Here's what I did:
1. I mainly kept her hair in a baby 99.9% of the time for almost the entire first year of her life. I used an occasional head band for special occasions, making sure it wasn't too tight around her head.
2. I washed her hair as needed with a mild SLS free shampoo and followed up with a moisturizing conditioner. Sometimes I rinsed her hair with plain water and followed up with a moisturizing conditioner. I allowed her hair to get wet as she splashed in her bath. Nappy hair loves water. While all the moisture will probably wreak fuzzy havoc on our carefully designed styles, the resulting suppleness means more growth retention.
3. When MB's fro got long enough in the back that it was constantly flattened whenever she rested her head on a surface, I began styling her hair in about 6 loose puffs. I used tiny rubber bands LOOSELY to secure the puff and removed them carefully with a seam ripper to wash and re-style. I braid up the puffs in the back because the hair in the back of MB's hair is drier and more fragile than the rest of her hair--so far. At first the hair at her bald spot was coming in like fuzz--I simply gathered the longer hair around it into a puff to cover it. This seems to have protected the area from drying more because it gradually started to fill in and grow out. It is still shorter than the rest of the hair but is coming in strong.
4. I spritzed MB's hair damp with water before sealing in the moisture with a light oil (castor oil, coconut oil OR jojoba oil). A little dime size dab is enough for her entire head. I only do this when I am putting in a style but allow the moisture from her daily baths to moisturize her hair until the next wash/style.
5. I style MB's hair once a week, and leave it alone for the rest of the week.
6. So far, I have not covered MB's hair at night. Through the summer, I thought it was too warm and these days she removes anything I put on her head. Eventually she will accept a small synthetic cap or stocking cap. I highly recommend it for toddlers if they will allow it. If not, clearly their hair grows anyway. I pay special attention to exposing her hair to water when I can--shower caps are taboo.
What a beautiful head of hair! I have a question that I wonder if you can help with. You are such a fountain of wonderful knowledge. My dd is nearly 4 and has become involved in gymnastics. Trying to find styles that are tumbling friendly has become the frustration of my life! Where I used to braid and bead, now I am more often doing twists. I have done smaller twist styles similar to what I have seen in some of your pictures and they look wonderful, mostly. But I have 2 problems. 1 is that she has shorter hair to the front of her hair line that fuzzes out after a couple of days. I suspect this is because I use lighter products and not any heavy pomade type thing. It doesn't bother me as long as it won't damage her hair. (which is the question! LOL I do keep it very well moisturized.) The second problem is that if I leave her twists in more than a week they seem to be locing up all ready. The ends are all ready fused together. I don't know of others having this happen and wonder if there is something I can do to prevent it or if I should start to consider having her hair professionally loced?
ReplyDeleteThank you Lee!
ReplyDelete1. Maybe a half twisted half flat twisted/ cornrowed style might work better for you. You could cornrow/flat twist the front of her hair to her crown twist the rest and gather it into a ponytail for her gymnastics class. This will also camouflage the shorter hairs in the front.
2. Twists + water= on the road to locs for us too. My hair is particularly susceptible to this. While the entire twist will take months to sometimes more than a year to fully lock, the ends can knot right up. This can really make for damaged ends. You may have more success with braids than twists long term. I found that if I only kept the twists in for a maximum of 2 weeks and saturated it with conditioner and castor oil when I am removing the style we could also enjoy twists with few problems.
Just wanted you to know I love your blog. I've learned so much! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that rubout will eventually go away! :-)
ReplyDeleteNow that T is 11 months old, I've been doing styles on her, but reading this, I think I've been putting the rubber bands in too tight. I need to lay off on that.
Also, I have a GREAT tip. I went to visit the seamstress in town to ask her about a sleep cap that wouldn't come off or get pulled off. She thought that would be a lost cause with a baby, so instead she took a bunch of inexpensive crib sheets and sewed a sizable square of satin right onto each sheet. It's machine-sewn all the way around, so we'll never be able to take it off and have the sheets plain again, but I don't care! It's so easy just to put the sheet on the bed and have that satin already there, and T has gotten used to it so she knows where to lay her head when she gets in the crib. I love it!
@Char--I'm so glad!
ReplyDelete@Terri--Uh-oh! Sounds like a business idea! While many moms wouldn't sew it themselves they may buy it ready made. That sounds fabulous!
Oh mine, look at all that hair..so so beautiful, so full and no bald spots anymore...well she is a gud example for all the moms with babies..luv the way its so thick..i think she will have much more hair then all ur girls cos u didnt manipulate her hair when she was a baby and thanks a lot for the tips..i will let moms join ur blog!
ReplyDeleteAw! She has alot of thick, prety hair! I love not over styling young babies hair. That is what I did for the first year. I rarely styled it , but not for the same reason as you. I didn't know how to do anything with it (needless to say, I got alot of "Do that baby's hair" comments from people), but it payed off because now her hair is pretty long for her to be almost three.
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