How To Care for Long Hair

[cparkly]

My DS has very pretty, fine, blonde hair. He is deadset against a haircut. He let me trim the hair above his eyes once, so that he could see better. But, he does not want me to do it again. I try to respect him and his body and allow him autonomy.

I love long hair, short hair, whatever...but I am unsure how to care for it, really. It gets into his face, into his projects (paint, clay), and into his food. He gets very frustrated and does not like to have it washed. He recently asked me to put a ponytail in, which was great for keeping it out of his face, but then he pulled it right back out. What do you do with your long-haired boys?

[liberal_chick]

With ds1, when we'd be doing an activity that could be messy, I'd just bobby pin the front part back.  I'd give your ds a choice: we put your hair back (bobby pin, ponytail, whatever) and leave it in during the activity or you have to get it washed tonight (or later today, whatever).

I also gave my ds the stipulation that if he wanted to keep his hair long, then we had to wash it frequently.  You may not need to do that, but when my ds's hair got to a certain length, if we didn't wash it daily, then it looked gross.  Eventually he got tired of washing and brushing out tangles so he asked to have it cut.

[ShadowMoon]

DS has long hair just past his shoulders. If we're doing messy activities or something like that I'll pull it back in pony-tail or tie a bandanna around his head. If we're outside he'll just wear a hat. I wash it a couple times a week and shampoo his hair 1x a week. It doesn't get that dirty as long as we try to keep it out things. 

[ellemenope]

DD has fine blond hair, too.  She is a couple months younger than your DS and keeps her pony tails in.  She is also very tender headed.  I would love to get it cut in a nice pixie.  So, I let her know that, and told her if she did not let me take care of it, we would just have to get it cut.  Not a threat.  Certainly not an empty one anyway.  But, just kind of a natural consequence.  She now lets me do anything to her hair, and of course I am very gentle, so as to keep her trust.

Also, DD's hair is so fine that it was easily trained.  We have always parted it on the side and do so immediately out of the bath. It always stays that way now.

And, finally, when DD was younger she responded better to little ponies on top of head that were pulled forward.  It seemed that was just the way the hair wanted to grow.  So, it looked a little odd, but it did the trick.  I pulled her bangs forward and to the side, instead of straight back.  I actually fell in love with the unique look.  And, I think it would look awesome on a boy.  Very crazy.

[cparkly]

Thank you!

I don't know why I never thought of a bandana or other head-covering for those really messy art projects.

We used to use California Baby shampoo, but now that I have to wash his hair frequently (3-5x week), I have noticed that his scalp is dry. Any product suggestions?