Wash and Go or No?

MG3's shrunken and sleep flattened fro!

MG3's hair LOVES water! If I wet her hair every single day and seal the moisture with a light oil it feels silky and elastic. MG3's nappy hair LOVES leave in conditioner. When I add leave in conditioner to her damp or wet hair, followed by a holding product like gel, her coils freeze in tiny coffee stirrer size coils. If I listen to her hair, it's telling me, I want to wash and go.

Actually, many people will tell you their nappy hair loves water, and feels moist when they wet it often. Wash and go isn't just for nappy girls some folks describe as having "good hair" (I hate that terminology). The truth is we may find that most nappy hair feels good when we wash and go. The struggle may come later. Think tangles, and maintenance.

For me, I just don't have the time to follow my daughter into the shower every morning so she can douse her hair, shake, apply product, style and drip while being sure to never touch her hair until it's dry. We tried it just for fun the other day.

After shaping her fro perfectly I said, "OK MG3, now don't touch your hair again until snack time (2 hours later)."

Five minutes later MG3 buried her entire hand into the front left section of her fro and scratched vigorously!

I gasped, "What are you doing? I thought we agreed not to touch the fro until snack time?"

MG3 frowned and crossed her arms with a huff. "But it itches Mommy!"

You know how we adult women get itchy and pat our hair instead of scratching it to avoid scalp burns when our relaxer touch ups are near? No such reasoning in my four year old. It itches so I scratch it--end of story! Personally, those relaxer touch up days are over for me----but I certainly remember.

MG3's hair fuzzed immediately. Fuzz doesn't generally bother me, but after all that work, I wasn't happy to see it. All plans of possibly following a curl defining wash and go routine with MG3 have been shelved. It would be too ridiculous to repeat such a process with her daily. I was further mortified to see her rolling all over the floor, and using her fro to effectively remove all the lint from the carpeting and my wood floors.

MG3's curl defining wash and go is a no go for now. I think it's her age and maturity level. I think when she's older, and can manage it herself, MG3 will love her wash and gos.