Hair woe

[notanaturalmum]

My 4 year old has so much hair.
And all the curl patterns, different ones all over her head.
I wash her hair whilst she is in the bath, but it's a quick affair and a well meaning hairdresser has explained that I need to do prepoo, shampoo, then condition, then curl crème before styling.
I expect this will take over an hour and is too long for her to be sat naked in the bath.
I don't want to resort to her kneeling over the side of the bath complaining about soap in her eyes.
So I'm considering buying one of those portable hair dressing sinks you know with a cut out for the neck, so she can be fully clothed and I just wash her hair as if she was at the hairdressers.
Is this overkill?
I can't see the wood for the trees now and not sure if I just need to tell her to suck it up.
Lord knows where I'm going to store it but I want to foster a positive relationship with her hair so want her to have a nicer wash day experience than she's maybe had in the past.

What do people think?

I don't understand why you need to do all that in the bath.
Just use a spray bottle to wet hair then apply product, shampoo it in the bath, out of bath apply conditioner and styling product. Just sit her on a nice chair with a film on the television.

I don't think that those portable thingies with a neck cut out is overkill - my little one is now old enough that we can do her hair fairly quickly with minimal naked bath time but I wish now that I had got one of those things when she was about your little one's age. It would have made life sooooo much easier. Also agree with using a spray bottle to dampen hair first, apply prepoo, cover with steam cap, undress and then shampoo and condition, dry and shower cap, dress then leave in. It still takes ages :).

Because her hair is low porosity so a spray bottle won't suffice.
It needs to be soaking soaking wet so submerging it in the water is the only way to get the water to wet every strand.
And then to rinse it I would then need clean water to do that and submerge it again. And then do the same for the conditioner. Which is not practical for her to getting in and out of the bath.
A shower head would work with her knelt over the bath but I don't think it would be comfortable for her to stay there for a extended length of time. She has a lot of hair.

What kind of hair does your kid have that you can just spritz it with shampoo without submerging it to get all the strands wet.

Yes my little one's hair literally repels water 😂- I too need to fully submerge or heavily saturate with water to get it all wet. However I can dampen it fairly easily with a spray bottle to prepoo and also to style. You got this - we got there with trial and error with my little one but you'll get there.

I have one with a looser curl pattern and another who sounds much like yours with water repellent hair. Its so incredibly annoying to spend an hour washing, conditioning then styling her hair only to find her scalp is still a little dirty right in the middle of her head.

I want to say a hairdressers sink is over kill but equally I completely get it! I’ve seen people on TT lay their little kids on the kitchen side as an alternative, could that work?

What kind of hair does your kid have that you can just spritz it with shampoo without submerging it to get all the strands wet

A mix of 4a,4b and 3c if you must know. It's perfectly possibly to soak the hair with a good spray bottle, I know because I've been doing it for many years.

I do use a spray bottle most mornings in order to get her hair at a presentable stage. I think it would work at a prepoo level but nothing beyond that.
I know that I can spray a whole section and it will look wet but somehow underneath can still be bone dry. I'm sure given practice I'll nail it but for now I think a portable sink will possibly answer my prayers.

@SpaceRaiders when I was little my mum used to lay me on the bathroom counter.
Sadly we don't have the workspace for that otherwise it would have been a fantastic idea.

Tbh a kitchen sink/counter will do if she’s still small enough. Otherwise do it the old school way, her stood on a chair over the kitchen sink. Silicone hair shower cap will stop water dripping in her eyes. Tbh I’ve found no other way to saturate DD’s hair unless she’s under running water, a spray bottle doesn’t even touch her roots/scalp.

I don't think you need to prepoo a 4 year old.

Shampoo, conditions, moisturizer focusing on ends, style. Do this all shampooing and conditioning in at least 4 big sections. If her hair gets super dry mid week, use a mini spray bottle with half leave-in conditioner, half water.

The tub is a good idea when you don't feel like having her in a bathtub for more than 30 minutes. I'd turn it into a mini spa day, or have yourself think of it as one when you can hahh. A Facial for you while you shampoo her hair, mommy and me pedis, etc.

Yes the styling, definitely something to distract her like kids TV or colouring. Works for my niece.