Hair Disaster: Parenting When Children's Hair Hurts

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There are some days that go down in history and yesterday morning was one of them. I took one look at Chase’s shriveled up hair and knew that her daily swimming excursions at summer camp were wreaking havoc on her afro puff. I’d spent love and time creating beautifully puffy puffs, detangling with Kinky Curly, sealing in moisture with organic coconut oil, slicking back with Eco Styler gel. The puffy puffs lasted one day. One trip to the neighborhood pond with her summer camp and her hair shrank. That wasn’t the problem, the problem was that her hair had shrunk with product in it. Yup, she know had a crunchy, crinkly mass of kinks on her tender head. Of course, the last few days have been super busy for me as I’ve closed out the fiscal year end at work and attended birthday celebrations. So, rather than wash my daughter’s hair, I’ve been misting it with water, applying more gel and brushing it into an afro puff (one that grew slightly smaller and less puffy with each passing day).

Can you say, HUGE mistake? By yesterday morning (a Friday), my daughter’s hair was extra crunchy and I HAD to comb it out. Even a wide tooth comb was causing my daughter excruciating pain. I told her that she needed to wear her swim cap to protect her hair when she went to the pond. Oh my goodness. My sweet little girl broke my heart when she turned to me and told me that she didn’t want to wear it because everyone will tease her. In earlier posts I’ve mentioned that we live in a predominantly white community (http://tropie7189.blogspot.com/2011/04/loc-wearer-on-hunt-for-salon-in-boston.html). My daughter is keenly aware of the fact that she would be the only child sporting a swim cap and I can’t blame her for not wanting to be teased. Tomorrow, I’ll share how we handled this sensitive parenting moment. Also, please share how you all would handle your child's hair in this situation. Swim cap? Conditioner every night? What would you do?