Sime­on CR McIn­tosh

It is un­der­stand­able that groom­ing your child's nat­ur­al hair for school could be painstak­ing­ly time con­sum­ing, but par­ents, you need to find means of avoid­ing care­less rou­tines that can be detri­men­tal to your kids' hair. Many of you opt to "do it your­self" tex­turis­ers and re­lax­ers at home that on­ly cor­ner you in­to a more frus­trat­ing po­si­tion. You may have been ob­serv­ing that your child's hair is ap­pear­ing to be pro­gres­sive­ly coars­er and very dry. Most of those over the counter chem­i­cals or "re­lax­er kits" con­tain cal­ci­um hy­drox­ide. As we may know cal­ci­um is to achieve strong bones and healthy teeth, so what hap­pens with the re­lax­er is that the cal­ci­um hard­ens the hair. The scalp may be less prone to be­com­ing sen­si­tive but the hair it­self gets dry and brit­tle. My ad­vice is that when it comes to chem­i­cals you should al­ways seek as­sis­tance from a pro­fes­sion­al beau­ti­cian. As far as I have tried and test­ed, most chil­dren do not need chem­i­cals in their hair.

The younger the child's hair is chem­i­cal­ly al­tered, is the short­er the longevi­ty of the hair. The cause of tan­gles in the hair is hair's great­est en­e­my "SPLIT ENDS". Peo­ple abide by the no­tion that nat­ur­al hair doesn't need main­te­nance. Please do not con­tin­ue to be mis­led. Nat­ur­al hair needs to be trimmed and con­di­tioned reg­u­lar­ly. Here is a rou­tine that can help min­imise the time in groom­ing your child's hair. • Af­ter sham­poo­ing and con­di­tion­ing the hair, ap­ply a leave-in con­di­tion­er or de­tan­gler, and comb out from the ends to the root with a wide tooth comb. • Ac­cord­ing to the den­si­ty of the hair, sec­tion the hair in 6 to 8 sec­tions and blow dry the hair with medi­um heat, along the di­rec­tion of the hair shaft, us­ing a heat re­sis­tant brush. Keep the blow dry­er about 6 inch­es away from the hair to avoid scorch­ing the hair. This will help with man­age­abil­i­ty, and the hair will re­main neater for a longer pe­ri­od of time. • Al­ways use a light hair­dress­ing prod­uct. Avoid thick beeswax-like prod­ucts; it at­tracts dust and dirt caus­ing the hair to be­come dirty quick­ly. • Style the hair to your de­sire.

Even if your child's scalp may be ten­der, and you do not style with corn­rows, this rou­tine would be of great help with every­day styling.