Poor DD's hair

[spitfire511]

I just thought I'd share this with the only people who would really get it.

DD (almost 4) came in to me this morning to tell me something. Apparently she'd been twirling her hair - for oh say 30 minutes. *sigh* .

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26323062@N05/5542670247/http://www.flickr.com/photos/26323062@N05/5542670247/

She has very fine hair that she wants to grow very long (to her feet she says) so it made me sad that I had to break out the scissors to deal with part of it! I got out all that I could, and then snipped at the knots so they broke free. Fortuantely, she didn't lose that much hair - but you can imagine my shock/sadness when I first saw it!!

[MindBeforeMouth]

Oh no! Have you tried to comb it out? or are you just going to cut it?

[spitfire511]

Well I used a coney detangling spray and the tangle teezer to get out as much of it as I could. I actually wound up pulling quite a bit of it "up" through the knots. the last little bits I did have to cut the knots out of though - she'd already broken off some of it - it was a mess!

[sunnyhope]

It may be an idea to tell her (again) she cant do that if she wants long hair......
I m sure you have already though.

[krissykins]

Poor girl :( I hope she learns not to do that! That couldn't have been fun to deal with for either of you. It looks like such a scary mess.

I remember the tangles I used to incur and how afraid I was when my mother violently removed them. shudder:

[marzipanthecat]

Poor thing!

And poor you too. Not fun to deal with.

My childhood was spent with having my hair yanked around, so if I'd had a knot like that i don't think I would have ever told anyone.

[arc691]

Oh, poor thing! I hate having to get the scissors out for a stubborn tangle or knot that refuses to be combed!

[christine1989]

That looks like the mother of all tangles! shudder: I can sympathize- I got a velcro roller hopelessly caught in my hair last month and took 15 painful minutes to get it out.

[Avital88]

ouch... how did she do that? hope its not too visible and she learned her lesson now,and grows long hair!

[julliams]

I can totally sympathise with you on this one. Every day my 12 year old daughter has about 4 double that size (but not quite as tight) through her waist long hair that I have to get through. One time she went swimming with her hair in a ponytail and by the end of the swimming the whole ponytail was tangled up like those scalloped drapes you see in fancy country homes http://www.cldb.com.au/images/curtains/drapes/1-1.jpg. It took my mother and I well over an hour with a bottle of conditioner to get them out. I was sure we would have to cut it, but it all eventually came out. It's amazing how conditioner can help to get the tangles out. I wish I'd taken a picture because I've never seen anything like it before.

If it does happen again, get the conditioner out, lather it up and comb through from the bottom. It takes forever but it is possible to get them out.

[heartgoesboom]

have you tried oiling it and then slathering on conditioner and washing it? i remember getting gum in my hair when i was younger (totally my fault) my dad painstakingly took it out with oil instead of cutting it.

[AuburnTresses]

Oh my. It makes me wince to think about having that combed out. I'm glad you didn't have to cut to much off though.

[spidermom]

Oh my! If this becomes a habit, she may have to wait for a bit more maturity and self control to have long hair.

One of my daughter's friends used to come to me with the most awful tangled hair, then cry continuously as I tried my gentle-best to comb it out. The first time, I told her "maybe you should get your mom to do this." She told me "my mom isn't good at stuff like this."

[BrightEyes7]

Ouch! Good thing she didn't lose too much hair! And she is young... it'll grow back in no time!

[BusyBeeMommy]

Oh yes I remember those days all too well! My sister once kept her hair in a "bun" for 4 weeks. Come to find out she had a HUGE Knotted mess in the back that she was trying to hide until the hair tie got stuck in it too! My mom spent hours working it out with conditioner. I was SOOO glad it wasn't me!

Glad it was only a small incident and not something bigger. Hopefully she'll understand that she can't do things like that if she wants her hair at her feet! (Princess hair is the dream LOL!)

[Debra83]

Next time try slathering coconut oil on it to help make it slip out!!! I have a product from the same makers as megatek called Survivor Super detangler, and one of the main ingredients is coconut oil.

[jojo]

Ive done this in the past too :/ its a hard habit to break but if she wants long hair its a necessaty (sp no spell check). How about a girlie night doing a deep conditioning and maybe some rag curls or something else which would show her how pretty long hair can be.

[CarpeDM]

That looks like my hair after I get out of the shower...

[patienceneeded]

Poor DD! I also have a DD, who is 4, with dreams of Rapunzel-esq hair. With her, all I have to do is gently tell her, Rapunzel would do/not do that with her hair and whatever the problem is, it's solved immediately. ;) She is SO wanting long pretty hair that she'll do almost anything to get it. Glad you got the tangles out with minimal cutting.

[spitfire511]

Thanks for all the ideas! You guys definitely have some crazy stories that do make me feel so much better about this. :p

I thought about breaking out the coconut oil - there were a lot of pieces in this that were actually already broken off and just tied around each other. Those were the ones that I cut. The rest I was able to *wiggle* out. :-) If it happens again I'll definitely go for a 'deep conditioning girl's time'. :-)

Spidermom yeah - I'm 50/50 right now on how we're going to go about growing her hair anyway - namely because her hair is a lot like mine was at her age and she still has all this baby hair coming in. I have a feeling that she's going to have a lot more thickness than she does now. So - we'll likely wind up 'trimming' it on and off to even things out as all the new hair gets longer.

So far we're doing pretty well with the not twirling thing though.

patienceneeded what a great idea! We were just discussing rapunzel this morning, so I'll surely use that trick!

julliams I feel certain that you have more patience than me! I can't imagine working through knots like this daily! I think I spent about 20 minutes on this one before I broke out the scissors to trim what was just hopeless (or so I thought.) You are super-mom! :D