Conditioning and deep conditioning
We suggest trying to find a great conditioner for her hair that adds a ton of moisture to her dry strands. When you choose a conditioner look for the healthiest conditioner you can find. One that is free of silicones and has natural ingredients.
Many curlies tend to be brand loyal because once you find a brand that cares about what goes into a product you tend to want to stick with it.
For children we prefer to keep the products as natural as possible because you want to at leat recognize most of the ingredients that you are using in your child’s hair.
Condition the hair not the scalp in sections from roots to tip. As you condition each section twist or clip away the section before doing a final rinse.
It is ok if her hair is in twists while you rinse the conditioner out of the hair, in other words leaving a little conditioner in her hair isn’t harmful.
Deep conditioning for children is very helpful if your child has high porosity and low porosity hair because conditioning with heat or for a longer time than normal will help her to retain moisture. Deep conditioning also helps with adding extra moisture to her dry hair and helps the moisture to last longer.
If her hair is porous then using a protein based deep conditioner* can help rebuild the strand so that she can retain moisture in her hair.
There are products on the market specifically geared towards deep conditioning*, or you can use the same conditioner you used to condition her hair to deep condition her hair, just read the ingredients so that you can treat her hair according to her needs.
All you have to do is apply the conditioner to the hair put a plastic cap on her hair and use a heat source to warm up the conditioner for deeper penetration.
This process is much easier for older children than it is for toddlers who probably wont be bothered with the entire process in the first place. Distractions always help, toys in the tub, or cartoons on an ipad for the more tech savy tot!
Loosen each section, add the deep conditioner* or conditioner, and re twist the section clipping it out of the way until her entire head is saturated. Leave the conditioner on for as long as you can and then rinse each section!
Tip
You can deep condition her hair dry before you shampoo to get it out of the way, not only does this help to detangle the hair it also gets the process out of the way so that by the end of it all your child isn’t so overwhelmed by the process.
Detangling
Up to this point you have been just working with your hands using your fingers to part her hair adding products and doing some light detangling. The art of finger detangling for curly hair is an absolute must to master because you want to avoid breaking her hair at all costs.
During the process you may have noticed some shed hair that will need to be removed using your fingers at first. The sections you created at the start of wash day will be the same sections you will be detangling. If you have to divide the hair even further, then go ahead and do that to avoid damage.
Before detangling her hair use a t-shirt to squeeze out the excess water in her hair. Never use a towel because towels cause friction and tangles.
Squeeze each section and apply a leave in conditioner to the hair. If her hair is porous choose a leave in conditioner* that has protein in it as well as moisturizing properties. Leave in conditioners add moisture to the hair and help to detangle the hair as well.
Spray the leave in on each section using your fingers to remove any shed hair and then use a wide tooth comb* to detangle the section gently, twisting it once you have finished detangling.
Mia Perez-Mcaliley says
Did u read it because uk u got this….lol
Aisha Esmay says
Thank you!!!
Lenore Vanasco says
Thank you!!
Chyrisse Bresloff says
❤️????
Britt Ley says
Good read!! I think I’ve mastered most of it ! It’s just the styling part im bad at! ????
Marlene Blyden says
This is so needed. Moisturizing the hair is key.
Valencia Binford says
Very helpful
Tj says
My niece is white and she won’t let anyone touch her hair. It’s a nightmare to comb or brush because she rolls all over the place. So, these rules are common sense. We also use water and oil on her hair before touching it. All hair responds to water. If you find that a little bit of water isn’t working keep adding more until the hair is pliable and allows for combing.