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1. Moisturize
The moisture level of your child’s hair is key when dealing with curls. How curly your child’s hair is will determine how much added moisture they need. The curlier their hair the more moisture they will need. If your child has tighter or coily hair it will be essential to also try to seal in that moisture using a curl cream or gel. To refresh curls that were styled 1+ days ago add some leave-in conditioner to a spray bottle and mist their hair. The goal is to keep hair feeling soft. If it is dry and crunchy or scratchy to the touch then more moisture is needed. In most cases, the spray bottle will work well. If that isn’t enough add a small dollop of your preferred leave-in conditioner to your hands and apply to their hair after spraying it with the mixture. We use this one.
2. Detangle
Never try to detangle hair when it’s dry. Always detangle when damp or wet. Use your water conditioner spray bottle to thoroughly wet it down or comb it out in the bath or shower. The easiest way I’ve found to accomplish this is to leave the conditioner in while detangling. I love the Kinky Curly Knot Today brand of shampoo and conditioner. I love the brand because it’s safe and the leave-in/detangling conditioner creates so much slip!
When detangling you also want to start at the ends and slowly work your way to your child’s scalp. Use your fingers or a brush that is meant for detangling. This will require patience. Depending on how long their hair is it may be more of a process. The less tugging and pulling you do the more length you retain. Being that this process is, well… a process I only detangle my daughter’s hair once a week or so. As the days pass I slowly adjust her styles without the need to rewash completely. I’ll share more about her hair routine in another post.
3. Cast
After washing, detangling, and moisturizing it’s time to cast their hair. If your child has loose waves or thin hair you may not want to cast or you might want something lighter like a styling cream as opposed to a full-on gel. Right now I’m using a gel instead of a cream to set their hair. While I know that a proper cream would be more appropriate for their hair type I also know buying 3 different products for each child is a chore. So they use what I use and I just make sure whatever I use is safe for them to use too. I am loving Aunt Jackie’s Elongating Curling Gel. It smells like gummy bears to me, which I love! Then to the final step. If you’d like to you can scrunch your child’s curls once the gel/cream has dried to “release the cast”. I typically don’t do this on the first day. Their curls are tighter but leaving this step to the second day allows me to lengthen the time between washes. It is also fun to see the versatility of their hairstyling capabilities.
Do you have a child with curly hair? Have you tried this method? Let me know if you’ve tried this and how it’s working for you! Or just share what you do to keep your kiddo’s hair looking good.
