Hair washing nightmare!

[Thefoxsbrush]

Anyone got any tips on how to wash a 2 yr olds hair without her screaming the house down? She already has one of those halfhats to wear so no water actually goes inher eyes but she still screams :-(

We've tried goggles plus eyeshield plus dry flannel to hold over her eyes and still the merest suggestion or tiniest sensation of water touching the top of her head results in instant ejection from the bath. Short of physically holding her down in the bath and DH pouring water over her (which has been done a couple of times but it's unbearably distressing - I'd rather she had dirty hair), normal hairwashing techniques do not apply.

What does work - sort of and only because she has short hair - is a wet flannel with a TINY amount of shampoo on it. Her hair all gets a good scrub-over, and then a clean wet flannel to give it another scrub and get the shampoo out. There's probably a little shampoo left on her head but the scrub seems to work pretty well once a week and her hair gets a thorough brushing twice a day. Thank goodness toddler hair doesn't get as dirty as ours!

Neither of our DDs likes having their hair washed - so the technique we have to resort to each week is that they get into the bath with me and will then lie on their backs on top of my lap! I sort of recline and then tip a bucket of water over their heads - then put a small amount of shampoo on their heads and then rinse with the bucket again - at the end they will sit up for me to tip water down the back of their heads as long as no water as touched their faces! DP has to be on hand with the emergency towel in case any water dares to go close!

This still works with DD1 who is nearly 5 but I am hoping that we can work something else out soon!

Thanks for the suggestions! I am defo going to try the sharing a bath idea and flannel idea. I have 3 children to bath by myself every night and my dd's hair washing phobia makes hair washing night a nightmare!

Golly - my two don't have baths anything like every night. Every four or five days, more like. DD has dry skin in any case and no emollient/water softener seems to make a difference to it really drying out if she has too many baths.

We try to make conversation with DD 2 while washing her hair. She has to tell us what she did that day. Keeps her mind busy on something else than the water. I also take her with me in the shower 'as a treat' from time to time - hair rinses much quicker than in the bath.

What worked for DS1 was the deal that he could wash Daddy's hair in exchange for us washing his!