Mixed Race Hair

[KatieMac]

If I start it here they can move it to the right place (If they decide to start a topic (& ever decide what to call it))

where do I start......

Tangle teezer is brilliant on dd's hair. Her hair has got more european as it has grown though-is very curly, frizzy and soft. Goes into corkscrews when washed.

Can I ask......is this the longest running thread that keeps being added to?

It's mine

Hey - I think so KatyMac! So come on then wise sage, how have you got on over the years managing your DCs hair??

oh i am very glad to find this thread i have DD who is mixed race and her hair at 20 months is already solongthick and curly when wet it is down to her lower back but when dry it rests on her shoulders, it gets so so so notty and is a nitemare to maintain without feeling like i am hurting her

i have realised her hair needs washing a lot less than mine but wud welcome any tips :)

i have very straight hair so its all new to me and DP being a bloke doesnt do hair and just shaves his

There is a great range called mixed chicks - you can buy it online. Worth having a look at the conditioners. Also used a wide toothed comb and tackle her hair in sections after washing it so it's easier to get any tangles out!

thanks iggly- looking on the website now

Don't use shampoo just conditioner only wash once a week (or less)

I found mixed chicks makes her hair crispy but we are playing around with it

i only wash her hair around every 1-2 wks i always thought i was being terrible by not washing it more as my head gets itchy if i havnt washed it for a few days

im goin to buy the mixed chicks leave in conditioner

oh also they do mixed chicks products on amazon they r slightly cheaper and free delivery

i take that back u do have to pay delivery

Can you take her to a hairdressers that sells mixed chicks? They can advise you on products (maybe even different ones)? You only need to go once but it'll really help.

shes only 19 months and dont think she wud sit still in a hairdressers chair lol, i have ordered the mixed chicks shampoo and leave in conditioner of amazon so will give that a go, i will keep u updated on how it goes :)

jbells, see TightlyCurly and It's all good hair - these two (plus a little bit of trial and error) told me all I needed to know :)

Good luck!

thanks franch

What a great thread - I've read all 15 pages!! The original poster should condense it all into 10 handy tips!!

I feel the time has come to take my lovely mixed race 6 year old DD to a hairdresser. Can anyone recommend a good hairdresser in South London? I know there are plenty of Afro hairdressing salons, but I would like to go somewhere where you're given an appointment time and are in and out in a couple of hours, rather than spending most of the day there.

Thanks in advance.

Scary - maybe try bumping this thread? Let me know if you find anywhere!

Hey guys,

Gosh there are so many posts on here ! Don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but here's a great website for all the mommies of little curlies in the UK:

www.britishcurlies.co.uk/store/

Another really really useful one is:

www.naturallycurly.com/

I'm mixed race myself so I'm quite familiar with the confusion associated with caring for tightly curly hair, having gone through that myself with a white mom.. The products at the British Curlies are quite pricey, but very good and you'll get some great haircare tips on the site too + the discussion forums on both websites are really great!

One thing I'd like to say is, please please please people don't think of relaxing your children's hair, but rather learn how to care for it. Watch Chris Rock's Good Hair and you'll see what relaxers do to you!

Oh wow, so much good advice on this thread. I am at my wits end with DD2's hair, she isn't mixed race but her hair is so curly/frizzy I have no clue what to do with it.
I have straight hair, as does DD1 and every other member of my family. I did get some advice from a friend with mixed race dd's who said it was just like mixed race hair except it is blonde but I couldn't find the product she recommended (avon conditioner).

AM really only posting to mark space on the thread so I can come back and rea at leisure. SHall try and calm the frizzbomb down later with some of these tips.

Oh, and we were at softplay earlier and some little cow reduced DD2 to tears by smacking patting her on the head and telling everyone she had 'frizzy fluffy hair'

How mean to your little girl ilythia . I'm sure she is gorgeous with her curly mop.

To start with you could try the no-poo method (search the boards for more detail if you are interested, there are a few threads about it), where you wash the hair with conditioner. Make sure it's conditioner that doesn't contain silicone (cheap, basic ones like the cheapest Tesco's or Boots conditioner are good). Then use a richer conditioner (again with no silicones in it, I like the Naked range, there is one for long hair that contains jojoba oil that is brilliant) and don't rinse it completely out. That should help a lot and doesn't involve splashing out on special products. You can still buy special products anyway, but it'll probably take a bit of trial and error before you get it right.

Umm scarymaclary if I had sorted out DD's hair & had 10 top tips I would

But we are in as much of a mess as we have ever been

Well, I tried the advice on one of the links on ehre and her hair looks awesome.
I have to shampoo it, she's 3 and a messy bugger, it always has yoghurt/mud/paint in it and I don't trust conditioner to clean it but I do only wash ehr scalp and do it once a week.
Yesterday I washed it and ran conditioner through, then combed and separated the curls and left the condtiioner in to dry. This morning I took her to nursery and they were gobsmacked, she looks fab! I think just admitting that it is not like mine or DD1's hair made a difference, I am trying to treat it like ours but we have long straight hair.

Still not great as the underneath/short bits around her hairline hve frizzed overnight but much better than it was. Her hair is weird, she has some North African/arabic on DH's side (which no-one in his family will discuss) and irish on mine!

One of the links talks about a rinsing conditioner & a combing conditioner.....I think

Well I think I have the rinsing conditioner sorted but we need a good combing conditioner

DD's hair is much better than it was but it's not great yet

That's the one, no idea which link it is, I read so many!
I wanted to try it out before shelling out so I washed her hair in the l'oreal no tangle 2 in 1 and then used aldi deep conditioner for the combing. I only use a palm size and had to squeeze a load out but it did work. Not sure if it would work for really tight curls but for her loose ringlets it is perfect.
Shall wait and see what it is like tomorrow though...

That is good news Ilythia!

If you are going to be using shampoo it's a good idea to look for very mild shampoos that don't contain sulphates, as these strip the hair of all its natural oils, not good for curly hair.

One that I like is Anita Grant's babassu shampoo bar (in fact all her products are lovely!)

Some people also like Lush shampoo bars but I don't like their strong smell. If you use a sulphate-free shampoo then it is important to make sure that the conditioners you use don't contain silicones.

I sympathise KatyMac, I really do... I am still battling with my DD's hair too!

I was wondering is the Aussie Moist she talks about is the same as the Aussie Miracle Moist we have (& stopped using because of another method)