Hi and welcome to LHC, Sarah.
My dd is soon to be 6 years old with very curly hair. I've CO'd her exclusively since she was 2 or so.
What I do is this: use a cup or hand held shower to wet hair, glop on tons of conditioner, scrub/massage scalp with conditioner, work it through the length. We still use a dry wash cloth for the rinse out, she will fold it in two and place it over her face and tip her head all the way back while I rinse with cup or hand held shower head. This way absolutely no product or even water can get into her eyes. She's really freaky about getting water on her face in the shower, so this works well for us.
When I do the comb out of matted bed head in the morning, I mist thoroughly with water and then use a tiny bit of conditioner as leave in (same stuff we use in the shower), work it through her length and then comb out any tangles and either braid/ponytail or scrunch and wear down. Occasionally I'll use a dab of coconut oil on damp hair as a leave in. Some times I'll add a couple of squirts of AVG to the mister bottle before filling with hot water and shaking well before using. Her hair loves it!
Treat their hair like fine lace, as you would treat your own. Much less change of pulling when combing this way. If child's hair is long enough, braid before bed to avoid tangles.
Children don't generally get oily scalp until the dreaded puberty, so they don't even need the more intensive forms of CO to get their hair clean.
Have fun with your precious babies. They seem to grow up overnight.
Bookmarks