children's hair care?

[Aliantha]

I may have missed it, but is there a thread here about how to take care of a little girl's hair? My 6-year-old daughter seems interested in growing out her hair, and it seems that children's hair poses some challenges, so I'd love to see some advice.
My daughter's hair comes to the middle of her back, and doesn't seem to have split ends, exactly, but she has lots of little short hairs at her part and all down the back of her head. Her hair is slightly wavy in spots and a lovely dark blond with some reddish tints. But, about 3 minutes after I've carefully combed or brushed it, it looks all scraggly like she slept in the woods. My husband says laughingly that she looks like a feral child. Putting her hair up doesn't help much, because it's back down pretty soon and that hair accessory has disappeared to parts unknown.
Any help?:eek:

[Kiwiwi]

Might she be a curly? Brushed curls look like wild hair. There's a thread on this forum where curlies show their brushed out curls, it so funny!

[Aliantha]

Hmmmm, I don't think so. Her hair when dried naturally, before combing, has just a handful of gentle waves here and there. Hers definitely seems to have more body and more a mind of its own than mine, so I'll have to learn how to care for different hair.

[hellucy]

My 3 girls are pretty similar in some ways -
My 5 year old wants to grow her hair 'rapunzel' length (its currently almost APL) her hair is poker straight and only tangles in the middle at the back where she sleeps on it, the rest you can mess up & it falls straight & neat again. Lucky her!
However both my 3 year old & my 12 year old have very wavy/almost curly hair which knots & frizzes very easily & I have found that a good moisturising shampoo & conditioner really help both of them, (we are currently using pantene smooth & sleek).
As for putting hair up I think a lot of girls tend to take their hair down almost as soon as its been tied up all of mine do, although my 3 year old loves hair bands & is never seen without one!
Sorry I cant offer much advice, I'm sure there will be other members to add other bits as I'd be interested in other tips for my girls.

[Amber_Maiden]

Sounds like a conditioning spray might help, or her hair being lighting oiled after or before brushing.

[roundforest]

" she has lots of little short hairs at her part and all down the back of her head."


A mixture of lengths is normal, of course, but this did remind me of years ago, when I discovered that my second daughter's parting had grown to a couple of centimetres wide. It turned out she'd got a habit of pulling hairs out one by one, though I'd never seen her do it. We were lucky, because once we'd talked to her about it she stopped and all the hair grew back.

[Aliantha]

roundforest, I'll have to watch for that...it wouldn't surprise me in the least. She likes to play with her hair and twist the ends. I've tried to start teaching her how to take care of long hair, but, well, she is 6.

[cuties]

My daughter who is 3 has APL length hair that is wavy/curly. she only lets me put it in 2 small piggytails and leaves rest of the hair open. Her piggytails come out wonderfully with curls at the bottom, but the hair that has been left open is a tangly mess that gets so dry as the week progresses. I have tried various detanglers but they don't work well. I only wash her hair once a week as opposed to twice a week as I did earlier and I always oil her hair with olive oil or coconut oil before washing. This has helped a bit. The conditioners for kids do nothing for her hair, so I put in regular conditioners on her hair now. This routine has improved her hair manageability to some extent.

[pepperminttea]

Putting her hair up doesn't help much, because it's back down pretty soon and that hair accessory has disappeared to parts unknown.

What about braids? :)

[ladonna]

I have a 7 yr old and a 3 yr old. I do CO and use coconut oil as a leave-in. My ODD is hair is waist length and my 2nd DD has BSL that's curly so it looks APL. I also do Cassia on my ODD, pre-poo oiling, deep condish treaments, they are also cone free. I love hair and actually treat thier's better than mine.
I usually do some type of pretctive hair style with my oldest DD, the little one hates her hair up or any thing frilly. I do a lot of ribbon braid types hairstyles with my oldest. My girls are getting into the habit of taking care of thier hair and will ask me to do treatment's.

[torrilin]

My mom was not great at hair care, and is a natural born night owl. However, she's also very loving and nurturing, so my hair wasn't a battleground... if I wanted it short or if I wanted it long, Mom had my back.

