, I'd had a lot of practice, so their haircuts weren't too bad. One time I messed up my daughter's bangs, but she was only two and it grew back quickly.
Other than that, I'm not particularly scissor happy. I get nervous cutting things that don't grow back! (This might be because I can't sew). I cut off a pair of jeans into shorts once every few years, but I'm super careful and start out by making them way longer than I think, and then trying them on and readjusting. I've cut the neck holes out of some old tee shirts too, to make them more feminine.
