My number one question that is asked about parenting Story is if I do her hair. Most people are so curious as to how a white woman could do a black little girls hair. I usually tell them that I'm still learning and that I can do some really cute puffs!!! That's about all I got!
Story has been home 18 months on April 23. Wow it seems like she's been here forever! Even though she's been here over a year I'm still learning all the time new stuff about her hair. I'm also always experimenting with new stuff as well. I think I'll always be learning!
A few months ago I took this picture of all our hair products! What happens is that you try something and use a little before you find out you don't truly love it so you go buy something else and before you know it you have accumulated all of this:
About 90% of those bottles are 3/4 to 1/2 full. Meaning I tried them because someone told me to or I found them in Target and then I moved on to something else. Since this picture I have added two more products into our rotation and both of them were found at Ulta (my first to venture outside of Target/Sally's/Wal-Mart for hair stuff for her). I also have this neighborhood place that I buy stuff as well. My latest find there is bows for $1 each. I love that!
Here's Story's hair right after a bath:
Here is the final “puff” product. This is the only thing I feel confident doing well!
This weekend Story got her hair done at a salon in our neighborhood. I have a huge love/hate relationship with place. I love it because they do a great job and our fairly cheap for the great work that they do. I hate it because it is so nasty and un-professional that it drives me insane. I made my appointment for four this past week and at 4:30 when I asked how much longer until we start she told me an hour. I know it takes about 1.5 – 2 hours to braid and I did the math and was not happy to be sitting there that long with a 3 year old. Also this past time I noticed a jar of condoms in the bathroom. Seriously? I know they are advocating for safe sex, but give me a break. Weird!
But, look how cute she looked getting it done and then at the wedding last night:
So, what do you use on your daughter's hair if she's black. What's your favorite product and your one that we should stay away from? I have lots of readers that have black children and I know we would all love to hear every one else's product advice and routine of doing hair! Go ahead leave a comment for all of us!
so funny reading this today. just hours earlier Joey told me he’d like to do something different with Bristol’s hair.
“Just change it up”, he said.
Personally, I think her big curly, soft Ethiopian ‘fro is fabulous. And we do the occasional pompoms/ponytails.
“So what’s the big deal?”, i asked.
He responded let’s take her and have extensions…maybe make it long down her back…
Hum, i am not feeling i am quite ready for that yet. Maybe when she is 3 or something but she seems so little now to have to sit so long. Anyways, we’ll see.
And about the product thing…we use Pantene for Women of Color shampoo and conditioner. And when we add conditioner we don’t wash it out and we also have a squirt bottle of the conditioner mixed with water that we reapply and rub thru hair atleast 2x day. It smells good and it is cheap. I have it sent over from the states b/c i am thinking i need not mess with a good thing.
gotta love our sweet chocolate babies and their hair. i get these questions all the time too (even here in SA b/c their hair is different texture from hers)
love to you from SA and congrats on your fab new job!
courtney
I am using Kinky Curly hair products on my son’s hair. I use the detangler and the curling cream and love them both. I also recently bought a tangle teaser brush that is great at combing his hair without frizzing his curls!
stay away from rubber bands(use the little covered elastics instead if you aren’t already!! and anything with petroleum or mineral oil..it clogs the pores and the rubber bands cause breakage. Also braiding too tightly can cause traction alopecia.(baldness and receeding hair line) My favorite is Taliah Waajid’s Protective mist bodifyer. We also DO NOT ever use shampoo. ONLY conditioner..which gets her hair plenty clean. There’s no point in adding oil only to strip it out with conditioner. Keeping it in a protective style like twists or cornrows will stop breakage so you will see more growth. My sister came home at 17.5 months with next to no hair after it being shaved in Haiti because of infection..I started with tiny little puffs…then I would twist the puffs, then I would braid the puffs, then I did piggy back braids then I taught myself to cornrow..on my white, thin straight ish haired mother..I figured it didn’t make sense to make a little girl sit there for hours while I practiced. There are some GREAT youtube video’s made by an adoptive mom named Katie O that can help you a lot!! oh, and get some coconut oil, it’s wonderful for the hair..and skin too and it’s as natural as it gets.
