A few weeks ago I encountered a very difficult situation to deal with. My daughter’s hair was so tangled I even contemplated to even shave it all off. It was a very traumatic experience for both of us as I spent just over 3 hours trying to detangled it. It broke my heart to see her cry the way she did as I worked through her hair. I am gonna be honest about two things here:
1. I am clueless about hair which is why I rely on wigs for my own afro hair which is so long I rather keep it braided and cover it with wigs then damage it while trying to do it myself. And yes I know places like Youtube are full of hair tutorials that it has become so easy for people to maintained their own hair. I choose to leave it to the experts.
2. When I first had my daughter and her hair was soft and short I swore I was never gonna be that mom who let her kid’s hair be in such situation. Fast forward 4 years later and with a daughter with long hair now I am on that boat.
Dealing with normal afro hair is crazy and one have to know their story when handling it but that is even worse when dealing with mix race hair. I call it the “Confused Hair Type” . How confused it is , all depends on the genes and the two races that are involved. There are so many different types of mix race hair and in my daughter’s case it’s more to the straight side but coarse at the same time. If I’ve just given it a wash it goes wavy curly.
That week her hair gave me a challenge and seeing my daughter crying like that made me feel so ashamed and even felt like I was failing her as a mother. Made even worse by the fact that I don’t even know how to take care of my own hair. How would I then take care of her hair? I knew things have to change for her sake. As a grown women I have treated my hair with chemicals to make life easy and like I have mentioned too I rely on wigs but it is a different story for her as she is only 4 years old. We took a decision to never use chemicals on her until she decides for herself when she is off age. I have seen mothers that end up treating their kids hair to soften them , some have even used hot tools like straighteners and curlers. After my own experience I can now say I get it why they do it but personally I would rather shave my daughters hair then resolved to that solution because at the end of the day it’s just hair. It will grow back.
I spent a few days researching online and watching youtube videos to try to teach myself and learn tricks and secrets I can use to make doing and maintaining her hair easier and less painful. There is so much products that are out there “supposedly ” works on mix race hair and specific for kids. But just because it made for such hair it doesn’t mean it works. Mix race kids also have different texture to their hair. which makes it tricky for me to just use any product just because it is for mix race hair. A simple example, my daughter is of mixed race of African and Chinese and her cousin who is also mix race is of African and European. Their hair textures are not the same and I did try using the products her mom is using on her hair but it didn’t work on my daughter. I had to just stick to just using pure coconut oil.
Maybe my research and knowledge of brands that do these mix race hair products for kids is limitless or I have been looking at the wrong places. I thought maybe writing this blog will send me some answers that I am looking for when someone comes across it. So far I have been just sticking to brushing her hair every other day, keeping it in single or two line braids and wash it weekly to keep it tangle free. I am hoping if you are reading this , whether you are a mom on the same boat as me or anyone who know any other methods or products I can use please drop me a comment below I will very much appreciate.
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