A big thing Mom did is she made it clear I was responsible for caring for my hair. If I wanted long hair, it meant I had to do the work. She'd make sure I had plenty of conditioner, combs, brushes, detangler spray, ponytail holders, regular trims and so on, so I never *had* to fight with massive split ends or breakage. But if my hair was in a ponytail or braid, it was because I did it myself. And I was not the kind of little girl who was good with her hands or fast at learning styling. It literally took me years to learn to do a ponytail, and longer yet to learn to braid. And because I did it myself, I was less inclined to take it out again immediately. (ok, not strictly true... if my hair was long enough, I was always allowed to ask for a French braid after a haircut, because I loved them and they made me feel pretty. that was a every two months treat tho, so it was precious and I tried to make it laaaaaaast.)

Most kids are pretty independent and will really take off if they're given encouragement and praise for learning. This includes learning to do their own hair :). I know I was handling most of my combing at age 4, and managing my shampoo and conditioner soon after. If I did it myself, it never hurt as much, so I was pretty motivated.

Mom also had the help of our hairstylists. She tended to pick a place more for whether they did a good job of handling her kids and teaching us about hair care than for the cutting edge styling or the price. So my stylists taught me what split ends look like, and helped me do experiments so I could see that my hair does grow faster when it's not splitting and breaking, and they encouraged me in wanting long hair. I have no idea how many times my stylists have told me "oh, it's so good that you don't use heat!" or when I was younger "your hair would split less if you didn't use the hair dryer". But it was a lot.

Thank goodness too. I mostly ended up with good hair habits out of it :).

[Avital88]

all hair problems of my little girl got solved, by using John Frieda Root Stimulator , (the green one)
I tried so many things all her life and finally got some grip on her frizzy hair,make sure u use the conditioner aswel

[Madora]

I may have missed it, but is there a thread here about how to take care of a little girl's hair? My 6-year-old daughter seems interested in growing out her hair, and it seems that children's hair poses some challenges, so I'd love to see some advice.
My daughter's hair comes to the middle of her back, and doesn't seem to have split ends, exactly, but she has lots of little short hairs at her part and all down the back of her head. Her hair is slightly wavy in spots and a lovely dark blond with some reddish tints. But, about 3 minutes after I've carefully combed or brushed it, it looks all scraggly like she slept in the woods. My husband says laughingly that she looks like a feral child. Putting her hair up doesn't help much, because it's back down pretty soon and that hair accessory has disappeared to parts unknown.
Any help?:eek:

Do you know how to french braid? A crown braid around your daughter's head might help keep it from getting all tangly.

Here's a video tutorial for the lace crown braid technique for shorter hair:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPHEzUr5bWQ

[MandyBeth]

My almost 7 y/o MIGHT keep a non-braided style in, but you are asking a LOT. Like, her holding still for longer than 30 minutes.

Braids. Lots of them. Often. Always. She'll leave it in a braid if it's not pulling her hair, but she's also old enough to understand that if she wants her princess curls, she's got to be somewhat careful. Which means leaving it in the braid as DH or I put it up in the morning. She can usually (80% of the time) leave a braid up at school, but not always.

[Hollyfire3]

Maybe try more frequent trims until all those little hairs grow out? Try an SMT maybe for moisture, the waves she has might be prone to dryness? Also, i vote for teaching her the basics of hair care, i remeber my best friend stayed at my house when we were like 8 or so and she didn't even know how to wash her own hair! I had to teach her...her gorgeous black/brown WL or longer (straight and thick too, darn her, my hair was frizz and thick but barely shoulder length at that age... trust me, i've seen horrific pictures) hair had always been done by her mother...i just thought that was so strange because even though i had washed my hair until it was literally stripped of all moisture while still in the shower, at least i knew how to wash my hair in the first place.

[heidi w.]

6 year old hair is still baby hair. Adult hair doesn't start to grow in until around age 10. Some may be as soon as 7, but the range is 7-11 for Adult hair.

