Tips on avoiding hairwashing battles

Corelli

If you can find out from here exactly what the problem is you are half way there. Just taking her seriously enough to listen and want to help will make her feel supported rather than bullied.

With mine it was the shampoo in the eyes and pain from tangles which were nest addressed by combing through with lots of conditioner. We tried swimming goggles (means you have a bit of difficulty with the bit under the elastic), careful chin up looking at the ceiling posture accompanied by an appropriate made up son, games and chats about the elfs who came along and tied knots in my daughters hair, those hair washing halo things - not infallable, holding breath under water counting games for rinsing off.

Good luck!

Fire_Fox

You can wash hair in certain types of conditioner BTW, there is no requirement to use shampoo. Many curly girls and long hairs never use shampoo.

sweetsheep84

Aawww I know the feeling. DS is 4 and hated having his hair washed before coz he was scared of the water/bubbles going in his eyes. So what I did was each time I have to do it, I tell him to lean backward slightly, cover his face with a dry face cloth, then I will start washing his hair. He then removes his face cloth when it is done. I did that for few weeks constantly so he got used to it. Now it is an easy task without fuss. Good luck

fluffnutter

You could try just not washing it. So long as it's brushed properly it shouldn't look too bad. My niece had to give up washing her hair because shampoo made her scalp so sore. She used to get it wet when she went swimming and brushed it every day. It looked fine. Smelt a bit funny but there you go.

onlyroz

My son hates having his hair washed. He can just about bare it if he holds a flannel over his eyes and I take care with the shower head not to get the water anywhere near his face. Then we get the "it's too hot" immediately followed by "it's too cold" but ho hum...

artichoke

We have 2 the same who hate hair washing....

the both love swimming and have no fear of being under the water so i fill the bath deep as posssible and let them wear swimming goggles in the bath the play under the water...

so the hair gets wet allover....

i then shampoo and condition with the goggles on.... and let them go under water again to rinse off....

not perfect hair washing but the best we can do without a battle....

BUT the battle now is combing long hair:eek::eek::eek:

any tips on that one anyone:o

valk_scot

What worked for us was letting DD do it herself under the shower, under supervision. DD has long hair so she only washes the top scalp section, none of this piling the ends up and scrubbing bit as it only tangles the hair. As the shampoo rinses out the shampoo washes through the length of the hair. Then condition all over and rinse. Her hair stays behind her head all the time so very little danger of shampoo in the eyes if she tips her head back. Then the long straight length gets twisted into a turbi-towel, this also stops it from tangling and makes combing out very easy.

Turbi-towels come in pretty colours, there's also quite a few rather pretty shampoo and conditioner bottles around. How about a trip to Boots or Superdrug and buy her some grown up looking hair products and a nice comb, to keep together in a sponge bag? Not everyone in the family suits the same hair products after all.

TopQuark

Fire_Fox wrote: »

You can wash hair in certain types of conditioner BTW, there is no requirement to use shampoo. Many curly girls and long hairs never use shampoo.

Not if you want clean hair you can't.

The chemistry of shampoo and conditioner is not the same and thus their effects are different. Shampoo contains detergent, a surfactant that is amphiphillic - this means that it has both water-attracting and oil-attracting properties. The surfactant molecules' oil-attracting ends 'stick' to grease and oil and other dirt in the hair and 'pull' it into the water to be washed away.

Conditioner on the other hand is composed mainly of moisturisers, oils and glossing agents like silicones and polymers. These ingredients 'coat' the hair to alter texture and appearance, but they won't clean it.

Sorry, it's the scientist in me!

PasturesNew

Shave it off.

sweetilemon

Not the most MSE tip but could you take her swimming once a week with the deal she must wash her hair? I used to hate the tangle when I was younger, my mum bought me detangle spray.