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I'll never forget the first time I saw Mocha Girl One (HmG) . She was an emergency c-section, and had to spend several days in NICU. She was born four days past her estimated due date and looked huge in her incubator. I imagined her to be especially delicate and feminine. I couldn't wait to frill her up, and more importantly to do her hair ! The only reason she wasn't sporting a barrette the day we took her home from the hospital, was because the one I brought to match her lacey outfit, slid right out. Mocha Girl One's baby hair was silky straight and fine. As the weeks rolled by, it became wavier until she had a lovely curly fro. I washed it all the time . I brushed it several times a day . I tried snap clips, and moved to velcro barrets when the clips slid out. I bought a different head band for every outfit. Meanwhile her curls continued to wind tighter and tighter. I kept everything in a pretty box, dubbed the hair bin . I was really frustrated at not b...
Can I ask a couple cornrow questions? We adopted our 5-year old daughter 7 months ago. She came to us with very shorts hair so it's just lot enough to start doing more creative styles. I did cornrows for the first time this week. (They're a bit crooked but they're in :)
ReplyDelete1) How should I moisturize her hair each day when it's in cornrows?
2) Some friends tell me to make sure I grease her scalp in the parts but other friends tell me not to. One friend was so insistent that she bought me a brought me a product from the local hair store. Do you have an opinion on this?
Thanks so much for your site! I have used it frequently over the last several months.
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ReplyDeleteCongratulations on adopting your daughter. If you follow my "beginner's" tag to the RIGHT of this page you'll find some detailed info on keeping your daughter's hair moisturized. In my personal experience I've noticed that as long as the hair isn't brittle and breaking I should be careful not to over do it with the moisturizing. I generally use my shea butter mix for cornrows and I apply it to the damp hair before I stretch it out. Once I do the style I don't do anything to the hair again until I take it down. We don't worry about fuzz and never use shower caps so my girls get a daily dose of steam when they take their baths/showers. It works for us. I never put anything on our scalps. Grease can clog pores and flakes need to be treated with antifungals or something that will help the scalp to properly shed the dead skin. The grease temporarily masks the problem--often making it worse. An unhealthy scalp can benefit greatly from the examination of a trained eye--in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThis is all incredibly helpful! Thank you. I especially appreciate your perspective on the scalp. Being a white mom, I'm pretty sensitive to how she is perceived by African-Americans. I want her to look well cared-for. Many older women tell me to make her scalp shine but your explanation about clogging her pores makes perfect sense. Thanks also for your comment about the fuzz. That's freeing b/c I do worry about fuzz! Thanks for taking the time to respond. I appreciate it so much.
ReplyDeleteWe do have a lot of practices that are passed down from generation to generation as the right way to do things. It's not always accurate. Be ready for resistance and the fact that some people will expect you to come up short no matter what you do. Feel free to refer them to this page. You need to know for yourself that YOU are the authority when it comes to your child. Clearly you are taking special care to learn everything you need to know---don't burden yourself with other people's expectations. Be confident about what you know. Be Blessed!
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