Toddler Troubles

I hope putting this up here would help someone. Okay! so I'm going to call the other person here, 'dragongirl' instead of her real name, okay? Here we go:




DragonGirl: 

I waited my whole life to have a daughter and in 2008 my prayers were answered with the birth of our daughter Aaliyah Rose. She is one of the most beautiful, little girls I've ever seen and has the diva attitude to boot! The only problem we have is that her hair didn't come with an instruction manual. Her hair is extremely kinky and dry. We've spent tons of money on all kinds of products to tame her mane with little success. I've spent hours on the internet trying to find advice on how to deal with mixed race hair. Of course, everyone has their own advice and preferred products. Most of them that we've tried have ended up in the trash. I prefer to keep her hair as natural as possible and avoid harsh chemicals . I've even taken her to a professional salon and was dissapointed with the results. We are a military family and live in Oahu, Hawaii. The weather is very wet and humid, which adds to the problem. I would love to have some serious expert advice on how to handle my princess' hair. I'm so tired of the tears everytime we have to wash and brush it out. Thanks..... Samantha:  This is what my parents went through with me. Working on my hair was always a lot of work then when the day was humid (which was quite often), gosh! my hair was.... you can guess. I'm 14 now, I've taken over the job of working on my hair, and so far, everyone's telling me I'm doing an amazing job. Even at a salon, people asked for my secret. Anyways, I want my hair to be as natural as possible so I cut down on the products I use. I did actually change my hair products. Right now, the main bought products I use are shampoo and conditioner. I get some oil and moisture into my hair using natural oils like olive oil and rosemary oil. I've had great results with this. Deep conditioning seems to make my hair look a bit tamer nowadays. Maybe it's because I deep condition over night (sleep with it on) and I deep condition with food (mayonnaise, eggs, shea butter, EVOO, Rosemary oil, bananas (hard to wash out)...) not DC products. As a kid, I had really full, thick and totally unmanageable hair. Here are mistakes my parents made with my hair (so you don't make those mistakes with your daughter's), they pulled at my hair to detangle and comb it, they used blow dryers in my hair, they bought hair products that weren't for my hair type, oh! they relaxed my hair (I disliked that, I do have mainly natural hair now, transitioning. I have a bit of processed hair at the tips which I'll snip of in bout a month or two), they also washed my hair every week with shampoo and held it tight with things. Also, they cut my hair at some point. Since I've taken over managing my hair, I have stopped washing my hair with shampoo every week. I wash with conditioner only every week or once every 2 weeks, I wash with shampoo once a month. I oil my hair daily with EV olive oil and if my scalp feels itchy for some reason, I get some homemade rosemary oil into my hair. Rosemary oil seems to stop the itching in a couple of hours for me and it did help someone with dandruff. It also helps make the hair not so dry and it helps with growing out hair quickly. I use John Frieda Frizz-Ease Curl Around Style-Activating conditioner in my hair. I don't use it daily. I use it as a washing conditioner and also, nowadays, I use it to weigh down my hair and also to keep it styled. I never comb my hair dry. I believe that the more my hair is combed dry, the more my hair gets frizzy when it's humid and also, I believe it damages the hair cuticles and elasticity. Another thing is, I don't use heat on my hair. No blow driers, no diffusers, not curling irons or straighteners. This has helped my hair A LOT too. Now that I'm growing out my hair naturally, the hair type that seems to be growing out looks 3c/4a (/4b/4c) (http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTn2lzMU0aOweL0w4PHxJI4CWaITW_evAOTg7sdcv3y8dHrBRRd&t=1). It is really dry normally and it takes over an hour to detangle. One thing for sure that I do with my hair the most is to keep it braided or in twists or bantu knots. I braid my hair with extensions and leave it in for 2 weeks (without the extensions, I'll have to redo the braiding within a week). With braiding, my hair does get a bit tamer and also, I don't need to fuss over it often. Hope I could help. Oh! and good luck working on your daughters hair. Mixed race hair is hard to manage, I can say that from personal experience. Keep on trying and look up some things on naturallycurly.com and soon, you'll be working on your daughters hair like a pro (everything'll be done with ease!) :) (*Gosh! I type a lot lol) DragonGirl: Thank You so much for your input! So far everything that you've advised seems logical and I'll look forward to trying it! I've never used any kind of heat or straightener on my little one's hair. Not sure that I ever will. She's so beautiful with her curls! She's still too young to sleep overnight with any conditioning treatment on her hair, but I will attempt to try it while she's awake! Thanks so much for the hope and I'll definitively try to EVOO to help keep her hair extra moisturized!  Samantha: Glad I could help :) ><> ><> ><> ><> ><> Okay! So, I hope this helps someone. Oh! and yes, I'm the 'Samantha' mentioned there. You can tell because I type a lot. I don't know how I do it, I just can't stop (here I go again! lol :) ) ~Sam ><> ><> ><> ><> ><>