Being a kid is hard. When you throw in your mother passing away and your dad dating someone new, it can get downright terrifying.

OP has a daughter whose friend has been going through depression since her mother passed away. The result of this is that her long hair has become matted to the point that she can’t detangle it on her own.

My daughter has a friend, A (13F), who has been going through some health issues that I don’t want to put here. A’s mum passed away when she was little so it’s just her and her dad.

Since he has started dating his girlfriend (we’ll call her C) A’s needs have been pushed to the side a little and he’s just not noticed that A has been struggling.

She’s doing better now after getting the help she needed.

However, A’s hair has been extremely matted as it had not been brushed for months.

The girl was embarrassed about it, tried to hide it at home, but went to OP and asked for help at her daughter’s urging.

A had been hiding her hair under hats and hoods at home and trying to disguise it at school in buns.

She stayed over at the weekend and I only found out about her hair when they came downstairs after getting a comb stuck in A’s hair trying to fix it.

I comforted A as she was ashamed about her hair but had hoped that she and my daughter could fix it. My daughter convinced her to tell me about it as she had been scared to say anything to anyone as she thought she would be judged as her dad’s girlfriend has made comments about her appearance when she was going through her health issues.

When A was going through her issues, I made it clear to her and my daughter that our home is a judgement free zone and if she ever wanted to come to me or my husband for help then she would get it.

A then asked for help detangling her hair.

It took hours but when she went home, her hair was untangled and braided.

So that’s what I did.

We put on some films and worked on detangling A’s hair.

It took hours, but it was doable.

When A went home on Sunday, her hair was completely detangled and neatly braided into two dutch braids.

She was happy and thanked me for helping with her hair.

Then, the father’s new girlfriend texted, outraged because she had planned to take the girl to get her hair cut to “fix” the problem – now she wanted OP to pay for the cancellation fee.

Then Monday I got an angry phone call from C because she was meant to be taking A to get her hair cut due to how matted her hair was.

Apparently C and A’s dad had noticed how bad it was and C had told me that she would get it sorted.

C is mad because the salon they were going to had charged her a cancellation fee for cancelling the day of the appointment.

C wants me to pay her back for the cancellation fee as it’s my fault for fixing A’s hair when they were going to get it cut out.

OP refused, saying she had no way of knowing a haircut was planned (since the girl didn’t want a haircut) and she was just doing the best thing for a kid.

I told her that I wouldn’t be paying it, I just did the right thing by A instead of going to the extreme option straight away.

C then said that A was no longer allowed to be friends with my daughter and they would sue me for the cancellation fee. It was £60 (half the cost of the cut).

My daughter told me that A knew about C wanting to cut her hair and A didn’t want the hair cut which is why she went to my daughter for help.

A like my own daughters has long hair, so cutting the matted hair out would have meant her losing well over half of the length of her hair.

The other woman threatened to sue her, OP said go ahead, and then alerted the father to everything that had been going on.

A’s dad (I’ll call him J) came round earlier as he wanted to talk to me. A and C had gotten into a shouting match yesterday because of the cancelled appointment.

C had told A that she wasn’t allowed to see my daughter anymore until I paid the money I owed – this was news to J – and A told C that she was going to continue seeing her friend.

A also told C that she hated her and that if anyone was going to take the place of her mum it would be me because I care about A as a person not just her appearance.

J wanted to know what had happened with A and why I owed C money.

I explained it all to J and he was horrified to learn that C was going to cut A’s hair short instead of helping her.

He had been under the impression that the appointment had been to get her hair detangled and wouldn’t have consented to A getting a big chop.

Should she have kept her hands off before speaking to a parent? I wonder what Reddit has to say about this one…

The top comment says they don’t think the other couple actually want to go to court.

They think OP would be better off staying in the girl’s life if she can.

They hope the dad has had a wakeup call.

An experienced commenter says CPS likely wouldn’t take extreme action in a case like this.

But honestly, the woman is being 100% ridiculous all the way around.

I really hope things turn around for this poor kiddo.

And that OP and her family can continue to be a support.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.