Scarlett Godsall may only be seven months old, but she already has an impressive head of hair - so impressive that people think her mum has taken her to the hairdressers for highlights.
She loves wearing her long locks in little bunches, meaning she's often compared to Monsters, Inc. character Boo, and she already has to go for haircuts every few weeks to keep it under control.
Little Scarlett, who lives in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, with her mum Kimberley Godsall, 36, was born with a full head of hair and there was so much of it that the midwife struggled to attach a clip on her head to monitor her heartbeat.
Kimberly, who works as a private tutor and is known as Kimbo, said: “The first thing we all noticed when she was born was her hair.
"There was a lot of it, but she also had blonde highlights. It was quite dark but had little blonde tips, so it looked like she’d been to the hairdresser and had the foil treatment.
“The midwives commented on it and everyone who came to visit mentioned it. If I had a pound for every time someone commented, I would be a very rich lady.
“I really wanted a hairy baby. I’d been born with a lot of hair and it’s just how I envisaged my child would be. She looked exactly like I thought she would."
Having been single for three years, longing to be a mum, Kim decided to "go it alone" and underwent IVF with a sperm donor.
Following three attempts - two using intrauterine insemination, or artificial insemination, and one round of IVF- costing a total of £16,000, after 18 months of trying, Kimbo fell pregnant with Scarlett.
She said: "I did choose a donor who had the same colour hair as me, but that's as much as I know about him. I don't know if he was a hairy baby, too.
“There’s an old wives’ tale that you get heartburn during pregnancy if you have a hairy baby, but that didn’t happen with me at all.”
Because Scarlett has a full head of hair, Kimbo washes it every other day with baby shampoo, planning her night-time routine to fit around it.
“If I feed her too soon after she’s had her bath, then her hair goes crazy because it dries in that position,” she explained.
“I have to wait for it to dry before I feed her.
“My mum said I lost some of my hair as I grew, but that didn't happen with Scarlett, it's just kept growing. Now it’s in a kind of pixie style and some days it looks like a bit of a mullet.
“It all grows forwards into her fringe. I’ve had to cut it several times already, which is ridiculous. From around four months I’ve been cutting it every couple of weeks, waiting until she’s asleep before getting to work.
“The first time I did it when she was awake, but it was at a very funny angle. It was a proper, ‘Mummy’s cut your hair’ kind of style, so I thought it was best to do it when she’s sleeping and doesn’t move around.
“I like putting it in bunches now, so she looks a lot like Boo from the Disney film Monsters, Inc.
“And I’m desperate to put it into French plaits. I’m going away to Kent coast with my sister during the October half term and we’re determined that between us we’ll be able to do it."
Scarlett draws admiring comments from people when she is out with her mum, together with plenty of astonished remarks about the sheer amount of hair she has.
Kimbo laughed: “I got some of the little bows for babies her age to put in it, but her hair was actually too thick to fit in them.
"When we go out people will comment on how much hair she has, together with quite a few blokes saying, ‘She’s got more hair than I have.’"
Other parents looking at Scarlett's newborn pictures online would say their babies did not have hair like that until they were three months old.
“Her hair is also quite chameleon-like, in that it seems to change with whatever she’s wearing," Kimbo continued. "Sometimes it can look quite dark, other times it looks red or light brown.
“A few friends have joked, saying it would cost a lot of money to get her look done in a salon. But strangers have actually asked me if I've already taken her to a hairdresser to have it done professionally!"
Rather than being shy, Scarlett laps up the attention attracted by her impressive barnet.
“She has a smile for anyone who speaks to her and looks quite puzzled if she gets ignored,” Kimbo said.
“She’s a very nosy little whatsit, she likes to know what’s going on. There’s a twinkle in her eye that tells me she’s going to be trouble when she’s older.
“As for her hair - I think it will just keep growing and I’m looking forward to trying out all kinds of hairstyles on her as it gets longer. ”
