Curly Hair Care Routine For My Black Toddler

I know some of you have been wondering about the curly hair care routine I use for my black toddler.

You all have seen over on Instagram that my oldest daughter has a lot of hair and you all want to know what I did for her to have so much hair.

And to be honest, I’m not really sure because she has always had a lot of hair.

When my first daughter was born, she was born with a lot of hair.

When I was pregnant with her, I knew that she was going to come out with a head full of hair because you could literally see the little fibers all around her head in the ultrasound.

I know when I look at pictures of myself as a baby, I also had a lot of hair, so it wasn’t really surprising to see that my first daughter was going to have a lot of hair.

So when she came out with a ton of hair, I knew that I was going to have my hands full taking care of it.

And it has been exactly that way ever since.

My oldest daughter is 3 now and we have been keeping up her curly hair routine for a while now which I think has contributed to her hair growth and maintenance

If I had to guess my daughter’s hair type it is Type 4a or 4b.

She has very thick coarse hair with springy coils that are absolutely beautiful when styled or twisted.

If you are interested in our curly hair care routine for my 3-year-old black toddler as well as the products that I use for her curly hair, then just keep reading.

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What To Do When Your Toddler Is Tender-Headed

Before I get my 3-year old’s toddler curly hair care routine, let’s talk about what to do when your toddler is tender-headed.

For any that are unfamiliar with this term, tender-headed just means the scalp is more sensitive to the combing and brushing process.

Some children are more prone to being tender-headed than others and there really isn’t a reason why some people are more tender-headed than others.

If you have a child that has a more sensitive scalp, then getting their hair done is often filled with lots of discomfort and lots of complaints.

This can not only make doing their hair dreadful for them but for the parents as well because you have to deal with the complaints.

So what can you do when your child is tender-headed?

Luckily, my daughter does not appear to be tender-headed, but I know that some toddlers are so I want to make sure I provide some tips for that.

According to Natural Hair Rules, the first thing you need to develop with a tender-headed child is patience.

If they are saying that it hurts, then I wouldn’t advise you to just keep brushing or combing anyway.

Talk to them and ask them where it hurts so that you can try to be more gentle in that area.

The next thing they advise is to make sure you have the proper tools for detangling and combing their hair.

The proper tools include:

• Spray Bottle
• Wide Tooth Comb
• Detangling Conditioner

When it comes to thicker and coarser natural hair, also make sure you spray some type of moisture into the hair before combing and styling it.

This makes the detangling process a lot easier and will ease some of the discomforts your child may be experiencing from the tugging of their hair.

Another tip for dealing with a tender-headed child is to distract them with something else such as watching a TV show or reading a book.

Most tender-headed children associate their hair getting combed negatively so you can create more positive associations with this process by pairing it with something that they would enjoy.

Now that we have talked about what to do if you have a tender-headed child, let’s get in the curly hair care routine of my black toddler.

Curly Hair Care Routine For My Black Toddler

The way I’m going to dive into my daughter’s hair care routine is by first starting with what wash day looks like and then moving into style and maintenance.

Wash Day

Detangle & Section

I typically wash her hair once a week and I usually do it on Sundays during her bedtime routine.

What I start out doing is sectioning her hair off into 3 sections so we can work in sections throughout the process.

I will wet that section and with a wide-tooth comb, I will comb through and detangle that section.

Shampoo

After each section has been detangled, I will shampoo each section.

I like to use Cantu Care For Kids Nourishing Shampoo.

It is a tear-free shampoo that is infused with shea butter, coconut oil, and honey to gentle the hair and doesn’t contain sulfates or parabens.

I work this shampoo into each section and then rinse it out.

Condition

After shampooing her hair, I move on to conditioning it.

I like to use the Cantu Care For Kids Nourishing Conditioner.

This formula is also infused with shea butter, coconut oil, and honey to add moisture and hydration to the hair.

I will apply this conditioner to each section of her hair and comb through it with a wide-tooth comb to detangle it once more.

I will let this conditioner sit in her head while I watch her body and then I will rinse it out afterward.

Her hair feels so much softer and more manageable after using this conditioner

After shampooing and conditioning my daughter’s hair, I will move on to styling it.

Style

So once my daughter’s hair has been washed, I will get her out of the bathtub and continue her bedtime routine by putting lotion on her and dressing her in her pajamas.

After she has her pajamas on, she will grab her tablet so she can watch it while I’m styling her hair.

I follow the LCO method without applying oil to my daughter’s hair.

I will once again section her hair off into 3 sections so that I can apply a leave-in conditioner to each section.

If you have not already caught on, I work in sections on my daughter’s thick curly hair.

It makes detangling and styling so much easier when her hair is sectioned off.

I like to use the Cantu Care For Kids Leave-In Conditioner.

Much like the shampoo and conditioner, it contains shea butter, coconut oil, and honey and it makes my daughter’s hair easy to comb through.

I will apply the leave-in conditioner to each section and use a Wet Brush to brush through each section.

After applying a leave-in conditioner everywhere, I will part my daughter’s hair into the style that I will be doing.

As a parent to a black toddler, protective styling is very important in order to maintain moisture and length retention.

The problem that I have is that I can’t braid to the scalp, so you will rarely see my daughter in a hairstyle that consists of cornrows or any kind of braiding pattern.

But I do know how to twist, so the majority of her hairstyles consist of twists and puffs.

When I’m twisting my daughter’s hair, I like to use the Cantu Care For Kids Curling Cream.

This cream defines her curls and keeps her hair moisturized while it is in the twists.

She loves when her hair has twists in it, so I will either twist the front of her head and throw the back of her hair into one large puff or two smaller puffs.

Or I might twist the back of her head then make two small space buns in the front.

These simple hairstyles don’t require you to know how to braid and will last for about 4 or 5 days before I take the twists down and let my daughter wear half of a twist out.

This will get us through the week or at least until I wash my daughter’s hair again.

Maintenance

And the last part of my curly hair care routine for my black toddler consists of the maintenance I do throughout the week.

In between wash days, there are a couple of things I do every day to maintain the hairstyle throughout the week.

Every day, I use a Spray Bottle to mist over my daughter’s hair around the edges and where hair is in puffs.

I use the African Pride Dream Kids Smooth Edges Conditioning Gel on my daughter’s edges to smooth those down every day.

It lays down my daughter’s edges really well and doesn’t leave her edges looking flaky.

When I’m brushing up her puffs for the day, I will use Eco Styling Gel with Olive Oil.

I love the hold that this gel provides and it doesn’t leave my daughter’s hair flaky either.

At night, my daughter doesn’t wear a bonnet, but she does sleep on a satin pillowcase.

Satin pillowcases reduce friction and breakage that often occurs when you are sleeping on cotton pillowcases.

We all sleep on satin pillowcases and use these that can be found on Amazon.

Your Turn

Well, that is our curly hair care routine for my black toddler. As you can see, I’m a big fan of the Cantu Care For Kids line and it works really well for my daughter’s Type 4 hair. I know that I may get a few requests to do a post on some of her hairstyles since I can’t braid, but I will save that for a later post. But I want to hear from you all now. What do your curly hair care routines look like for your black boys and girls? Let me know in the comments and while you are still here, check out my previous post below. Until next time!

• Read More: Protective Hairstyles For Black Moms

Love,

Just Jass