Baby hair tends to be very fine, slippery, and hard to clip into place. It can also tangle badly.

If a parent is taking care of the hair, I think then that a parent has the right to choose a length of comfort that works for the family schedule, and not necessarily the whims of a kid. Lots of kids want longer hair, but don't want to learn to take care of it themselves.

Hair that is unwashed tends to have a bit more tackiness because of sebum building slightly, and it can help to braid or put it up. You may have to braid, almost daily, for a while, til she's more able to manage her own tresses. You will likely need to use a detangler spray after a hair wash. Curly hair needs more conditioner on the length, and needs to be handled while still wet, usually.

They have little kids' things for putting hair up. I suspect that braids will be your child's friend for a while -- either two pigtail braids or one braid. Baby hair doesn't go up easily as the hair is so fine and typically slippery that it just falls out of clips or bobby pins. Plus kids run around a lot, and they don't think of their hair much while they're busy having fun.

You will have to braid somewhat tightly comparing to how you braid your own hair. The hair will still tend to come out, but at least most of it will be organized, and a bit less time-consuming to detangle once out of the braid(s).

I would not suggest Conditioner Only washing just yet. And if you do, I would not apply it to scalp skin or related hair -- only to hair length.

It takes time to teach a kid how to take care of their own hair.

heidi w.

[heidi w.]

Those little hairs sticking out is all new growth, I'm fairly certain. So don't trim them off.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5240417_care-childrens-hair.html
This is more about caring for baby's hair as compared to Adult hair, but the things suggested here do work for toddlers to younger kids, too.

http://www.beautyideas.com/caring-childrens-hair/
Here's another link about caring for children's hair.

The one weakness to the just above link is recommending that a kid use a Boar Bristle Brush on their own hair. I can see more tangles occurring because a kid may not follow through with the downstroke, and a BBB is not meant for detangling.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/168190-how-to-care-for-childrens-hair/
This is pretty good about caring for child's hair.

You may need to apply conditioner while in the shower, coating the hair, and dip a wide-toothed comb in a vat of conditioner over and over again to detangle the hair while wet. It's best to avoid this if you can, and instead wait til the hair damp rather than sopping wet (and fully stretched). But this is a method for conditioning that a lot of curly haired folks need to use on the length for conditioning AND detangling.

They now have even smaller bands for little kids' hair and tying off braids. Many of the binds that are good for hair are too big for little kids' hair and fall out really easy. It's a problem.

Good luck!
heidi w.

[GeoJ]

My DD (now 6) has had long hair for a while. I've been keeping it between classic and tailbone for a couple of years now (it is a little below tailbone now). Here (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=3067&pictureid=124927) is a picture of her hair today.

Braids are what helped her grow her hair long. She has realized that her hair is much easier to detangle if she wears it in a braid or bun, than if she wears it down or in a ponytail. I have been braiding her hair since it was long enough to fit in a braid. She only started asking for buns when she started kindergarten, because she was afraid of the other kids messing with her hair. Now she usually asks for braids, sometimes ponytails, and very rarely wants to wear it down.

She is highly active, and her hair regularly gets full of sweat, dirt, sand, and tree parts. Despite that, I don't actually need to wash her hair that often (I have no wash schedule for her- I wash her hair when it needs it). Depending on the situation, I will either use WO washing, or shampoo and conditioner.

For your daughter, I would suggest braids (as others have). I would use cheap soft small hairties (like these (http://depositphotos.com/1787877/stock-photo-Colorful-hair-elastic-bands-close-up.html)). My DD didn't lose those very often (even the more slippery satin versions of them that I bought in India), and they are cheap to replace.
:)

[Sushi144]

GeoJ, your daughter's hair is beautiful !
Sorry, it wasn't a very helpful comment. :o

[long.again]

A haircut with more shape to it might help. My daughter (4) has waist length hair when straight and it's very thin and fine so it can look stringy pretty soon after combing. We combat fly-aways with headbands and wearing hair up. She usually gets to wear her hair down for a day (the day after washing) then up for a day, braids for a day, combed out braids for a day (in pigtails or something - really puffy, she says it's like Hermione's hair) and then we wash again... so we wash every 4-5 days. Well, not even that because sometimes just getting it really wet is enough.

