Young toddler with lots of hair

[Dazedstella]

My 15 mo daughter has lots of long hair (below her chin/almost to her shoulders) and she WILL NOT let us cut bangs or anything in it. So the hair just hangs down in her face unless we put it up in this funny kind of half/side ponytail. I am wondering what you moms with young kids with long hair do to keep the hair out of their face and how you convince them to sit still long enough for you to do anything. Most of the time I am trying to do something with it while she is walking around which looks pretty funny.

[4Marmalade]

My youngest dd has long hair (between her shoulder blades) and her bangs are being grown out right now. They can almost be tucked behind her ears now. At the moment she is running around with them hanging in her face but soon she will let me put her hair up. It took a while to get there though. We used to do lots of funny looking ponies just to get her hair out of her face - to the side, straight up, etc... Whatever worked. Can you do it while she's sitting up eating? Right now my dd likes to stand on a bathroom stool and look in the mirror while I do her hair.

[physmom]

DD has really long hair (if I pull it straight it's a little longer than her shoulder blades) but it's in ringlets so it doesn't appear to be that long. However, we had a lot of problems with it getting in her eyes (we did eventually trim her bangs). Before we trimmed her bangs, though, we would use one of those bows with a metal clip that are really easy to swipe the bangs to the side and pin them there (and it stayed put pretty well).

We didn't really have any problems cutting her bangs, though. We just put her in her high chair with a toy. I then took her bangs, twisted them together and did one quick cut.

[Dazedstella]

I wish we didn't have trouble cutting her bangs- when she sees the scissors she runs screaming from us, granted we haven't tried in a couple of months because we were so horrified the first time she did that that we never wanted to try again. She let us do it when she was younger and nothing bad ever happened but apparently she decided it was a no go anymore.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[spmamma]

When DD was that age we did a lot of little clippies like a PP said. It was quick and easy, and I could put them in while chasing across the house. She has long hair too, so when it was long enough to put it in ponies I'd sit at the computer and let her look at a slideshow of photos of herself (we don't watch TV, so this is as close as we got). It only took a few minutes.

Oh, and we love those tiny elastics that you can get at Target. They're great for baby hair!

[luvmybaby333]

Neither one of my girls have bangs. I chose not to have their hair cut. During the awkward stage where it's long enough to get in their eyes, but too short to tuck behind their ears, I just used hair clips or pony tails (we're partial to pig-tails on babies and toddlers.) I still use a lot of hair-clips and such. Even though my oldest has hair long enough to tuck behind her ears, we find that the hair clips help it to stay that way. For a 15-month-old, your best option would be to buy some non-slip clippies from a WAHM (or you could check out some big store like Wal-Mart. Most of ours came from there.) Obviously her hair might be too thin to hold regular plastic clips and such, but the kind made especially for babies (either sold in the baby section of WM or, like I said, by WAHMs on Etsy or Hyena Cart) work very well. They're cute too!

[crunchy_mommy]

This might sound weird but when I need to cut DS's hair (we just trim the front, not quite bangs but keep it out of his eyes) we sit in the front seat of our car. DS 'steers' and plays with all the buttons and I use the scissors on my pocket knife to trim his hair -- he really doesn't even notice what I'm doing. Makes the car a bit messy but oh well, it cleans up quickly.

[blumooned]

DS has short hair, but has had at least 4 haircuts to keep it that way (16mos). So, if he'd never had a haircut, it would be long (& thick)!

Here's what we do for the haircuts - I've never had a complaint! Some squirming, but no crying or whining!

I take his highchair outside to our deck. I bring everything I'll need out there, too - scissors, water spray bottle, towel, comb. I also bring a snack & some "toys" - usually items that he does not usually play with but are safe for him to hold/look at. He sits in the highchair & has his snack - by the time he's done with it, I'm usually half way through the haircut. Then, I hand him a toy to hold & keep cutting. When he gets bored, I give him a new toy & so on. He also loves to hold the spray bottle, so when I'm not using it, I hand it to him.

This would work inside too - we go outside so the mess is a little easier to clean & b/c the outdoors adds to the distraction. If you're just doing bangs, it shouldn't take too long. I hope you find something that works for you!

[sailorgirl]

When I worked with kids who had autism, some parents would cut their kids' bangs while they were asleep. It might be worth trying. My little one will let us put pony or pig tails in, but she always grabs the bows and takes them out, so that didn't work for us.
Good luck!

[redvlagrl]

My DD has always had long hair for her age. She's been wearing it in pgtails since she was about 13 mths. I have always done it as soon as she sits down for breakfast while she is distracted by eating. I don't worry how neat it is - I just want to get it out of her face. She doesn't have bangs.

DH also does her hair, albeit messier than I would do it. Now, at 22 mths she will say "fix hair?" when it's annoying her. She does get a bit disconcerted if we do a different hairstyle (pony instead of pigtails).

[JavaJunkie]

I trim my toddler's hair while she's sleeping. Of course, she still moves around, but it's doable.

[pantrygirl]

Haven't trimmed my tot's hair yet.
We use clippies and make messy piggytails or ponytails.
She doesn't quite sit still long enough for us to make pretty ponytails or piggytails. I won't even try to braid.
I'm hoping soon enough she'll sit still enough for us to make nicely parted tails.
For now, we're just happy she actually has started asking for tails. She knows that means she has to sit still for at least enough time for us to comb and tie.

When we eat or do anything that requires less of the shaggy dog look, we use clips. She likes those and will happily sit there while we improve her quality of life. Who doesn't want to see what they are eating?

[confustication]

I trimmed my dd's hair in the bath when she was little- she didn't really notice. For just bangs on a 15 month old, I've gotta say, I wouldn't really care whether she wanted me to or not- it's one of those 'this is for your own good' decisions.

I cut my 10 month old's hair while he was sitting in the exersaucer last week, and my 2 year old- who is AWFUL about haircuts was done the same day. He had to actually be held wrapped in a towel to make it safe for him. He was mad, but quickly bought off with a cookie afterward- he has some developmental/sensory hurdles, so reasoning/being patient/etc weren't options, ans he doesn't sleep deeply enough for me to do it then.

[Novus]

DS hated it when we gave him a haircut at home, but does great at one of those kid haircut places. He's so busy looking at all the other kids that he barely notices what's happening with his hair. I kind of hate paying $12 for a kid's cut which takes 5 minutes, but it's worth it to not have him thrashing around with scissors close to his face.

[kati_kati]

try cutting bangs when asleep! the first 5-10 minutes of sleep are really heavy sleep so i can even brush DS's teeth and he can sleep through it. if he stirs too much i just wait a few minutes until he's in that deep sleep and try again. but if you start cutting bangs you will have to keep doing it... growing them out and using clips in the meantime might be a better long term solution. with a boy i feel like i don't have much of a choice!