Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Adventures in Hair-land

It's obvious by the photos here that Isa B isn't lacking in hair. She has TONS. The longest pieces are probably 4-5 inches when stretched out. The front is fairly soft, fat curls. The back is frizzier because she rubs her head around when she sleeps or during all her crazy rolling. It's drier than my hair but not as dry as some African hair. She definitely needs product of some sort everyday or it looks unkempt. Here is our (current) routine:

I only shampoo it maybe once a week or once every two weeks. On bath days (about every other day), I wet her hair and slather on a good conditioner. Right now I'm using a Dove conditioner for dry hair but when that runs out I think I'm going to look for something more specific to African hair. I comb through her hair with the conditioner in and leave it like that while she plays. Near the end of the bath, I rinse out the conditioner and put in a leave-in conditioner like Infusium.

On non-bath days I still wet her hair down a little to reset the curls and make it easier to comb through. I then add Carol's Daughter Hair Milk, focusing mainly on the back portion. I went to Sephora to check out the Carol's Daughter products since I'd heard rave reviews but also lots of mention of the scents of various products. It's true- the products are all heavily scented and oddly, the scents aren't unified. I highly recommend you go test them out before buying. The Hair Butter was WAY too intense for me (and I really don't have a sensitive nose). Another product smelled okay but was much greasier than Isa needs. The Hair Milk does a great job of defining the curls, even in the back, and making her whole head look nice and glossy.


Her usual style is simply two barrettes in the front. As a straight-haired Mama, I LOVE her curls so I like her to be fairly natural. But, her hair is getting super long now and I guess I need to start experimenting with other styles. It will go up into to little poofs now without any trouble (see below). I know she won't sit still long enough for braids. Plus, I'm much too inept with hair to make that work. I think I need to buy a few headbands and see if she'll leave those in. Any other style suggestions????




4 comments:

veggiemom said...

Love the poofs! No suggestions but can't wait to see what you come up with.
Kerri and Ruby

Anonymous said...

those poofs are adorable!

I love the Hair Milk, too, but hated the smell of everything else I got from Carol's Daughter...

Can't wait until Elsa has enough hair to do something - ANYTHING - with.

:-)

Wendy said...

Hi there - haven't checked in here in a while - she just keeps getting cuter!

I use Pantene for Women of Color conditioner mainly and it seems to do the trick. Anna's hair is a lot more tightly curled; I can't leave it loose so much anymore b/c it gets tangled which makes combing it out hard. (Maybe I need to spring for some Carol's Daughter, b/c I do love her free hair--it's amazing in and after bath!) So we're into little puffs and sometimes I do some pitiful little braids. I am starting to play with snaps and soon beads, which is fun. Just start experimenting with more parts and more puffs and go from there!

Wendy in OR

Anonymous said...

Your daughter is beautiful! Just found your blog via a friend of mine. I'm also working through the hair adventures with my 8-month-old daughter. We're currently working our way through the sample pack of the Blended Beauty products. And, we're armed with a multitude of headbands and clips. No braids yet, but we also do poofs! I'm muddling my way through, but am having fun!Look forward to following your blog!

Shawna