Do you do anything special with your daughters hair

[prbysasha]

I have been growing my hair for about 5 years now. I went my entire childhood with exceptionally short hair because my grandmother who raised me didnt know how to work with curls.

My hair would grow out like an afro and when allowed to continue to grow it would eventually weight itself down.

So in my teenage years I tried to grow my hair out and went through a phase where all I did was bleach, dye trim, cut or chop. Finally after years of abuse I decided to simply stop doing everything and allow my hair to just be.

Now with the birth of my daughter last year I know I want her to have amazingly beaufitul soft maintained hair. And I wanted to know.

Should I start from now? What do I do?

[vanity_acefake]

All i could do with my daughter's hair when she was a baby was let it grow and tie it out of the way. As she got older i added conditioner to her hair care routine. Now she is 7 and has long hair i shampoo, condition, leave in conditioner/detangler and let it dry naturally. Then i chase her with the tangle teezer til she lets me brush has hair and put it in braids or a ponytail.

[GRU]

Have you read the book Curly Girl by Lorraine Massey?

She has a section in there about kiddie-hair-care that you'll probably find helpful!

[SheaLynne]

Others are giving great advice on what products to use, etc. but I thought I would encourage you to use the chance early on to start a "habit" of good hair care for your daughter.

I can remember before I had my dd (5 yo now) watching a friend do her 2 yo's hair, and the little girl just sat there and let her brush, spritz, put into ponytails, etc.--whatever! I asked her *how* she got her to let her do that and she said that from the very beginning she made "hair-care" time non-negotiable. She wasn't abusive or anything--just consistent about expecting her to sit and let her fix her hair. She said the same thing about her keeping on hats and bows when she was very young. If she pulls it off, she is told "No." and it is put back on. If she continues, she has a consequence, but she does not get to remove the hat or bow when told not to. Same thing for fixing hair. If you start very young and it is just part of the normal routine, there doesn't have to be a battle over it.

So, I tried it with my dd, and we have never had an issue over fixing her hair. She knows that before a bath and every morning we will comb out her hair and fix it (and at times as needed through the day). I am very careful not to be in a rush and hurt her while getting out tangles so that it isn't a bad experience (though sometimes we *are* in a rush and I'm not perfect about that!), and I give her some input into how we will fix her hair that day, helping her take into consideration what we'll be doing that day (high ponytails do not work well with bike helmets, etc.).

This has made a huge difference in her hair-care experience. She loves her hair long and likes to take care of it. At 5.5 yo, she is curly (I'll have to get the curlies here to type her eventually for me!) and when stretched out, her hair is almost tailbone length.

HTH! Best wishes in helping your dd love and enjoy her hair!