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Ethnic, coarse hair, black hair care input requested.


Mango
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My daughter is 15 years old. She had locs put in, but they've broken off in the front half of her head. 

 

First, what should she have done to prevent that from happening?

 

Second, her hair is less than an inch long in the front half of her head. There are a handful of braids she pulls back into a pony tail. 

 

We've tried french braiding. We've tried twisting. We've tried blow drying. 

 

Its just too short. Or we're too inexperienced. 

 

Personally I'm hoping for advice, not a lecture here. Hair is not her priority. She wants the lowest maintenance hairstyle possible. 

 

Can you help? Other than keeping a hat on all the time. 

 

Thanks

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Who put her locks in? Did they recommend a care product to her? How long did she have them before they fell out/off? What was she doing to maintain them?

I've never had locks personally (I'm assuming you mean dread-locks) but I know a lot of people with them and I've had my hair fall out/break off in the back to be less than an inch long before using the wrong soap on my head when I was a kid. Fortunately hair wasn't my priority either so I didn't care.

 

Could she cut the back and go with a Tiny Weeny Afro? Thats low maintanence and very cute! There is a girl in my class and I love her TWA!

 

Do you know her hair type?

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Cornrows are very forgiving and a lot lower maintenance than most people think. ds is 6 and his hair is tailbone length when wet. We're up to 14 braids now, which isn't significantly fewer than a 15 year old would need, and we do hair once a week. On the other days, he just rolls out of bed and goes and we don't even think about hair until someone compliments him on it.
 

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Who put her locks in? Did they recommend a care product to her? How long did she have them before they fell out/off? What was she doing to maintain them?

I've never had locks personally (I'm assuming you mean dread-locks) but I know a lot of people with them and I've had my hair fall out/break off in the back to be less than an inch long before using the wrong soap on my head when I was a kid. Fortunately hair wasn't my priority either so I didn't care.

 

Could she cut the back and go with a Tiny Weeny Afro? Thats low maintanence and very cute! There is a girl in my class and I love her TWA!

 

Do you know her hair type?

Her hair is definitely a 4. It's thin, so not sure if it's an A or B. 

 

Do you have a picture of a TWA? My other daughter wore her's very short for a while. Our biggest problem with it was her feeling upset that folks would call her a boy. 

 

A friend put in her locs. No recommendation on a hair care product. We bought some shea butter moisturizer stuff, but she refused to use it. 

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Cornrows are very forgiving and a lot lower maintenance than most people think. ds is 6 and his hair is tailbone length when wet. We're up to 14 braids now, which isn't significantly fewer than a 15 year old would need, and we do hair once a week. On the other days, he just rolls out of bed and goes and we don't even think about hair until someone compliments him on it.

 

It's too short to do cornrows. I tried.

 

I'd have to take her somewhere to get it done. Probably they'd tell me it was too short too.

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Her hair is definitely a 4. It's thin, so not sure if it's an A or B. 

 

Do you have a picture of a TWA? My other daughter wore her's very short for a while. Our biggest problem with it was her feeling upset that folks would call her a boy. 

 

A friend put in her locs. No recommendation on a hair care product. We bought some shea butter moisturizer stuff, but she refused to use it. 

 

When did she wear it short before? At 15 she might look girly enough now to not have that problem anymore. I can see that being confusing at 10 or 12 since really boys and girls look so similar but I've seen adorable mini afros on young black or puerto rican women. Maybe a few highlights would make it look more distinctly like a style, or she could always just throw a headband in. The thin ornate headbands are very in. My daughter also wears the simple brightly colored headbands you can find at Target and Wal-mart that are non-slip. Scarves are also popular among the 20-somethings, she might be able to utilize that as a headband style too. Check out ThreeBirdsNest etsy shop for ideas on scarves/headbands (though they're all shown on the white store owner I think it'd look great on black hair!)

 

Another idea is to google toddler or preschool hair styles, those will often show really cute short hair options for braids and such. 

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At less than an inch, she has no real option but to cut it short. Invest in some cute, girly headbands and bows/flowers. She will be adorable! 

 

Search headscarf on pinterest. You will get a ton of ideas, but they may be more work than she is willing to invest.