Anyways, the deal in our house is that, if she wants long hair, we brush it twice a day and she has to have it "done" (up or braided or whatever). And she wants long hair so that's what we do. I'm pretty strict about it because it's SO difficult to brush her hair without hurting her. She's totally used to wearing various hairstyles now.

A good style is something like this (http://www.google.com/imgres?q=rubber+band+faux+braid&um=1&hl=en&client=safari&sa=N&rls=en&biw=1137&bih=702&tbm=isch&tbnid=HoEGQgA99z3uwM:&imgrefurl=http://kimboscrafts.blogspot.com/2011/11/hair-dosrubber-bands.html&docid=ul-_WN4RszhpLM&imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-txy0OPrrY-U/TqiDfBnMlBI/AAAAAAAATT0/CXlCkDtshX8/s1600/DSC01204.jpg&w=1200&h=1600&ei=pCwiT7q_LNSutwf7xfGiCw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=327&sig=112721872481694202760&page=4&tbnh=157&tbnw=122&start=62&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:62&tx=64&ty=59) because it would be difficult for kids to take out, is easier than a french braid and keeps hair in place.

[SheaLynne]

My dd7's hair is also between tailbone and classic. We just did her biggest "trim" ever and took off a good 2 inches at the end of the year, and she is still solidly past tb (pulled straight).

She has at least 3a curls, so the tangling is an issue and I would never expect her to take care of her own hair yet. She is learning and works at combing out and making ponytails, and often braids her own nighttime braid (great tip: braid in a side braid for sleeping!). However, she is not responsible for her hair. I give her choices about how to fix it each day, and strongly suggest days when braids would be practical so that comb-out is much easier, but she wears it down, half-ups, and in ponytails plenty and enjoys it, too. I've tried to learn as much from the curly girl method as I can to help us with her hair, so we CO, use olive oil and leave conditioner in it, and we comb out wet with conditioner in it when we know it is a tougher tangle job. We've recently begun to use some spray detangler for those times when we are short on time for comb outs.

I think having beautiful hair is worth it, and if I kept her hair short just because she couldn't care for it herself, she would not learn to care for and style long hair anyway. (And short hair may not be best for her curly hair as some weight brings hers into a very lovely amount of curl, but shorter might be even harder to care for with tighter curls?)

Anyway, each family has to determine what is best given the hair, time and goals they have. My goal is to help dd love her hair and have the most options. Right now she wants it long and I'm helping her learn to love it long. When she wants it shorter, we'll work with how to find where she loves her hair.

HTH!

[Lucky]

OP: maybe a slight trim would help? Also, I think that maybe a leave-in conditioner could be useful, I use one on my daughter's hair, I just take about 1/4 c conditioner and add 2 c of water and mix it up in a spray bottle and spray it on before combing her hair out.

Sorry to hijack, but I've been curious about caring for children's hair since my daughter is 2 now and her hair is just all over the place right now. She was more or less bald when she was born and it's still quite short now, it took a long time to grow in, she's kind of mulleting at this point, but her hair is very fine and curly and it gets knots really easily. I think the combination of having curly and still rather short hair is what makes it look, well frankly, like a mess!

I guess my questions are: 1. did you notice a lot of growth in your child's hair between 2 and 3? 2. I'm wondering if I should trim her hair a bit to encourage more even growth or should I just leave it and "power through" the awkward mullet phase?
Thanks! Sorry again OP for hijacking!

