3yo and fear of getting hair washed - any tips?

[toomuchtooold]

Hi, my 3yo is scared of getting her hair washed, to the point where the last couple of times we've tried to wash it we've ended up leaving it with soap in it rather than scare her any more (she ends up crying and shaking). We've tried doing it over the bath, in the bath with a cup, in the bath with the shower head, and in the actual shower (including me getting in with her). But as soon as she gets any water on the front of her hair, that's it, game over. Does anyone have any ideas either for doing it without getting water in her eyes or for helping her get over her fear?

Thanks!

buy one of those bath visa things that stop the water running down the face?

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00KFC0MKG/ref=mp_s_a_1_57?qid=1442077928&sr=8-57&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=kids+bath+hat&dpPl=1&dpID=31mKnua47iL&ref=plSrch

like this

well, it sounds radical, but how about stop using shampoo?

Put soap bubbles in the bath, eg E45 Junior. Only fill the bath about 4 inches, play games so she lies down in the bath and her hair gets wet.

The bubbles won't sting, the soap in them will wash her hair, you don't need to rinse.

If her hair is long and thick, how about making it shorter and easier too?

We have a similar problem. We've not solved it but it's much improved by washing her hair in the morning (when she's well rested).

I give her lots of dry face cloths to cover her eyes and then talk her through tipping her head back to look at the ceiling. I go really slowly avoiding the front of her face.

I give her lots of praise and usually a little reward. It's awful though!

I get DD to 'look high in the sky' and then we count to 10, then another 10 etc until all the shampoo is out. She covers her ears also, because she says it hurts if water gets in. Ita been a long road but she's OK with hair washing now. She got scalded from her neck to her belly button as a toddler and had a tremendous fear of the shower afterwards because I had to hold it over her trunk area to cool the scald. Keep at it and it does get easier.

DS holds goggles over his eyes & then a flannel over the goggles and I do it as quickly as I can. He has short hair so it doesn' take long but is much better about it with the goggles/flannel combo. He also knows it has to be done once a week and if he doesn't co-operate, then I do it anyway.

Does she lean forward or back to rinse? I lean back, my dad leans forward - he once said to me that he feels really freaked out leaning back, so I wonder if a change of position might help your DD.

I'm assuming you've tried the shielding things that keep soap out of their eyes.

If the issue is just the water, try a no-rinse shampoo. I use one called Nilaqua with my 4yo - just lather into dry hair then towel off. Clean hair, no hysterics.

I just went ahead and did it in the bath; ignored the screaming which stopped as soon as we were finished. Doesn't seem to have scarred her for life.... when she went to have her 1st baby the most important thing on her mind was not to forget her hairdrier.

DS was like this and we got him over it (eventually) by going through different "levels". Level 1 was pouring water down his back. Level 2 was wetting a tiny bit of the hair at the back of his head, coming further and further forwards with each "level" until we were able to rinse his whole head with no screaming. I stuck with only level one for several baths until he was actually okay with it before moving onto level 2, etc.

I couldn't go through and ignore it because he used to try and climb out of the bath using me as a ladder, so it was neither safe or practical.

Oh and we did little rewards for each hair wash accomplished and then a big reward when we got to level 5, like potty training!

Keep it fairly short and just do it by rubbing a damp flannel over the top. They don't need shampoo at this age - you can use a tiny amount on the flannel if the hair gets really mucky for some reason. We also have a cute puppet flannel in the shape of Miffy which talks to my 3 y o and plays with him while gently stroking the hair. Anything else leads to hysterics here too. I think his hair looks fine and perfectly clean.

Mine pretend to be a meerkat lookout to get their nose really high in the air.

Thanks so much for all your suggestions. Thinking about it, it's all got a bit worse since she dropped her nap, so maybe the tiredness is making it worse. We've got her to the point (using the sort of levels thing, actually just letting her go under the shower and suggesting really gradually that she put her head under) that she'll put water on her hair and it's just the bit at the front that she can't stand. I might just back off with the shampoo and let her try with some shower foam... last debacle we had was when we took the whole "go at your own pace" thing too far and gave her the shampoo bottle and she emptied a third of it onto her head...

I remember, when I was a little girl and Mum washed my hair, I used to hate getting water in my face; anywhere remotely near my eyes or nose. She'd get me to tip my head back, and press a flannel to my brow to catch any errant water as she poured it over my hair.

Less/no shampoo, or shampoo diluted with some water, might be a good idea just to reduce the amount of time it takes to rinse it out.

Our DD still hates this, too. She's 3.4. The only things we found worked, were for one of us to get in with her to cuddle and / or control her while the other washes & rinses her hair, and new bath toys (distraction).