Cutting a 3 year old's hair against her wishes - would she be scarred for life?

[suiledonn]

By the experience - not the scissors hopefully?

DD1 has an ongoing problem with her scalp - really bad cradle cap type skin but does not respond to treatment. We are waiting on a dermatology referral. She has eczema too.

The problem is her hair is very thin and has not grown in properly. It is like baby hair and is a constant fuzzy mess at the back. She hates having her hair brushed so it is hard to keep it looking nice.

I think the only solution might be to cut it up really short but she loves long hair and is very girly and I think she will be very upset.

Anyone else had to cut hair for similar reason? How did it go?

We just left it with ours. As long as it's not a health hazard - it's her hair and it's your problem that you like it to look nice, not hers.

I did this with my three year old. I just took her to the hairdresser's, and I was anticipating tears, but she sat there fine, and afterwards I told her how beautiful she is (very true!), and gave her some pretty hair clips. Short hair is very very practical.

Could you just go for a slight trim rather than cutting it really short?
DS3 had a similar problem of very thin hair, complete with the fuzzy bit at the back. My brother (who's a barber) gave it a trim which tidied it up and gave it a nice shape (but kept the length - I like longer hair on my boys while they are little ) and it really did the trick - his hair seems to have thickened up really well.

Oh, and ds3 also suffered with the cradle cap / eczema too. After washing his hair, I would towel dry his hair and put on a tiny bit of conditioner and leave it in then comb his hair very gently with a 'nit comb'(NOT scraping the scalp, just combing the hair) It would pick all of those annoying 'clumps' of cradle cap which look so unsightly and cling to the hair - might be worth a try!

I wouldn't cut it short. Cradle cap is only dry skin really.

My 6 year old still has a bit.

I would leave her hair as it is tbh. It is something that isn't worth the upset it would cause imho.

The thing that made me get dd2's hair cut was knowing that if she caught nits, then I wouldn't have a hope in hell of treating them, because she just refuses to let let brush or wash her hair. And because we go swimming regularly and her hair was getting in a real state because I couldn't wash it properly afterwards.

Thanks. I am under constant pressure from MIL to 'do something about it'. She told me that when dd started preschool the other children would laugh at her which I was a bit about. She is always on about it. Makes me feel like I am being neglectful because I was just leaving it be to see if she would grow out of it.

The cradle cap is very severe, not just dry skin. It is not dry really but like an extra layer of loose skin or something. She is quite bald around the parting of her hair and when I comb it clumps of hair come away caught in the cradle cap.

suiledon- I don't know if you use any cream or special shampoo for your dd, but i think cutting her hair could help actually getting the cream onto the cradle cap - that's my experience with ds. He has had lots of hair since he was born, and I had to cut some away to be able to apply the cream to some very sore cradle cap and eczema.

I assume you have tried Dentinox?