[Aliantha]

Thanks, everyone, for the help - you've given me some things to try. I've been doing ponytails and pigtails, but I'll give more braids a try, since they might stay tidy longer. I haven't been doing anything to hers other than washing and conditioning twice a week and brushing with a BBB before bed. Yesterday I used a little coconut oil on the ends, and that helped with flyaways and stringiness.
torrilin, giving her more responsibility for her own hair care is a good idea as I progress in teaching her long hair care. She can actually practice the things I've been telling her.
Lucky, no need to apologize...your description of your daughter's mullet made me laugh, because your daughter's hair growth sounds like mine. I'm trying to think back, but my daughter's hair didn't really start growing much until she was 4, or maybe even 5. Now, at 6, her hair is to the middle of her back.
Thanks again to all, you've armed me with some ideas!

[somethingducky]

Not my daughter but my almost 5 year old niece also has super fine, curly hair and some crazy cowlicks on top of that. Her Mom wants to keep it long but we seem to be having some struggles with combing out tangles. I've discovered that Toadstools leave in conditioner seems to help quite a bit- even if she's managed to get something sticky in her hair.
Has anyone else discovered specific products for their childs hair? I'd really like to hear what other people are using.

[ravenheather]

OP: maybe a slight trim would help? Also, I think that maybe a leave-in conditioner could be useful, I use one on my daughter's hair, I just take about 1/4 c conditioner and add 2 c of water and mix it up in a spray bottle and spray it on before combing her hair out.

Sorry to hijack, but I've been curious about caring for children's hair since my daughter is 2 now and her hair is just all over the place right now. She was more or less bald when she was born and it's still quite short now, it took a long time to grow in, she's kind of mulleting at this point, but her hair is very fine and curly and it gets knots really easily. I think the combination of having curly and still rather short hair is what makes it look, well frankly, like a mess!

I guess my questions are: 1. did you notice a lot of growth in your child's hair between 2 and 3? 2. I'm wondering if I should trim her hair a bit to encourage more even growth or should I just leave it and "power through" the awkward mullet phase?
Thanks! Sorry again OP for hijacking!

My dd1 has this kind of hair. It's now almost apl if stretched out. But is mostly about shoulderlength. It was very sparse until this year. She's almost 4. Just let it grow in. She still has wild hair most of the time, but it's cute in a ponytail.

[ktani]

I cannot find it now lol, but someone posted that the mineral oil/baby oil drops helped with a daughter about 3 years old? with static and tangling. It may help your daughter too. You do not need very much at all and small drops should work while not making her hair greasy or oily.

I would guess 2 drops maximum should do it.

[mommy2two]

Is there any other info on children's hair. I cant wait for my 2yr. Old DD to have long enough hair to do stuff with. Right now she just has a halo of golden curls that are as wild as she is!!!

[earthnut]

Great topic! I have a 2 year old with fine, slightly wavy hair that's down to her chin and I'm looking more into ways to care for it. It is very prone to tangling in the back because she sleeps on it and the back hairs have gotten pretty damaged. Trying to comb it dry, even with spray-in detanglers, hurts her so much that I don't do it. She takes a bath most days and I will put Pantene conditioner on her hair, to leave in during the bath, and then it's easy to comb her hair at the end of the bath and rinse the conditioner out. I rarely use shampoo on her hair (or soap on her body for that matter).

If anyone has any other ideas for treating/preventing the tangles on the back of her head, I'd be interested to hear them!

Her hair is barely long enough to put in a ponytail, and braiding is pretty impossible. We mostly use hairclips to keep the hair out of her face and food. I'm going to have to try the layered ponytail too.

I had long virgin hair when I was very little, and would like the same for my daughter, until she asks for it to be cut.

[ravenheather]

Great topic! I have a 2 year old with fine, slightly wavy hair that's down to her chin and I'm looking more into ways to care for it. It is very prone to tangling in the back because she sleeps on it and the back hairs have gotten pretty damaged. Trying to comb it dry, even with spray-in detanglers, hurts her so much that I don't do it. She takes a bath most days and I will put Pantene conditioner on her hair, to leave in during the bath, and then it's easy to comb her hair at the end of the bath and rinse the conditioner out. I rarely use shampoo on her hair (or soap on her body for that matter).

If anyone has any other ideas for treating/preventing the tangles on the back of her head, I'd be interested to hear them!

