Friday, March 14, 2008

Brushing little girl's hair


A part, getting ready for pig tails today

My daughter is 18 months now, and about a month ago her hair got too long to stay out of her eyes. Knowing that I didn't want to deal with bangs, we're letting her hair grow. So it needed to be put up in pony tails, pig tails or something else. For a few days I tried clippies, but they eventually would come out and I was always worried she'd take them out in her car seat and choke (paranoid mama, I know). We still use clippies when we get dressed up, they're cute, but for every day hair we do a pony tail on top of her head, or pig tails.

First we spritz all the fine baby hair with California Baby Hair Detangler. It isn't gummy like other detanglers, and it has lavender and other herbs in it to promote calmness and smell fresh. Then I brush her hair, starting from the back where she rubs against her car seat or the bed at night, with a hair bristle brush. I bought our that came with a comb for 2.99 at Walmart. I love the one they have in Nova Natural, but we can't afford that right now.

I brush the front back away from her face. Then I decide if we're doing a pony tail or a pig tails. I love pig tails, but it's only on really complacent mornings that I'm going to get her to be still long enough to put two elastics in ;) For a pony tail, I do it right on the top of her head, so that it catches the 'bangs' and they don't go in her eyes. Yes, she does look somewhat like Pebbles Flintstone, but she's a toddler- she's adorable with her hair any which way. To put in the elastic, I buy the small elastics (about the size of my wedding ring) from Target that are 'no ouch'. I don't like the rubber ones, I'd have to cut them out of her hair and she wiggles so much that I'd be afraid to accidentally cut off her ponytail.

To put in the elastic, I have the pony tail in my hand, and I twist it a few times to bring all the hair together so no stray ones are stuck out. Then I wrap the elastic around three times and call it good.

By this time she's generally wiggled enough that the elastic isn't right against her scalp, but is about 1 inch down the hair length. To tighten I divide the pony tail in half and pull on each side, so the elastic slides down. As you get used to this, you can use this to help center the pony tail as well, changing how much pressure you put on each side as you tighten. I aim for the pony tail coming up in the center of her head, though if it is off to the side a bit it's still cute, albeit a tad 80s ;)

For pig tails (I'd try pony tails first until you're fast enough!) we do the same thing, but eyeball the centerline of her scalp and brush the hair down to each side to make the part.

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