Those of you with longhaired children...

[eamane]

How do you care for your childrens hair?
Do you cut it yourself? How do you wash? How do you manage updo's and such?

My DD, age 3,5 is now at waist and I CO-wash her hair about once a week, same as mine. I cut her bangs and trim the ends. Her updo's are usually braids of some sort, since I think she's a little to young for hairsticks :p

DS is a shorthair and probably will stay that way as long as his father has anything to say about it :rolleyes:

How about yours?

[julliams]

I'm not much help but my daughter is 11 with between BSL and waist. She pretty much takes care of it herself. Up until last year I put it up for school but now she does it all herself from ponytails to buns. It does get easier!!

[Gnomentum]

My DD turned 3 in May. Her hair is what would be BSL+ on someone who, er, has a BS for her hair to come to the L of. I had her hair cut at the hairdressers when she was about a year old but other than that I've done the honours myself. Unfortunately her fringe (bangs) starts at the top of her head and come forward in a big V, so I've now trimmed a much smaller section right at the front and I'm trying to let her grow the rest out. lots of hair grips and so on!

I wash it with a child friendly detangling shampoo (L'oreal kids) at the moment but I'm considering switching her to my organic SLS/cone free stuff.. I'm not sure whether it would hurt her eyes if it got in there though so I'm biding my time until she's more co-operative.

I normally put her hair in braids or bunches and can be quite inventive (gives me a chance to practice new things on someone else and she sits quite well!) I've put it in buns with not-too-pointy sticks a few times but not to wear out of the house. She seems to be inheriting my love of hair toys!

[angelthadiva]

DD8 is a long-hair w/TBL she even comes to hair meets :D I wash her hair with what I wash my hair with. Currently B&BW Coconut Lime Verbena. She's had one "professional" cut her whole life; otherwise I do it.

As far as styling, she can/will detangle her own hair. She can put her hair in a decent enough ponytail on her own and English braid the end with some success. Anything fancier than that I have to do.

[Danaus plexippu]

Ah...what fun to have a daughter. DS #1 (10) could care less about his hair. DS #2 (9) told me the other day he wants hair like Zac Efron. Their both pretty shaggy. I cut their hair (not sure how to cut the ZacE look). DH definately will protest at hair longer than their ears.

[SheaLynne]

I cut everyone in our house's hair, including the dog! :D

DD5 has tb-length hair when it is stretched out. It has gone curly in the last 1-2 years (I still need to type her...I'm guessing 2c/3a as she has definite spirals but it is not too tight) and the bottom half is just wavy still. I'm slowly trimming just a little every few months to keep the ends nice and eventually have a consistent curl through the length.

We CO wash and use EVOO and conditioner as leave-in. Last week she bathed in a different tub and accidently used shampoo instead of the conditioner (so LOTS of shampoo) and we learned that what we've been doing keeps her from being a foof-ball!! She had frizz like we'd never seen! :p

She loves to wear her hair down, but then has to have tangles combed out, so I insist she pull it back somehow. I braid or ponytail it for her as part of our morning routine. I've tried alot of buns and updos with sticks, but she always manages to lose my sticks, so no more of that! Sock buns are fantastic for her, though.

She told me this week that she'd like to have "really long hair" and I asked what that meant, if it meant to her knees, and she nodded. Then she said "But I might sit on it then...and I wouldn't be able to wear it down very often" so I talked to her about how she would be able to wear it down when we go out but take care of it while playing and just at home by keeping it up, and that she'd learn to move her hair before she sat on it!

[danacc]

I have always done the trimming myself.

When she was young, I bought kids' shampoo and conditioner so that it wouldn't burn her eyes. Also, young children's skin has a different pH than adults', so I figured kids' shampoos were probably a better bet. She washed and combed her own hair as soon as she was developmentally capable of doing it.

As she got older, she started choosing her own products. We'd talk about what's in them and what the different stuff in the bottles do. Her initial choices were mostly based on what smells the best. She's become more sophisticated in her choices, now.

Ponytails or banded ponytails were a staple when young. When she wanted it braided, I would braid it. As she got older, she usually wore it down and loose or up in a claw clip because that was fast and she didn't want to take much time with it (or for me to). She quickly learned to do her own ponytails. Somewhere around the age of 12 she became adept with hairsticks. She still usually wears her hair down, but she can put it up or braid it herself when she chooses.