Her hair is barely long enough to put in a ponytail, and braiding is pretty impossible. We mostly use hairclips to keep the hair out of her face and food. I'm going to have to try the layered ponytail too.

I had long virgin hair when I was very little, and would like the same for my daughter, until she asks for it to be cut.

I agree with previous poster that toadstool leave in is good for my dd too. I also want to suggest you try a tangle teezer. It is all I use on my daughter. I can use it wet or dry with no crying or refusals. I am also starting to give her choices about whether to put it up or not, and if she wants leave in or coconut oil on the curls.

[earthnut]

OK, I just ordered a tangle teezer! I'd like to try it on my own hair too! I'm going to try Toadstool too, and experiment a little with glycerin and different oils. This forum is so helpful!

[marykatz]

I recently started putting a tiny bit of coconut oil in my daughters hair after I washed it and have seen a dramatic improvement in the quality of her hair.
I use a SLS free shampoo for children called Sweet Baby Organics. I only wash once, maybe twice a week.
I realized the detangler I was spraying on her hair had silicones in it. Once I stopped using it, I noticed a big improvement in the quality of her hair and the coconut oil has really helped.

[elbow chic]

My kids all have short hair, even my five-year-old DD. Boys all have fresh summer crew cuts, courtesy of DH.

I keep my daughter's in a curly pixie... suits her pixielike little self perfectly and is very low-maintenance. She doesn't like washing or combing or styling, so low-maintenance is a great blessing. Wash, condition, comb, scrunch. Et voila! "Mama, now my curlies look perfect!" (she calls her hair "my curlies!" Tell me that's not adorable!)

I wash it maybe once a week in winter, twice in summer, just depending. One thing I notice: while my hair likes 'cones, hers does not.

She's got amazing perfect 3a ringlets... people compliment her hair more than mine! :D Would like to try a bit of gel on it sometime, a la Curly Girl, if I can ever remember to buy some.

[DarkSky]

One of my little ones has 3b/c curls that are very fine and gets terrible matts in it by the end of the day. The only way to get by is to either keep her hair up and lightly oiled on the sides that are prone to frizzies. For days when she wants to wear it down but its not a wash day (since we wash it only once a week) we use diluted conditioner in a spray bottle combined with the tangle teezer to get it smooth and the knots out. The curls bounce back and are frizz free and pretty until the end of the day where its a matted mess again. We get by well with those options mentioned and her hair is mid back length. It's just a bit of extra work. At that age they know how to mess up their hair very very fast. I think as they get older it will get better.

[Illr Kona]

All three of my children are growing their hair out.

I have two daughters 8 and 4 years old and a son 2 years old.
My 4 year old has hair to her hip and my 8 year old has curly hair to the middle of her back it would be longer but she cut it herself when she was 4. My son is only 2½ so his is not very long but we will grow it out some, not as long as the girls though.

[earthnut]

I got the tangle teezer, and with that and more oiling, my daughter's hair is doing a lot better and I'm able to completely detangle and comb her hair without a bath! Whenever I see frizz, I add a drop of olive oil and it's helped a lot, she even has less tangles when she wakes up in the morning.

I think she'll be a water and oil girl like her mama. No more conditioner. :)

[HumanBean]

My son is 8 and a half and it was his quest to grow his hair long that brought me to this forum and inspired me to do the same (something I had always wanted to do).

I've been teaching him to wash it less frequently and to CO, as his hair is just like mine and that's working for me. It's hard though. DH wants him washing it everyday. Sometimes we compromise and just let him rinse it a bit.

He may meet his goal (shoulders) before I do.

[leslissocool]

I ecco braids, my kids hair is actually easy to manage. My girl has coarse hair with my same texture, my son has super fine straight hair.

I got rid of her newborn hair, I cut off 4 inches (almost six now) and ever since I did, her hair tangles less.

[PurplePenguin]

I would go with braids and conditioner. Maybe explain to her that the braid is to help her grow her hair longer and it makes it prettier?