When should you start washing your baby's hair?

[honeytea]

I saw on another thread people talking about washing their baby's hair. I have never thought to wash ds's hair.

Ds is 3 months old he only has about 2mm of soft baby hair, we have just washed it with water so far, his head doesn't smell or maybe I am deluded by his lovely baby smell

I need a kind mumsnetter to volenteer to smell my baby's probably stinky head and tell me truthfully if he smells.

I have never washed DS ( 17 months) with anything other than water. He smells lovely and I am sure your baby does as well!

Agree just water is fine. My dd2 is nearly 5 months and that is all I wash her head with. When their hair starts growing thicker you can start to use a bit of baby shampoo. With ds1, that was some way into the future, can't recall exactly when.

DS is nearly 2 and we have used shampoo on him once. He is washed with water regularly and gets bubbles in his bath once a week. He does not smell. :)

So glad I am not a neglectful mother in the hair washing department :)

When they had cradle cap at a few months old I used dentinox but other than that I didn't wash their hair till they were about 2ish!
I sometimes sneak a sniff of it in boots and it takes me right back!
I'm sure your baby's head smells lovely

Just with water, no more often than once every 3 days - to ensure that getting hair wet is a normal part of day-to-day experience and reduce distress later.

Once your baby is crawling it will start to become more frequent, probably every day, due to the accumulated porridge, yoghurt, mud, cat hair, grass and other detritus which will accumulate therein. If this is the point at which you introduce the whole concept ther can be fights and tears.

When slightly older and less prone to smearing substances on their person you may be able to drop down to every other day.

This has reminded me of when DD (now 7 weeks) was born - she had quite a lot of hair and there was a big lump of blood/goo on her head which congealed in her fairly long hair! It looked horrible and I was really freaked out about it but was told that newborn babies shouldn't be washed! On day 3, finally a HCA was dispatched to my hospital room with a baby bath and shampoo and her hair was washed. Was so happy to have a nice clean baby

It's only been washed a couple of times since and she smells lovely although the style of it reminds me of Russell Brand at times

Regularly once they started on solids as they like to smear food in it! Both have thick curly hair so shampoo is a must otherwise gets greasy and stinky.

About a year dd has started getting greasy-looking hair that benefits from a.drop of shampoo, but you only need a.tiny bit - I'm only on my second bottle and ds and dn who often bathes here are nearly 5!

Dd loves water and getting hair and face wet; ds hated it until 6 months and then from 1 to 2 years - getting him used to it really didn't help.

Oh, I must be in the minority then. I wash my DD's hair every other day - but she was born with LOTS of long thick hair and when she was a newbie she would often be sick in it or it would get sweaty and greasy. Now she just gets puree and porridge in it. She is now 7 months and loves her little head massage in the bath.

My DS is nearly 17 mths. I still don't use shampoo, just wipe it with a wet flannel to get all the food out.

Mind you he doesn't have much hair and what he does have is very fine ... think if he had a full head of thick hair like some of his friends I would use shampoo.

I wash my 5 month olds abundant hair every few days. She possetts like a gud un in it and rubs her dribbly stinky fingers in it when shes tired. I love her washed hair, it stands on end all over and goes all fluffy

I'd say you start washing their hair when there's enough of it to brush.

DS is never getting his hair shampooed then as whenever it gets long enough to brush we take the clippers to it.

DS was born needing a haircut (the midwives on the ward kept talking about how they'd never seen a newborn with so much hair ).

He adores baths (we co-bath in the big bathtub, so its like baby swim!)and I started washing his hair at about 4weeks old - he wasn't stinky, but we did love the wet-hair curls!

You should do it when you're ready as you'll know best for your baby.