Trivial re dd and hair

[thaegumathteth]

Dd is 9. Has really long and really thick poker straight hair. She loves having it curled with heated tongs but I always do it - she's desperate to be allowed to do it herself but I really worry about her burning herself. I'm not usually over protective but not sure if I am being a bit of a helicopter parent here - would you / do you allow it?

I realise this is very trivial by the way I'm not losing sleep over it but I can't sleep anyways and thought I'd ask the hive mind.

FWIW she's relatively sensible but you know, she's 9, gets distracted, can be silly etc.

They really hurt if you burn yourself. Maybe let her do a few bits and you do the rest.

Get her some heat proof gloves and teach her. It's the only way she will learn.

I’d teach her. Maybe even get the ones where you don’t have to hold the hair in place with your fingers the whole time.

She will do it one day, why not now? Also keep some burn gel around in case a burn happens.

I first started playing with hot tools for my hair when I was 5, grew up with hair stylists, and I’ve never burnt myself. Although that might just be luck.

Thanks all. Didn't even know heat proof gloves were a thing !

DD is the same age and would absolutely burn herself. I'd wait.

You get a burn, you learn. Even adults still burn themselves with those things. Supervise her and let her give it a try.

You do the back. She does the front.
Or sleeps in rollers!

I would teach her to straighten for now something abit easier. 9 is abit young. When I was seven I straightened my hair and collapsed and fitted turned out I had hair grooming epilepsy.

You can always show her the YouTube fails of girls burning their hair off

One example

I've got a nice big scar right along the back of my left hand from when I tried to straighten my hair and watch TV at the same time... (I was also considerably older than nine.)

You could buy a tongs/straightener with different heat settings.

Tbh I know my own child would burn herself so I wouldn’t allow her to do it all by herself.

If you do agree to it, there are gloves to protect her hands and heat mats to prevent your furniture going on fire if she leaves them plugged in and unattended.

Thanks all @k1233 you are from the same school of parenting as me

Not at 9yo. My daughter gave herself a nasty neck burn last week at nearly 14,has had her own straighteners since Xmas.

No distractions, no phone, and I'm in the next room whenever they're switched on.

not bitter she's better at doing her hair than I am doing mine

Can you get curler things that you leave in the hair overnight?

@thaegumathteth for some unbeknownst reason I am rather addicted to hair fail videos... COVID has made for some doozied!

Actually it's not just hair fail videos, it's also hair colouring and major restyling. It's weird LOL