We work with refugees from Burundi and there’s one refugee who lives near the Village Center (just down Lamar from the For the City center) who does all the girls’ braids in the neighborhood out of her home. They’re fantastic! I don’t know how much English she speaks, but if you’re interested, that might be a neat connection to make for someone to do Story’s hair. I don’t remember the woman’s name, but her son is adorable and she’s a single mom who really could use the income. If you’re interested, e-mail me at karenhilltribers@gmail.com and I could try to track her down in the next few weeks. Could be another fun refugee connection for the Stone!
Jessica
(from Hill Country Hill Tribers–I met you at Artreach last fall)
I don’t have a girl, but my boy has longer hair and I love PINK. It works the best for his hair type. He is bi-racial, so it is a bit softer.
We also LOVE Kinky Culy products!
I just typed out our whole hair/skin care routine for my parents to have while we are in Uganda:
http://loveisspokenhere.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/things-we-%E2%99%A5-silas-produ\
cts-updated/
We use Kinky-Curly products and I LOVE vitamin E oil for Silas’ dry skin! One
thing that I have started doing since I typed up that post…I use a squirt
bottle of cheap regular conditioner + water. After his naps I squirt it all
over his hair and massage it in. It looks as good as when he gets out of the
shower. Helps with the smooshed hair 🙂 This is also good for the back of the
head when he has been sitting in the car seat for awhile.
I love learning from everyone else! Such a trial and error process because all hair is SO different!
the best conditioner we’ve found is Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose – hands down best for our girl’s hair. We also use coconut oil before washing and straight EVOO on her scalp after braiding (or Jojoba oil). For braiding we l.o.v.e. using Darcy’s Botanicals Madagascar Vanilla Styling Creme and for loose styles (including puffs) we love Darcy’s Botanicals Natural Coils Curling Jelly. Our Sousi has been home just over a year and we went through a long time of transition with her hair as it began to grow in and thicken – really heal from the malnutrition. Our last day of braiding we talked about how long it’s gotten and thick and really really black. . . she accused me of putting dye in her hair to darken it – it’s just healthy now! She has been wearing her hair loose this week and I noticed yesterday that her curl definition is still superb from the DBNCCJ that we applied over the weekend! good stuff.
I obviously don’t have any helpful tips for you, but I can say that I often use that olive oil conditioner after shampooing on my own hair. I like it! 🙂
I have this problem wi Eli. He is biracial and the back of his hair gets so tangled while the top is frizzy. Its all curly but I cannot seem to maintain it or keep it untangled. It is the saddest thing for my boy to cry so hard while I comb through his hair. I have used carol’s daughter products and just for me. I now use both but they work for about an hour then its back to being tangled and frizzy.
Jamie:
I have to laugh at all your products because my batch of products looks much like yours!! I try something, then something else etc……I haven’t found a favorite yet and our girls have been home for just about 8 years!
Thanks for this post!
I have that same hair product collection 🙂 So irritating! I honestly have not found anything I’m absolutely in love with although I do like the Herbal Essence Conditioner for Curly Hair (purple bottle). Beza has pretty kinky hair and it’s grown quite a bit. I’ve taught myself quite a bit watching YouTube videos and looking at pictures. About the ONLY thing I’m not good at is cornrows. CANNOT get them that tight and smooth for the life of me. I love doing yarn braids to get the long hair look w/o the cost of extensions. They’re kind of time consuming but they’ll last 6 or 7 weeks.
We have a neighbor from Nigeria who is adopting and bringing over her 3 nieces and 1 nephew after their parents were killed in a car accident. Two of the girls are teenagers and quite honestly I’m hoping that maybe I can pay them to do some cool ‘dos on Beza.
Carol’s Daughter has the BEST products. They are kind of expensive, but are totally worth it. They have great deals online. I use Khoret Amen Hair Oil every night. In the morning I alternate between Tui Leave In Conditioner and Tui Jojoba and Shea Butter Sheen.
I use Aveda Rosemary Mint Shampoo and Aveda Damage Remedy Conditioner.