Yep, sounds like short is her only option. Do you have a trusted stylist who could help you out and suggest a good cut and maintenance routine for her? No matter what she does, she's going to have to probably be better about hair care in general just to keep it healthy. There are so many cute headscarfs and accessories available that would help her avoid being mistaken for a boy if that bothers her. 

 

 

 

Edited by Susan Wise Bauer
Please don't post photos unless you are SURE they are public domain.
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Yep, sounds like short is her only option. Do you have a trusted stylist who could help you out and suggest a good cut and maintenance routine for her? No matter what she does, she's going to have to probably be better about hair care in general just to keep it healthy. There are so many cute headscarfs and accessories available that would help her avoid being mistaken for a boy if that bothers her. 

 

 

 

very cute! We bought some headbands today. Just a question about the front, her's keeps frizzing out from the headband (because it's so short) Any suggestions on how to keep it smoother? 

Edited by Susan Wise Bauer
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Shea butter. Work I fingertip full into the palms, then run them through the hair, back to front, then front to back. 

 

The headband won't hold her hair back at this length. It's just decoration.

 

The lady above has her hair in twists-similar to dreads, but temporary and so cute! Definitely an option as her hair grows in.

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Did she already cut it?
 

I've gotten "s/he has no choice but short hair" damage out to the length where it passes for bangs before if she didn't. It can be done if the person really wants to.

 

If she did, that's an awesome headband and she'll still be able to wear it when her dreads grow back. I'd start saving some $$ for it now too. My dreadie friends are all just as white as I am, but I wouldn't let just anyone put them in ds' hair if he wanted them and would roughly guesstimate that it would be somewhere in the $100-$200 range.
 

/hair geek

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No she hasn't let me cut the remaining dress off yet. Next week. This week she's riding at the county fair  and her hair get's tucked up under the riding helmet for the most part. 

 

Next week she says. But she's been 'practicing' fixing the front half of her head in the TWA style. She's loving it. We found our jar of JAM and she's been using that. I'll let her know that it's not likely to get it all to stay down. She's got a "widow's peak" so that's what look funny about it to her. 

 

She loves the positive comments she's been getting about her cute new short front. It's making her brave for the cut. 

 

Coconut oil--we've used that in the past. I actually felt that it dried out my kids hair and skin after using it for several months. At first it was great, but then their hair started drying out and  got brittle. I've been doing more shea products. The moisture seems to stick around longer. 

 

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No she hasn't let me cut the remaining dress off yet. Next week.

 

She's a girl, so she can do scarves. Poor kiddo, I'd keep suggesting, but if you say she HAS to cut it off, she's just going to dig in her heels. She may not CHOOSE to wear scarves for as long as it takes it to grow out and look like a bad attempt at bangs and she may not CHOOSE to go around looking like she had a crappy haircut that she's trying to grow out, but knowing that she can is going to make it a lot easier for her to choose not to do so and get herself a cute TWA.

 

ds is mixed and probably close to 3/4 caucasian (1/4 of that is from his dad and I thought he'd get 1/2 from me but it may be more like 32/66ths or something) but his hair slurps up an amazing amount of oil, like what would last me for several months in a few days. Jojoba is affordable for me, but not always for him. Grapeseed is also good and he can handle olive in a pinch but I can't.

 

The Long Hair Community is great, but I'm having trouble finding Nappturally or Nappturality (Help anyone?) which was specifically for AA hair and a bit overkill for this little guy so I haven't been there in  awhile and I also learned a lot from the Curly Girl site.

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I use a mixture of coconut oil, olive oil, and grapeseed oil. The coconut oil serves as a base, while the olive oil prevents brittleness and the grapeseed oil prevents tangling. A little dab of aloe vera in the mixture is also good.

 

If there is severe damage, try using kiti kiti hair treatment. It really works.

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  • 2 months later...

theres a picture in this thread....I can't delete it.

You can't delete the one another poster included, but you should be able to delete it from your post when you quoted her.

 

I reported the post by Wabi Sabi, so a mod can zap it. Thanks for helping the cause. :)

 

So, how - and what - is your dd doing w/ her hair?

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