7 Easy Steps for Caring for Your Child’s Natural Hair

hair + beauty
January 12, 2015
Ashley

Kinky, curly, tightly coiled hair, can be difficult to deal with, especially when it’s on your child’s head. You have to deal with a fidgety little person, who whimpers at the slightest touch of their hair, and is ready to run screaming when a comb comes any where near them! It is not easy to say the least. One thing you don’t have to worry about is hair products. Tgin’s product line works great for children’s hair, as well as adults.

Allow these simple steps to make your life just a tad bit easier when caring for your child’s natural hair.

1. Have a Game Plan

Unfortunately, you can’t dive in head first when caring for your child’s hair. You need to have a game plan set for exactly which day, or days of the week you plan on washing, and styling your child’s hair. Washing in itself can be an ordeal, so you want to have your products ready. Make sure that you have time to wash, condition, and style your child’s hair. You should only be using wide tooth combs, and Denman brushes for detangling. Small toothed combs can cause you to pull out your child’s hair, and cause breakage.

2. Wash day

First and foremost, stay far away from shampoos and conditioners with sulfates. Sulfates dry out hair, and are especially bad for curly and kinky hair, as it takes much longer for the natural oils our scalp produces to travel down the length of our hair. Tgin’s Sulfate Free Moisture Rich Shampoo, and Triple Moisture Replenishing Conditioner do not contain any sulfates, and leaves hair feeling soft and manageable. When you shampoo your child’s hair, make sure you are applying the shampoo to the scalp while massaging it, and allowing the suds to travel down the length of their hair. After you have rinsed the shampoo, apply tgin’s Triple Moisture Replenishing Conditioner to the length of their hair. At this time you want to detangle. You can detangle the hair with your fingers, if they have looser curls, or use a wide toothed comb or Denman brush for tighter curls. Once you are done conditioning, rinse the hair and apply tgin’s Honey Miracle Hair Mask. The Honey Miracle Mask is an amazing deep conditioner that works wonders on all hair textures. You will notice how easily the conditioner slides through the length of your child’s hair, drawing in moisture, and detangling it. You can leave the deep conditioner on for up to 30 minutes, it works great with a shower cap as well.

3. Products

Once your child’s hair is completely clean, you want to add products. First, you need to decide how they will be wearing their hair. If you are doing braids, tgin’s Daily Butter cream works great. You only need to apply a small amount, and their hair will stay moisturized for days! You can reapply as needed. If you are going for a curly look, tgin’s Twist and Define Cream, will be more suitable for you. Apply a small amount through the length of your child’s hair. This product works great for twist outs, braid outs, wash ’n’ go’s, as well as roller sets.

4. What to avoid

When caring for your child’s natural hair, you obviously want to avoid putting any types of chemicals in your child’s hair, and you want to avoid heat! Using heat excessively on your child’s hair can cause heat damage, and cause their hair to appear limp and lifeless. If you absolutely feel it is appropriate to apply heat, it should not be done more than once every few months, and definitely should not be applied to a child’s hair under the age of six years old. They have plenty of time to experiment in their hair, there is no need to damage it before they truly get to experience the beauty of their own natural hair.

Tight styles are very damaging to your child’s hair. This can cause the loss of hair on their edges, as well as tension bumps, headaches, and pain. If your child tells you their hair style is too tight, believe them! Don’t damage your child’s hair for the sake of a hairstyle. Try doing looser braids, ponytails, and occasional braid outs.

Excessive weave use. Some parents add weave to their children’s hair as a protective hair style. This isn’t our first choice, but if you absolutely feel you have to add weave to your child’s hair, make sure that braids aren’t too tight, and they are done by a professional. When done well, braids can act as a great protective hair style, and assist in growing long, strong, beautiful hair.

5. Teach your child to love and care for their hair

A lot has changed regarding images in the media from when you were growing up, versus your child. There are a lot more natural hair women on television, in magazines, and probably in your neighborhood. Even though your child may have great natural hair role models they see in the media, teaching your child to love his or her self, and their hair, starts at home. When styling your child’s hair, never use words like nappy, or allow yourself to get frustrated, and make them feel bad about their hair. Children do not forget these things. If you have another child with a more manageable hair texture, definitely don’t compare the two. “Your sisters hair is so much better than yours” or “your brother has good hair” This type of thinking for one, is very inappropriate, and can be heart breaking for your children to hear. All hair is beautiful. You should only be speaking positive things about your child, and their hair. Remind your child how beautiful their hair is, and don’t allow them to say anything negative about it either. You must not only teach your children to love their hair, but also to care for it. Teaching your child to properly care for their hair at an early age, will help prevent them from making damaging hair mistakes in the future.

6. Night time Routine

In addition to your day time routine, or wash routine, it is good to have a night time routine set in place. At night, make sure your child is sleeping on a silk or satin pillow case, or is wearing a bonnet to protect their hair style, and hair. It is best not to sleep with hard hair balls, this can be extremely uncomfortable at night. Instead use hair ties, or pony tail holders, and apply the balls during the day, if that is their style for the day.

7. Relax

As a parent, you have a million and one things to worry and stress about, and your child’s hair should not be one of them! Take a chill pill, keep calm, and remember it is only hair!

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Ashley Renee is a licensed esthetician, Mac makeup artist, natural hair enthusiast, writer and poet from Chicago, follow her on Instagram @Ashleyvsrenee!