We’ve tried most of those too!! LOL. We have found lots of success with Taliah Waajid’s Kinky, Wavy,Natural products. Love the smell. Good moisture without being overly greasy. And it doesn’t leave a residue that seems to flake like some of the other products we’ve tried. We also like Kids Organics products. We have to go to a AA hair care store to get both. I’ve not found them in Walmart or Target. Someone did tell me they could find the Kinky Wavy at CVS or Walgreens I think.
Jamie,
When my niece came home from Haiti at one she had stomach issues most of the time and pulled the hair off the back of her little head. So hair styles were an issue at first.
Only use shampoo once a week when you wash her hair , the hair will get too dry otherwise.
We too had a supply like yours have since gone all organic because of all the toxic things they are putting in the stuff even Carol’s daugther has started adding things that is not healthy!
We found some stuff that is callled Shea Moisture, they have a whole line of things that is all organic and they sell it at Walgreens.
Since starting to use it my niece’s hair has become more managable and soft and easier to twist comb out and it is less stressful for all involved! We / I also use the Organic coconut oil for deep conditioning of my son hair( he also is fron Haiti). Hope this helps!
God Bless,
Rose Anne
I agree with Julie! Aubrey Organics has a great conditioner! Love it! I buy it from Swanson’s Health Products (seemed cheapest there). I’ll put Organic Coconut Oil in her hair the night before a wash (if I remember). Coconut Oil is good for the skin too. After the shampoo & long conditioning, I put in Jojoba Oil.
Darcy’s Botanical’s has very nice products, not too expensive products. I love the Avocado & Wild Plum Twisting Cream. I do twists on my daughter and son’s hair. It looks fantastic and takes no skill at all (just some time).
I learned a lot from http://www.happygirlhair.com/. She’s great, and lists other blogs that are helpful.
A daily, inexpensive moisturizer another african american woman recommended to me is Luster’s S-Curl “No Drip”. It’s a blue bottle and cheapest at Walmart (though also sold at CVS & Sally’s).
Happy styling!
Hi Jamie- We also have a large collection of products that have been trialed!!! Frustrating and expensive!! Our daughter was adopted from Haiti 4/08. I get her hair done without fail every 2 weeks. We have seen such an improvement in growth and condition of her hair just by having it in a protective style. I can only do puffs and regular old braids. I do like the Taliah Waajid protective bodifying mist (sp) and I have heard a lot of good things about it. I know it is important to wear a sleep cap to protect the style which we are super bad at putting on consistently. I know others that use 1 part olive oil to 7 parts water and spritz it on at morning and night.
Good Luck and we will all find that product that works for our child !!
My Haitian daughters are now 13 and 11. They came home at 6 months and 23 months. When they were little I started with the puffs and then moved to the 2 strand twists with barretts. You might be suprised at how a little nubbin of a puff can be adequate enough to twist.
As they got older and wanted a more grown up “do” we started locing the girls hair and we LOVE it. We sectioned their hair into a grid so that their locs can be parted for different styles. Our 13 yr old dd’s hair is now several inches down her back and the other’s is to her shoulders.
We “shampoo” weekly using Pantene Women of Color Conditioner. I do rinse it out completely as they develop a milky looking build-up in their locs if I don’t. I use a spay-on oil condition (Olive Oil brand) daily on their hair. For an easy warm oil treatment I spray their hair with the oil spray and then tied their hair up in a plastic shopping bag. I slip their locs into the bag and then tie the loop handles together at the top of their forehead. The trapped warmth with the oil leaves their locs looking really conditioned and healthy afterwards.
I also have 2 AA sons adopted domestically at birth. They are now 17 and 20. when our oldest son was a baby I spent a lot of money on Humectress products, which we loved and they smelled great. But, they also drew lots of bees to his poor little head wheneven we enjoyed the outdoors.
I swear, we have every single product in that picture. 🙂 I really like the Pantene For Women of Color collection. Even though I am using it on small boys.
I’m SO laughing right now because that picture could have been from our house, too! We have tried a bazillion different products all because someone swore by them. LOL And then…well they didn’t work worth junk on my kiddos. : ) Oh well!
Hawaiian Silky is a good leave-in conditioner…still working on shampoos. : )