I've been smugalicious for the longest time about doing The Child's hair. Every time a parent moaned to me about not being able to get their child to sit for his or her hair, I would tilt my head to one side, gaze at them earnestly with compassion brimming over in my eyes and shake my head slowly to convey my sympathy. 'Poor you', I'd commiserate, squeezing their shoulder reassuringly. Well, all that has come back to bite me in the bum-bum (2 year old speak).
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I love my boo-boo's hair; we get lots of compliments and comments on it. 'Does African children's hair always have highlights?' #saywhatnow. Hair-time hasn't always been a walk in the park but for the most part, it's been quite painless. We kept it short and sweet and rely on heavily use a few good products to get us quickly and painlessly through detangling and moisturising.
But that was then.
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| bouncy castle + car seat hair = fuzz city |
Bath-time went from a quick 20 minutes of splashing and singing in the bath to a down and dirty battle of wills to see who can hold out longest (she wins, everytime). As soon as a drop of water touches her hair she starts shouting 'I don't want!' over and over. If she spots the comb, game over. Getting conditioner on is hard enough, Getting it off...well, lets just say there have been days we haven't... I mean I want her to have positive associations of getting her hair done (cue flashbacks of hot-comb singed ears and head clamped between thighs, sunny side down if you know what I mean) but all the kumbaya-happy-clappy-deep-breathing stuff will not get this hurr did!
Last wash day took an hour, used up all daddy's shower gel (I want bubbles!) and wasted more water than 50 icebucket challenges (half of y'all don't even know what ALS is, why are you wasting water? #just saying #bandwagon #goplantatreeinstead).
I'm at my wits end and thinking it's time for some protective styling. I'm just not sure how much of that creepy Barney I can endure.
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| this lasted all of 25 seconds |
UPDATE:
Just gave her hair a much needed trim. Did it in a high chair with every distraction and treat under the sun!
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| stickers..check, balloons..check, glue..check, confetti..check ...got desperate towards the end and unleashed the jelly bears #badmummy ..she's too big for this chair now! ..Barney playing in the background...#tookahitfortheteam |
I don't know how y'all do it but I need some tips! Especially for quick and easy styles that will last.
Hahaha! I can relate and we're only a year old with sparse crops of hair. Washing what is there isn't too bad but applying the coconut oil afterwards... that's already a battle of wills. So suddenly I'm not looking forward to her having a full crown of hair that'll need combing! #JoysOfMotherhood
ReplyDeleteOooooii! At one?! You're dead meat :)
DeleteBahaha! I see I'm not the only person subjected to Barney over and over. And cbeebies programmes! Oi!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, for my daughters I start the hair washing routine from birth so they're used to it. I give them a bath in the morning before we all set out.
Now right from birth I use this huuge basin thingie, nit even a baby bath, then we fill it it with water so right from birth they looive water. I bath them and do the hair last.
For the relevant one, the two year old, we co-wash daily and shampoo weekly. I put her bath toys and she's used to the whole process so she knows it's time for conditioner. I sit on a low stool behind her as she plays in her "jaccuzi" as we call it. This whole time we're talking as well to distract her. I wet the hair a bit, put a loooot of conditioner, then slowly finger detangle while talking to her or singing with her when it seems detangled I comb through it. It's auper easy because it's full of conditioner. I leave her least favourite part, the rinsing, for right at the end then we leave. The rinsing is better these days because she closes her eyes and has stopped being stubborn about it. I used a jug and slowly pour water over her hair and we do a face wash as well.
Shampoo day same thing but I aim for when she's in a good mood because I'll have to rinse it out in the middle then apply conditioner.
We get out of the bath, pat dry with a towel, go to the front of the telly or she runs around and I follow her (motherhood! ), then I apply coconut oil (thanks for that idea btw), and put two pigtail or a ponytail or bun. I live in a high humidity area so it gets annoying and hot for her if you live it out plus it keeps coming to her face. It stays till the next morning.
Sometimes I skip days when it's still very detangled the next day. I only do it daily because I realised when I do it daily there are barely any tangles and it takes all of 5 minutes.
Nkirote you make it sound so easy!! 5 minutes?! In my dreams! And i've seen your daughter's hair. She has way more than mine so I don't know how you do it. We started at birth as well and actually used to cowash twice daily but now we only do it in the mornings. She has just suddenly got sooooo stubborn. I'd like to try pigtails, if it cuts down on the detangling process. Sigh. Motherhood.
DeleteOh yeah... I'm ROFLMAO at that "highlights" comment!!! Have you been asked if you've dyed her hair?
ReplyDeleteLol Josie I have!!! I always do a scooby-doo double take.
DeleteOh yes - I hear you! We just got silk pillow cases for Sweetpea's bed, and silk scarves for both girls' car seats. I hate car seat hair ! THE WORST!!!
ReplyDeleteDoes she actually sleep in just one spot? I'd love to try silk pillowcases but she's all over the place. Unless I got silk sheets. How balling would that be! Lol. The silk scarf on the car seat trick is such a great idea! I'll try it today.
DeleteSorry for the typos btw. :-)
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's a chicken egg situation, I dunno what came first, because I think she's patient because it takes 5 minutes. More than that and she's out hehe. So I have to be fast and sneaky. :-) In fact that ps on your daughter, she wouldn't stay still for all those knots hehe.
The buns and pigtails actually shorten the process because she barely has any tangles, just a few at a specific spot at the back of her head because of rolling around, playing etc.
There was a time, a year ago, when she was a lot less patient (she's 2 years 4 months now), so I'd just wash no detangle and put a ponytail then when she sleeps or naps I'd sloooooowly detangle and remoisturize her hair. That's why apart from trims I'd never cut her hair short because I find it much easier to detangle and deal with when long.