Brown Baby Hair Diaries
by Kesha of We Got Kidz
Fresh style on the left... 2 days later on the right. Sheesh.
When doing research for this post, I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice little article (little being the operative word) about how to take care of African American baby’s hair on the mainstream website babycenter.com. With that I realized that taking care of little brown baby girl’s tresses is important to most black mothers and is often times a trial that we face from day to day.
My little Ari’s hair journey began even before she was born. I began buying hair accessories and researching what would be the best regime for my child’s tresses early on. [*For my melanin impaired readers who aren't sure what the big deal is, African American babies are usually born with very thick, coarse hair that if not treated properly is prone to excessive drying and breaking.]
When Ari was born, she had the prettiest silkiest hair you’d ever want to see. I hesitate in saying that her hair was “good” because I don’t want to imply that my straight from Africa brillo pad lambs wool mix of hair is “bad”… but my Ari’s hair was beautiful. Unfortunately, I knew that this was only temporary. Inside the womb, there are all kinds of nutritious juices and berries floating around. It’s the optimum environment for little brown baby’s hair to thrive. After being out of the womb and going through a few washes, I knew that her hair was going to change to its “true” state. My goal was to make that transition as smooth as possible.
The first thing I did was to buy a good all natural conditioner. Lack of moisture is the number one killer of black hair, (and can kill a romantic night with the husband too. He, he). I’m not going to name products because I’ve learned that the most important part of taking care of African American baby’s hair is choosing products that fit your baby’s hair type. No one’s hair is the same. It’s up to you to do some assessing to determine what type of products you need for your baby.
The second thing that I did, and continue to do, is to regularly give Ari’s hair a good washing with a moisture rich, all natural shampoo. Do I do it once a day? Nope. Every other day? Not even. I wash Ari’s hair once a week. Now before you cringe, know that African Americans in general don’t produce as much oil as our Caucasian counterparts. Over washing can strip away natural oils that we need to keep our hair from being dry, frizzy, and brittle.
I’m attempting to avoid using any bad chemicals on Ari’s hair. No parabens, glycerins, or any ingredient that I can’t pronounce. Only all natural hair products for my Ari. This should prove interesting because I had my first mini relaxer at the age of six. If Ari chooses to put chemicals in her hair as an adult, that’s fine. I ultimately want it to be her decision.
We’ll see how all of this progresses. Right now I think that Ari’s hair is growing and thriving amazingly well, but I have to admit, by nature my day to day activities tend to be a little erratic. I’m notorious for having three or four projects going on all at once: cleaning out the fridge, writing a post…
Wait, the twins just did something cute. Let me grab my video camera.
See, I’m a free spirit. I hope that I can take the time to give Ari’s precious locs the TLC that they need. I’m praying that she’ll still have all of her hair by her 2nd birthday.
Stay tuned.
Here are some great links to some other sites that give some pretty good tips on how to take care of your brown baby’s tresses:
African American Babies: Hair Care – BabyCenter.com
How to Grow Your Baby’s African American Hair – shwill.wrytestuff.com
Baby Big Hair – www.BabyBigHair.com
12 Comments to “Brown Baby Hair Diaries”
Leave a comment!
Aw this was a great post to read. I have a 3 month old daughter who’s hair it’s changing (Straight to kinky curl) I’m really not sure how to care for it yet. Being from the UK theres even less info on how to care for natural afro textured hair, so this post was refreshing to say the least. I did the bc about 7mths ago but resorted back to the ‘safety net’ of my weave and relaxer as finding the products and info was quite hard I had to rely a lot on US blogs and videos which in some cases was pointless as the products were crazy hard to find in English hair shops. Thanks for this -your Ari is a cutie
This women seems to have a issue with typical afro textured hair. Straight from africa hair? Brillo pad? What? She wished the child’s hair was straight.
Not the case at all!.. and also not physiologically possible. lol.
Thanks for your comment!
She was talkin about her own hair wen she mentioned straight from Africa not the Childs I also think she was makin a joke! Relax!
EEK! Gimme dat BABY! Ari is a SUPACUTIE!! Great read and awesome tips!! Thanks for the shout out!!
Chloe, Cool Mom
Baby Big Hair
Girl you can have her every other weekend. lol!
Thanks Chloe!
Kesha
I don’t know what you believe Ari’s hair texture is but from the pictures she has some beautiful hair. I don’t think she will ever need a relaxer. My sister has hair like Keshia knight-Pulliam and she relaxer her hair but it’s not needed. Ari’s hair is similar to theirs. Ari’s hair look good in both top pics. Two days later doesn’t make her hair any less gorgeous. I think if she want her hair straitend one day, like anyone else with pretty hair, she will blow dry and flat iron. Just because it’s not silky doesn’t mean it’s not pretty or good hair. Just like Keshia knight or whoever. Ari’s hair is nice and thick.
Girl I think my daughter’s hair is absolutely beautiful! I hate that you felt this piece implied otherwise. I celebrate her beautiful curly locs. If I had her hair I may be more apt to go natural myself, but that creamy crack continues to call my name. lol. I appreciate your comment. No chemicals for my little one.
…Oh, and the “fresh style on left – two days later” image was just used to show that my little girl is a wild woman. lol. Nothing else.
“…straight from Africa brillo pad lambs wool mix of hair…” Oh dear o_O
Lol. Looks like all black babies hair without berries & juices.
lol. Yes girl, it’s a mess… but I’ll never call it “bad”