HELP WITH MIXED RACE KIDS' HAIR for people with no personal experience of afro hair

[Sugarintheplum]

I've noticed a couple of threads on this topic have come up recently, and so, first, to give:

I did a quick search and found this on google - looks really good!

mixedracefamily.com/help-curly-mixed-race-hair/
and this www.treasuredlocks.com/biracial-hair-care-guide/

mixedfamilylife.com/2017/02/08/the-dos-and-dont-of-mixed-hair-care/

raisingbiracialbabies.com/care-mixed-hair/

Those are just the first few links in google!

I also think it is a good idea to look up trichologists who might be able to help. These are qualified professionals typically with years of experience. I found this link straight away www.blackhairclinic.com

There are others.

Then, there are of course black hairdressers, which I hope can be found in most cities, and hopefully outside of cities, too.

It is great to patronise black hairdressers and professionals such as these because black business is, of course, worthy of our (financial) support, and often very much in need of it.

Now, at times (mostly?!) I have not had the money to pay for the advice of a professional, and at those times chat spaces on the internet are invaluable, including Mumsnet. There is a space for those with questions and comments relating to multicultural families within Mumsnet, and there have been lots of threads on mixed race hair, as well as a wealth of other issues. This section has certainly helped me in the past. It can be found here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/multicultural_families

There have been conversations in this section about what black Mumsnet is used for. It is my understanding that it is a forum to talk about issues facing black parents. There have been discussions about people who do not identify as black coming onto the board to extract information, such as advice on hair, and lots of women felt this was not the right space for it for lots of reasons. It helped me to look at it like this, if you are not a black parent and you are on this board, are you here to give or solely to take? If you are here to give, that's great. Otherwise it has not been established for the reasons you are using it.

There are other black women who will be very happy to help you out with hair advice, and that might be taken as yes, this is the right place for your post, but I think of it this way: even in covid times if you (had the chance to!) go into a black hair store, if you asked black women a question about hair you would likely find some who will answer you. It doesn't mean standing and chatting to a stranger in an enclosed space is the best thing for that woman, but you will likely still find a black woman who will. That is just what a lot of (black) women are like, helpful with their time, efforts, knowledge, resources.

So even if you have been getting good response, or you think you might, please think about whether this really is what this board is all about. I'm not saying you should post, or you should not post, but just to think about it would be great.

Thanks!