Wash Day with Kids Natural Hair in 5 Steps

By DiscoveringNatural

Now that you can cornrow, braid, twists, thread, ... it's time to wash your child's hair. What do you do?

There are different things we do on wash day but we usually stick to a "Moisture-Protein" balance type of regimen. We also make sure that at the end of each month, we clarify the hair as this allows us to remove any product build up that has accumulated on the hair from all the products applied on the hair but weren't properly removed during a co-wash. A co-wash is basically using conditioners to wash the hair instead of using shampoos. To see our monthly regimen, Click here.

So what does our wash day look like?

Step 1: Protective style take down
We start off by unbraiding the cornrow, if we did cornrow. Please be gentle with your child's hair when taking down a braid so you don't end up with breakage. The video below shows how I take down a braid without having any major breakage.

Step 2: Detangle
After taking down the braids or any other type of protective style, you will have to detangle the hair. Now, here is where a lot of hair is lost if not done properly. You can choose to use your fingers or a comb to remove tangles in the hair. Please take a look at the video below to see how I detangle my kids hair in a tear free and breakage free manner. 

Step 3: Cleanse/Wash
You can either cleanse the hair with a sulphate based shampoo, sulphate free shampoo or a conditioner. The type of cleansing method chosen will be determined by the state of the hair and its needs. Please note that sulphate based shampoos provides the greatest cleanse as they are formulated to remove all dirt from the hair, leaving the hair squeaky clean. There's however a drawback to this because they often remove the hair's natural oils, leaving it feeling stripped and dry. As a result, a moisturizing deep conditioning treatment must be done to help restore moisture back to the hair as well as other goodies it has lost during shampooing. 

The video below shows how I shampoo my kids hair.

Step 4: Deep Conditioning
After you've shampoo or cleansed the hair using either one of the three products mentioned above, the next step will be a deep conditioning treatment. This step is very crucial because I've noticed that when I skip deep conditioning my girls' hair, their hair feels parched during the week and it does not absorb moisture easily. You can choose to do a deep conditioning treatment without using heat or using the heat from a blow dryer or hooded dryer.
To see how I deep condition my kids hair, please take a look at the video below

Step 5: Air dry and Stretch
Now the hair has been cleaned and is now ready for styling. If your child's hair tends to shrink a lot, you can band the hair to give it some stretch while it dries. I love doing African Threading to stretch the hair.

Feeling a bit OVERWHELMED? Don't worry, in the month of November, we will break down each of these steps in greater details.

What is wash day like for your little one(s)?

DiscoveringNatural