Not so long ago, I cottoned onto a secret weapon in the hair washing department to avoid tears. We play hairdressers – complete with “hairdresser voice”. Apologies to all my beautiful hairdressing friends.
It goes a little something like this:
Me: “How are you today? Good? How was your week? We’ve been flat out with clients.’’
Ella, in turn, answers each of the questions in her “grown up voice’’, telling me about her busy week doing drawings and dancing on stage to a huge crowd (that one obviously happened in her huge imagination).
Once the shampoo is in and her hair piled on top of her head, we grab the mirror so she can look at herself – and laugh. She has a choice of whether she lies back and has it rinsed out or uses the Dora the Explorer hair rinsing bucket thingy.
This has even transferred to the mornings, where she says to the old woman looking back at her in the mirror: “I’ll have two plaits, please hairdresser’’. Whatever makes the mornings less stressful, I’m happy to go with.
A few weeks ago I took to Facebook to ask what suggestions other mums had around doing a child’s hair without tears. Here are the responses, with some really awesome ideas (note, some of the longer answers Facebook wouldn’t allow me to fully copy, so I have typed in bits and pieces from those):
Caroline: I spray detangler into my daughter’s hair and spritz her hair with some plain water from a squirty bottle. I then comb it all through with a wide tooth comb. Finally I add some hair gel to try and tame her curls. I hope this helps.
Katrina: I use Johnsons Junior Detangle Spray it works a treat and my li’l girl loves the fragrance
Sarah: Spray and a tangle teezer brush.
Jane: Johnson’s Jnr Detangle Spray is excellent!
Casey: Brush and plait the night before, then in the morning take out the plait and deal with tangle free locks in the morning…
Kristy Lee: There’s awesome brushes my sister just got into her salon and they are great for knotty hair. The brush is called Tangle Teaser and it’s made by someone with the name Paul in it.
Harmony: We use detangle here too and it smells nice also 🙂
Linda:Coconut oil or just normal hair conditioner are both great detanglers… My eldest has thick thick wavy hair, it’s a nightmare. My other tip is that you don’t necessarily have to get EVERY knot out… just hide them in a bun or plaits. The only thing with coconut oil is, if you use those rubber band type hairbands it disintegrates the rubber and they break. Weird but true.
Debbie: Start putting your daughters hair up as soon as it can be done. Do this regularly (even though they’ll take it out constantly). It’s good to get them used to it.. I also spray with water with oils in it (nit preventer) and plait school
Casey: Oh the best part about the night before plait is that if you are running ridiculously late you can clip the escapee hairs and wet and you’re right to go… lol
Amie: Conditioner mixed with water in a fairy spray bottle works a treat! I hear its also a good deterant for school pests 🙂
Tricia: The Tangle Teasers need to be seen to be believed. They really do work. Mornings at my house are much better retail for $30 and $35 but well worth it
Amanda: I like to ask the girls to run the brush through their hair themselves, before I get to it. This way they can have tackled some of the knots themselves, and it’s not as bad. Another tip is to hold the hair tightly with your fist wrapped around it and start by brushing the ends. Because you’re holding the hair you can brush it as fiercely as needed without it pulling at the roots of their hair.
Emma-Louise: Preparation is the key – the night before in the shower/bath always apply conditioner and COMB through, this will ensure tangle free hair every single time, Rinse it, gently comb and air dry. The following day just lightly spray with warm water with a squirter bottle and, again, lightly use a wide toothed comb to rake hair into position – then smooth quickly with a natural bristle brush and lakki band it. My specialty is easy, fast, gorgeous beautiful hair.
What tips could you add to this list? Is hair time in the morning a challenge or something you enjoy in your house?
That is a really cute idea. That would have worked on my girls too. Rachel x
Thanks Rachel. Glad you liked it. Whatever works, I say! 🙂
I agree detangler is the way to go. My eldest’s hair is the same length as Ella’s and it is getting to the “need a first hair cut stage” We got the Milk detangler to try and it was really good, I was really happy with it and it was natural too so I thought that was good for the girls.
Ooh, I like the sound of the Milk detangler, Kym. Ella has decided she wants to grow her fringe out, which comes with its own set of problems!! 🙂
I dread having to do my 2 yr olds hair every morning. I use a spray bottle with water and oil in it, makes it heaps easier. good idea about plaiting at night, will be using that 🙂
How great is the plaiting it at night idea, Alicia? At the moment, when Ella wakes up she has a little birds nest at the back of her head. Plaiting it makes such a big difference to our morning routine. 🙂
So much easier 🙂 Just the getting her to sit still long enough to plait a challenge lol, and the first morning when I took the plaits out laughing at her crinkly boofy eighties hair do.
LOL! Oh, I love that, Alicia! Ella loos like she’s had the old ’80s crimped through her hair. Or was that the ’90s?