[eamane]

I'm not much help but my daughter is 11 with between BSL and waist. She pretty much takes care of it herself. Up until last year I put it up for school but now she does it all herself from ponytails to buns. It does get easier!!
Good to know it gets easier :D

>Gnomentum: I did that once, cut to much hair for bangs, it looked dreadful when I, next time only cut part of it to let the rest grow out. I'm sure everyone wondered who was cutting her hair so badly :o

>angelthadiva: I brought DD to the recent meet in Gothenburg. She had a great time playing with our different hairtoys :)

>SheaLynne: I cut everyone here as well, although DH has to help holding the cat :p
I haven't tried the sockbun, I'm not even capable to do it on myself but we did the rag bun with great success, and she also wore it to sleep. Daytime was fine but she didn't like it to sleep in.

DD says sometimes she wants it cut short, and then 5 minutes later she wants her hair the way it is, and another day she wants to growm it real long :rolleyes: I'll just wait and see for a few years :lol:

[white line]

DD(11) washes her own hair but she has APL 2c/3a hair so I still help her with combing so that it is not frizzy. I oil it and cut it for her. She prefers to wear it down but if she wants it up, I help her with that (she can do ponytails but I do braids, etc). She prefers to have it straightened but I have been trying to come up with options so we don't have to do that anymore. I have 3 boys also and cut their hair for them also.

[Jenw777]

Sophie has springy curls on the ends that bring her hair to BSL or a little below, but when it's wet it eats her bum.

In our house little girls aren't to have their hair cut, as per Daddy's rules, however, I'll trim it myself when it reaches bum length dry. I don't want it longer than that because it's an olympic sport just trying to wrangle her to comb it.

[Othala]

No daughter, but a niece aged 12. Her hair is BSL now because her body grew tall almost overnight and left her hair behind! She's taller than her aunty now, LOL. Unfortunately, she wants to dye it blonde when she gets to 16, as do all her circle of friends. Blooming peer pressure.

[rach]

my daughter 8 decided to join me on my hair journey (for the time being) and she's now bunt waist blonde and is a very different hair type to my own. It's much finer and with a gentle wave.
I've changed her V shape to a bunt cut over the year to make it look thicker and it's worked out well. She often braids her hair and recently taught her buns and out of school she uses smaller hair sticks . schools sees anything like that as weapons :(
I do hope she keeps with it. She has amazing hair but at the end of the day it is hers and if she doesn't enjoy it, i'll except that choice .

[sugarmagnolia94]

Sophie has springy curls on the ends that bring her hair to BSL or a little below, but when it's wet it eats her bum.

In our house little girls aren't to have their hair cut, as per Daddy's rules, however, I'll trim it myself when it reaches bum length dry. I don't want it longer than that because it's an olympic sport just trying to wrangle her to comb it.

I hate to appear nosey or judgmental, but is this a personal preference or is there some sort of religious/traditional/ethical reason for not cutting the kids' hair? I find it interesting because I was not allowed to have long hair as a child just for practical reasons and I didn't know that the opposite would be mandated except in cases of religious observance or something similar.

[Jessica Trapp]

When I was a girl, my mother used to braid my hair every day for school. I enjoyed the time with her and learned to braid because of her. I applaud you for taking care of your daughter's hair wanting to teach your kids happy hair habits.

:flower: jes

[goodenough]

My daughter grew her hair to tb, then we cut it back to waist, because it gets damaged from swimming. This fall she wants it cut to bsl in the back tapered up to apl in front. It's fine with me, b/c it's pretty damaged from the pool again, and it is her hair, after all:)

As far as advice--TANGLE TEEZER, that's all I have to say:)

[blctsyllwdg]

DS4 has a pretty short cut because he doesn't like to sit still long enough for me to comb out his hair which is curlier than mine. So for now, trim everytime it gets curly.

DS18m has that baby fine hair and he's got very light hair color, so I've trimmed his hair some, but he just doesn't need it much yet.

DD9m has got an insane amount of hair for a baby. She's got more hair than her brothers. Lots of banded ponytails or braids to keep it back. Mostly the ponytails because keeping her still now is a bit more of a challenge. She's got the crawling down pat and she's all over.

If she wants to cut her hair when she's older, I don't care. I figure she'll wind up just like I did, cut it once, realized exactly how much it does suck to have short and very curly hair, and go from there.

[Joliebaby]

My daughter is only 1 year 8 months. I only trimmed he hair tiny bit to save a lock in her baby book, and then I trimmed the bangs once but I have since decided to let them grow out as she likes to wear clips to hold them to the side. Her two older cousins have long hair and I'm pretty sure she will want to grow her hair long too. Which is fine with me :) She has curly hair that forms large-ish ringlets. I'm just letting it grow out for now, and plan on trimming it myself as needed. Her hair is thick and it has never tangled at all (except when she got food in it LOL). So it doesn't need to be brushed yet!! We WO-wash her hair for now.