Hair Help

[floiejo2]

Both of my dd's have very thick long hair. Dd1's is as thick as mine already at almost 6 and I super duper crazy thick hair. Dd2's hair is almost to her bottom at 3yrs old. So we have really hard water here and the past few months I'm noticing that their hair is super dry and breaking a lot. I've been using Nature's Baby Organics shampoo and conditioner plus a leave in conditioner but maybe their hair is too thick for it? I've also tried my hair products on their hair which does seem to help dd1's. We have no room to hook up a water softener. Is there anything else I can do to combat the hardness of the water? So what products do you use on your children's hair?

[Village Mama]

It all depends on a multitude of factors. How often are you washing? Do you blow dry?
I have super thick hair that needs a lot of moisture. I had problems with it as a child. I was washing too often and the blow dryer turned it into a poofy dry mess. Now I only wash about once a week and let it air dry. Coconut oil as moisture on the ends while damp and a tiny bit rubbed on your palms and stroked through the dryest parts through the week should tame and moisturise. Less seems to be more in this situation!

[lyterae]

What Village Mama said, I condition 2-3 times a week (depends on weather), and shampoo only once. I put coconut oil on the ends and then braid it up. It's also very helpful to tame frizzyness.

[spmamma]

DD has fairly long hair at 3 (most of the way down her back) and aside from conditioning, I've found that keeping it in braids every day seems to help keep it healthy and reduces breakage because there are far less tangles.

[honeybunmom]

If you leave in a conditioner do make sure it is actually formulated for leave-in. Otherwise, regular conditioners left in the hair can cause breakage/damage. My daughter's hair is curly and long - to the small of her back when wet. Last year, we had it cut and thinned a bit. The thinning helped a lot. It took a lot of the bulk out of her hair. She'll be 5 in October and we did this right around her 4th birthday. I took her to a trusted stylist and have not regretted this. Her hair is back to its previous length, but still not as bulky as it was before the thinning.

Generally, though, I keep it in either a pony tail or two braids. A great way to contain it is her hair sectioned down the middle and then in either half or thirds on each side. Secure the first section and braid. Then take the second section and add the braid to it and secure. You can then undo the first braid so that the hair is free to braid with the next section. And so on. This keeps nicely for a couple of days.

[*Katherine*]

Thanks for sharing about the coconut oil on the ends. I am going to do this for dd's thick hair.

[floiejo2]

Thank you for the replies. We do braids every night after bath and most days because it's so hot. Now that I think of it, we probably are shampooing too often. We usually shampoo once a week in the winter but this summer it seems like almost every day they are both covered in mud, dirt, sunblock and we are shampooing it all out...so we are shampooing too much. My dh also does bathtime most evenings so I'll have to make sure he's being careful and check out the leave in conditioner. One question...what kind of coconut oil do you use? I have capsules and a jar/tub of it. The jar gets rock hard if I refrigerate it and liquid if I leave it out. That's a great suggestion though and I will def have to do it. To mine also.

[honeybunmom]

Originally Posted by floiejo2

Thank you for the replies. We do braids every night after bath and most days because it's so hot. Now that I think of it, we probably are shampooing too often. We usually shampoo once a week in the winter but this summer it seems like almost every day they are both covered in mud, dirt, sunblock and we are shampooing it all out...so we are shampooing too much. My dh also does bathtime most evenings so I'll have to make sure he's being careful and check out the leave in conditioner. One question...what kind of coconut oil do you use? I have capsules and a jar/tub of it. The jar gets rock hard if I refrigerate it and liquid if I leave it out. That's a great suggestion though and I will def have to do it. To mine also.

Another thing to ask dad about - well, you'd notice this if you do the braiding - is whether he's rinsing thoroughly enough. That has happened in our household. Dh does the bath and hair washing and I do the comb-out braiding. Sometimes, I've had to re-rinse because there is section of her hair full of bubbles.